Problem: Your P&L Is a Rear-View Mirror

Most teams close the month, hold their breath, and argue with a spreadsheet. By the time the insights arrive, the moment is gone. The AI CFO flips that: finance becomes a live operating system—one that forecasts, flags, and helps act.

1) What an AI CFO Actually Does (and Doesn’t)

Does:

  • Consolidates messy systems (QBO/Xero, Stripe, payroll, CRM)

  • Classifies/cleans transactions with audit-friendly rules

  • Builds driver-based forecasts (price, volume, churn, CAC, headcount)

  • Runs scenarios (“What if we cut ad waste 20%?”)

  • Triggers actions (polite collections emails, vendor variance notes)

Doesn’t:

  • Replace GAAP or your human CFO. It augments judgment with speed, context, and traceability.

2) The “Books → Decisions” Pipeline

  1. Ingest & Normalize: Pull from accounting, banking, billing, CRM. Map vendors/customers.

  2. Classify & Enrich: Rules > models > human review. Log reason codes for edits.

  3. Model Drivers: Revenue = price × volume; OpEx = headcount + contracts; Working capital tied to DSO/DPO/DIO.

  4. Forecast & Scenarios: 13-week cash + 12-month rolling plan.

  5. Act: Collections nudges, budget variance alerts, capex approvals, hiring gates.

If it isn’t traceable, it isn’t finance, it’s fan fiction.

3) The Three Dashboards That Matter

  • Cash Compass: runway, 13-week forecast, top inflow/outflow deltas, “uh-oh” list (invoices likely to slip).

  • Growth Lens: pipeline-to-revenue conversion, CAC payback, gross margin by product, churn cohorts.

  • Efficiency Panel: OpEx vs. plan, unit economics, headcount ROI, vendor drift.

Each tile should show trend + driver + action. No orphan charts.

AI Operating System

4) AR, AP, and “The Polite Nudge”

  • AR: auto-segment customers, send friendly reminders from the right person’s name, attach statements, offer click-to-pay.

  • AP: catch duplicate bills, spot off-contract pricing, schedule for DPO-aware payment dates.

  • Vendor intelligence: track effective hourly rates, usage vs. license count, and hidden creep.

Collections don’t need to be scary. They need to be on time, on tone, on brand.

5) Forecasts You Can Trust (Because You Can Explain Them)

Ditch the black box. Use driver-based models:

  • Sales: leads × conversion × ASP → revenue.

  • SaaS: MRR cohorts with churn & expansion.

  • Services: utilization × bill rate × margin.

  • COGS: unit costs with volume/FX sensitivity.

With each run, print the assumptions: “Churn assumed 2.1%, ASP +3%, headcount +2 FTE in Q2.” That sentence is half the value.

6) Guardrails, Audits, and Board-Ready Proof

  • Least-privilege access to banks and books.

  • Immutable logs of reclassifications with reason codes.

  • Policy gates: anything above $X or outside categories → human review.

  • Close checklist: reconciliation status, anomalies, docs linked.

Your board packet should read like a forensic fairytale—no surprises, just crisp cause-and-effect.

7) A 90-Day Rollout You Can Copy

Days 1–30: connect systems, map chart of accounts, backfill 12 months, produce a baseline forecast.
Days 31–60: turn on AR nudges, vendor drift alerts, and a weekly Cash Compass.
Days 61–90: publish a driver-based 12-month plan + three scenarios (base, stretch, winter). Brief the team on what moves the needles.

Closing

The AI CFO is not a fortune-teller; it’s a clarity engine. Replace end-of-month panic with mid-month precision and put finance back in the business of decisions.

Want my driver-based model template (Sheets) and the polite-collections email pack? Message me—I’ll send the kit.