2022 CFO Survey
88% of CFOs Underestimated Their Finance Transformation Timeline
100 PE-backed CFOs reveal how finance leaders are navigating transformation—and where most are falling short.
What PE-Backed CFOs Reveal About Finance Operations
In partnership with Wakefield Research, Consero surveyed 100 CFOs at PE-backed companies with revenues between $10M and $200M across tech and business services.
- 88%
of CFOs underestimated the time to migrate F&A processes to enterprise-grade ERP
- 53%
of CFO time should be spent on strategic planning, not day-to-day operations
- 44%
say a poorly run F&A function prevents strategic investments
About the Survey
Why CFOs Struggle to Shift from Scorekeeper to Strategic Partner
After closing an investment from institutional investors, a company’s need for an optimized finance and accounting function becomes critical. The functional and technical skillset of the team, and the team’s ability to deliver timely and accurate financials are table stakes.
To learn about what CFOs of institutionally-backed companies are grappling with, Consero conducted a survey of 100 CFOs in tech and business services with annual revenue between $10M and $200M. The goal was to learn from this seasoned panel what the optimal state, size, and organizational structure for an F&A function is as a business scales—and where hidden costs and risks lurk around the corner.
What Does an Ideal Finance Function Look Like?
CFOs were asked to rank the most important attributes of a high-performing finance organization. Functional skillsets and timely financial reporting emerged as the clear leaders — tied at 20% each. Using scalable infrastructure (15%) and efficient processes (15%) also ranked highly, while experienced leadership rounded out the top priorities at 13%.
With a short hold period, there is little time or patience to build an optimized F&A function from scratch. The need to deliver timely, accurate financials and KPIs from day one means the right team, tools, and processes must be in place before the pressure hits.
Key Takeaway
The top priorities — people and process — are also the hardest to get right. Infrastructure and leadership matter, but execution depends on having the right skills reporting the right numbers on time.
The Strategic vs. Operational Time Divide
CFOs report that over half of their time (53%) should be spent on strategic planning rather than day-to-day operations (47%). The core value a CFO brings as a partner to the CEO, investors, and board directors is establishing a finance function that is foundationally sound — enabling them to lead the company’s strategic direction.
What Poor F&A Actually Costs
The average time CFOs spend on recruiting, hiring, and assessing talent — a full third of the standard workweek, or six days a month. Time that should be spent on strategy, M&A, and growth.
Benchmarking the Finance Function
CFOs have a clear picture of what an efficient finance function looks like. Most say F&A spend should remain under 10% of a company’s revenue, and three-quarters advise having fewer than 10 FTEs within F&A at a company with $10M in annual revenue.
Even that benchmark may be too high—recent data from Robert Half indicates businesses with less than $25M in revenue need only 3 F&A employees. Finance-as-a-Service addresses this gap by reducing cost, increasing efficiency, and mitigating risk to business continuity.
The Efficiency Imperative
Two-thirds of CFOs say the cost of F&A as a percentage of revenue should be lower or constant as companies scale from $10M to $200M. This means CFOs must strategize whether their operation is optimized to account for an increasingly smaller share as revenue grows — while increasing functionality to meet investors’ demands.
The Hidden Cost of Financial Transformation
88% of CFOs say they underestimated the time it would take for a full financial transformation — including fully implementing an enterprise-grade ERP and the necessary software stack. This isn’t just about late nights and extended timelines. The team’s time spent documenting workflows and procedures is time not spent on the strategic growth initiatives investors expect.
Four Things Every PE-Backed CFO Should Know
The data tells a consistent story: finance leaders know what good looks like, but operational drag keeps them from getting there.