Your First 90 Days as a B2B SaaS CFO - Part 2: Building Your Financial Foundation

Building on Your Early Insights

With the initial groundwork from Part 1 in place, days 31-60 shift from diagnosing financial challenges to building scalable systems and ensuring finance can support growth effectively.

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1. Align Finance and GTM Strategy

Your role goes beyond tracking revenue—you need to ensure it’s generated efficiently, retained predictably, and forecasted accurately. While you may have already connected with sales/RevOps, now is the time for deeper discussions:

• Pricing and Discounting: Are aggressive discounts hurting LTV or distorting deal economics?
• Sales Efficiency: Is your CAC sustainable, and is the pipeline converting efficiently?
• Expansion and Renewal: Are upsell opportunities being systematically identified and captured?
• Incentive Alignment: Do comp plans encourage sustainable and efficient growth?

💡 If finance and sales aren’t aligned on deal structures and pricing, forecasting will always be unreliable.

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2. Upgrade Financial Reporting and Forecasting

If your company has investors or plans to fundraise, your financial reporting must meet a higher standard. Investors don't just want reports—they want a compelling narrative that explains where the business is going and how financials support growth.

• Align on Metrics: Use consistent definitions for ARR, NRR, CAC, and burn rate to avoid confusion across teams.
• Scenario Planning: Model best-case, worst-case, and base-case revenue, churn, and fundraising outcomes.
• Cash Runway Visibility: Ensure leadership understands when additional capital will be needed and what levers can extend your runway.
• Investor-Grade Reporting: Standardize clear, data-backed financial updates for leadership and investors.

💡 If your financial reports aren’t investor-ready before fundraising, you risk losing credibility in critical discussions.

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3. Optimize Finance Operations and Technology

A scalable finance function depends on the right systems. Manual work, inconsistent reporting, and fragmented data slow decision-making and introduce compliance risks. Your goal is to strengthen the core finance infrastructure:

• Assess Current Systems: Are your billing and revenue tools scalable and meeting company needs?
• Identify Automation Opportunities: Find manual workflows that could be streamlined with software.
• Budget for System Upgrades: Start conversations for investment and leadership buy-in where needed.
• Uncover Inefficiencies: Identify bottlenecks slowing month-end close and explore ways to shorten the timeline.

💡 Tech stack changes often require a phased approach. Focus on immediate efficiency gains while planning for long-term improvements.

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4. Identify Financial Scalability Red Flags

A finance function that isn’t built for scale can quickly become a bottleneck. Before rapid growth exposes weaknesses, assess these common red flags:

• Bookings vs. Revenue Mismatches: Are sales closing deals that don't translate into recognized revenue?
• Complex Contract Structures: Are multi-year deals or custom agreements creating revenue recognition challenges?
• Limited Cash Flow Visibility: Can you forecast cash inflows with reasonable accuracy?
• Spreadsheet Overload: Is manual work creating data integrity risks?

💡 Unaddressed, these issues can lead to reporting errors, cash flow surprises, and operational inefficiencies. Identifying them early allows you to strengthen financial processes before they become major blockers.

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5. Develop Your Finance Team for Scale

A high-growth SaaS company needs a finance team that can scale alongside it. Your current team might be well-structured for early-stage needs, but may lack the expertise required for the next phase. 

To stay ahead of future challenges, evaluate your team’s strengths and potential gaps:

• Skills Assessment: Does your team have the right mix of SaaS finance expertise?
• Roles and Responsibilities: Are responsibilities clearly defined, or are there critical gaps?
• Training Needs: What upskilling opportunities would strengthen your existing team?
• Strategic Hiring Plan: What key roles—Controller, FP&A leader, or BI specialist—will be critical for scaling?

💡 Without the right team structure, finance can become a bottleneck instead of a growth enabler. Proactively addressing team gaps ensures finance remains high-functioning and strategic.

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Execution Tips for SaaS CFOs

The transition from validation to execution requires discipline and focus. While every company’s needs are unique, these five best practices can help guide your approach:

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What's Next in This Series

Part 1: Strategic Preparation and Early Wins covered how to establish credibility, validate financials, and secure quick wins in your first 30 days. 

Part 2: Building Your Financial Foundation explored how to refine key SaaS metrics, address revenue leakage, and scale financial operations during days 31-60.

Coming soon - Part 3: From Numbers to Strategy will focus on shifting from financial stabilizer to strategic partner in days 61-90—helping you influence business decisions and drive long-term value.

By following this roadmap, you'll transform finance from a support function into a strategic advantage for your company—setting yourself up for success in the B2B SaaS CFO role.

Download the playbook in full.

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Billing and Revenue Recognition—Built for SaaS CFOs

As a B2B SaaS CFO, your focus extends beyond keeping the books clean—you need a finance operation that can keep up with growth. Subscript gives you the tools to streamline billing, automate revenue recognition, and provide real-time financial insights, so you can scale with confidence.

🔎 Ready to see Subscript in action? Schedule a demo today.

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