The session will bring together marketing leads from the rest of the cohort to discuss when and how to scale your finance team, managing your cash flow and forecasting as you scale. It will also be an opportunity to create a community of like-minded Finance Leads who can support you as you scale and share best practices.

Scale Coaches:

• Neil Alexander - CEO, Nutmeg
• David Blacher - Partner, RSM

Session Takeaways:

• Insights on scaling and building out your Finance team
• Managing cash flow
• Tips on forecasting as you scale 
• Hear from an experienced CFO on the challenges of scaling and frameworks to support growth
• Understand tools/processes used at scale
• Understand peer challenges and approaches that you can tailor to your situation
• A network of Finance Leads to support you as you scale!

> SESSION NOTES

SCALING AS A FINANCE LEAD

with Neil Alexander, Nutmeg

Structuring a finance team for scale:

How to structure a finance team for scale

When thinking about structuring a finance team for scale, it’s important to be sure on what you want the finance team to deliver and what goals you want to achieve. Understanding which core specialist skills are needed is key, as there will be some functions that will be outsourced. A great place to start is Integrating your finance function into the whole business to avoid Finance as a Function (FaaF) - this gives you a great opportunity to see every aspect of the business and learn more.

Process is crucial 

Good process is everything for scale. It’s important to think about what data you want to gather and ensure it is systematic so that it is easier to make transitions between systems in the future. Keeping the long term vision for your finance function in mind to create those processes will make a big difference, especially keeping a great accounts payable and receivable process.

Employing the right people for a high functional team

• High Emotional intelligence is critical 
• This isn't always easy in the finance space
• Higher EQ means that the individual is more articulate and aware which means they can build better partnerships with rest of the business
• It also means counselling skills to understand root causes and diffuse situations
• Common sense and brains
• Ask some simple questions to see what their mindset is and their thought process
• Test people
• Double entry bookkeeping questions to get a feel
• Excel test to understand skill level, sit with them and see how they perform; do they take feedback? Do they listen?
• Maths test with calculator
• Curiosity and problem solving
• Lots of things do end up falling on the finance team so this skill is important
• “A fish rots from the head”
• Be the role model and set up the finance team to be that business partner with high levels of integrity 
• Lead by example

Key hires for scale ups

• Depends on type of business, e.g. if your business is in procurement, accounts payable is crucial
• Hire the best person you possibly can, even if that means spending a bit more than you set out to as it will be worth it in the long run

Forecasting in a scale up:

Data and processes need to be set up correctly or forecasting will become a lot harder. Think about what data sets you need to collect and understand the economics of your business, for example look at the Representation of contribution margin or Break Even analysis. 

Ask questions such as 

• How does business work?
• What does the supply chain look like?
• What are the costs incurred?

Consider data such as sales pipeline, open purchase orders, actual sales, and actual costs. This can all be done on excel and then moved into a different system at a later date.

Managing cash flow

Cash flow needs to be managed very carefully so don’t be afraid to look longer term all the time, even a few years ahead. Since it involves getting down to huge levels of detail, it will take a lot of time, effort and testing. Work across the business so that all teams can go through their actuals and feed into the model on a monthly basis, then provide estimates in 3 month increments. It’s also beneficial to coach the whole business on being better at managing cash  i.e. it’s not just about the price all the time, think about payment terms too.

Developing as a CFO

Be the role model

Utilise all the qualities mentioned for a high functioning finance team such as creativity, common sense, and problem solving. Be brutally honest with yourself about what your weaknesses are, knowing what you don't know will help you to work towards either filling your knowledge gaps of leaving certain things with specialists.

Be a yes person

If something needs to be done, put your hands up and do it as it will give you great experience and allows you to challenge yourself. It broadens your experience and gives a deeper understanding of how a business works.

Be the voice of reason

Sit back and listen, then ask the questions. Be the mediator and work in the business to bring it all together, engage that EQ.

Jack of all trades

As mentioned, a lot of things fall to the finance team, this gives you an insight of other areas of the business.

Relationships are crucial

Invest your time to build those relationships as you need to communicate clearly and engage. Talk to the senior people and everyone else as much as you can since you only get qualitative data by talking to others .

Shop window

It is critical to ensure that management reports are timely and accurate, as well as professionally presented.

Never assume

Don't be afraid to ask questions and to get to the truth of the matter.

Don't blag it

Investors will spot it and you will be caught out.

Integrity

This is a superpower as a finance person, you need to be trustworthy.

Don't DIY

Don't do everything yourself as it is not a sustainable long term plan. Hire great people to work with you that can fill in the gaps of your experience.

Say no

Need to be comfortable to say no, but explain why and suggest alternatives.

Pick your CEO

It won't work if you have completely contrasting and different styles, interview the CEO and much as they interview you

You are always going to find dead bodies!

Look for them immediately and dig them out as soon as possible, there will be some.

BREAKOUT DISCUSSIONS

1) How is your finance team currently structured? How will this change over time?


Think about when the right time to recruit is, not only at C suite level but a lower level that can support you in your day-to-day so that you can focus on other priorities.

Outsourcing can only get you so far, think about in house sooner rather than later

2) What tools/technologies do you use as a Finance Lead?

• Xero
• Excel
• Tableau
• G-Accon xero and google sheets
• Receipt bank
• Spotlight
• Revolut - managing expense flows into Xero
• Funnel.io brings information back from Marketing platforms to bring into Anaplan


3) How is COVID-19 affecting you as a Finance Lead? How’re you managing the uncertainty?

• Finding new income streams given what has happened, how can you move into new areas to generate top line growth?
• Management - being creative and helping the business develop while cogs are still turning in the finance function
• Forecasting - Most are looking at forecasting the next 12 months, updating this process regularly either weekly or monthly
• Investors are being supportive, even though they may want more information, it is expected
• There are inconsistencies in what VCs are looking for, some focus on growth story while others are only interested in survival plans
• Cost saving measures include talking to landlords, AWS projects, managing and evaluating subscription costs