The CFO'S Perspective

A business valuation is a critical component of securing a company’s future. Whether it’s done as part of a business sale, merger agreement, litigation proceedings, investment negotiation, succession planning, estate planning, or in compliance with financial regulations, a company valuation gives all included parties reliable information about a business’s financial worth and risk level to aid in strategic decision-making.

While the specifics of the business will clearly determine its calculated value at the conclusion of the process, one person is instrumental in helping the company to arrive at that final number. An experienced CFO plays a key role in any business valuation by leveraging their financial expertise to offer strategic insights along the way and ensure an accurate final assessment of the company’s value.

During the course of normal business, it is sometimes necessary to cut ties with established business partners in favor of other organizations that are better able to meet your company’s needs. Any number of reasons might lead to this transition, including, but not limited to:

• Growth of your firm that exceeds what your business partner can offer.
• Growth of the business partner that takes their service offerings in a different direction.
• Poor service or reliability.
• Increasing costs.
• A change in business circumstances that no longer makes you a good match.

A change in service providers can apply to bankers, CPAs, outsourced payroll providers, HR, outsourced accounting, IT, accounting platforms, and any number of other business services. The challenge when making a switch is managing the transition so that it goes smoothly for all parties involved to minimize business disruption.

In this article I’ll share some lessons learned from a recent outsourced payroll provider transition that has caused considerable pain for my client, their employees, and owners. My hope is that the real-world example I provide will serve as a cautionary tale, so you understand why it’s so important to be strategic when changing business service providers.

As nonprofit costs continue to rise organizations that regularly operate with minimal or moderate budgets are finding that they are in a cash negative position. How they respond now will determine what the future holds for their missions, staff, and the people they serve.

Find out more about what you can do to increase cash flow to keep your organization’s programs and initiatives running as intended:

Earlier this year Callum Borchers, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote an article called “These Professionals Aren’t Retired, they Just Have Zero to Prove.” The article highlighted successful professionals living what has been dubbed “a post-achievement lifestyle.” These professionals are high achievers who found enough success early in their careers that they no longer need to engage in the daily office grind to bring in a regular paycheck. Some have socked away enough money to live lavishly for the rest of their lives and some have just enough to maintain their current lifestyle. And now, they are focused on maintaining a work-life balance on their own terms. Many are still working in some capacity or another – in part-time (fractional) capacities or on hobby projects – but all are focused on living the life that they worked hard to build early in their careers. The article got a lot of people talking!

Aesop’s fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare provides a story to show how a race is not always for the swiftest. In the business world, some companies are very focused on short-term financial results while others are managing for the very long-term time horizon. Some companies are working to improve their operations and financial results in order to sell the business in a few years, while others are building a business for the next generation of owners.

When there is a need to hire a new CFO, the question the CEO and the owners should consider asking is: do I need a tortoise or a hare as my next CFO?

Preparation and expert guidance are key for successful middle-market business acquisitions, sales, and mergers. In this comprehensive guide to buying and selling businesses, our expert CFOs provide all the finance and accounting information you need when entering into a transaction. It covers:

• Transaction structures
• Buyer analyses and considerations
• Buy-side and sell-side finance/accounting transaction support
• Buyer-side and seller-side due diligence
• Business sale best practices

READY OR NOT?

Owners and CEOs of middle-market companies may encounter a business acquisition or divestiture opportunity without the benefit of prior transaction experience. Likewise, such organizations may be supported by a finance and accounting function that has not participated in the purchase or sale of a business. Yet, a first-time business buyer or seller must assess its level of preparedness for a transaction regardless.

While investment bankers and other advisors are well-positioned to initiate transactions, and provide guidance throughout the process, the company’s own management team – particularly in the area of finance and accounting – may need to be augmented by additional deal-experienced resources.

The assessment by a first-time buyer or seller of the transaction-readiness of its finance and accounting resources is an important step toward achieving the objective of accelerating the completion of a transaction while minimizing the disruption of the underlying business.

As fractional CFOs (Chief Operating Officers) we get a lot of questions about COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and SG&A expenses from our clients. They want to know how to classify different types of expenses, which one to focus on when trying to control costs, how to think about them when evaluating business opportunities, and what kind of impact each can have on profitability. As such, their questions often span the two interconnected worlds of accounting and finance.

From an accounting perspective, categorizing expenses correctly helps to ensure regulatory compliance and aids in ongoing cash flow management. While from a finance perspective, understanding their impact on revenue growth allows for effective long-term financial management. For these reasons, having a firm handle on the difference between SG&A and COGS is a critical component to running any business.

As CFOs, we have a full plate of responsibilities for financial reporting, planning and analysis, and risk management. We’re often skeptical of “breakthroughs” that promise to “transform the finance function” and “shift the paradigm of accounting and finance.” To us, these types of phrases just sound like more of the same – another overhyped management consulting fad based on a Harvard Business Review article. All we hear is just “blah, blah, blah” and we tune it out.

Should we feel that way about the current wave of Artificial Intelligence as well?

The name itself suggests, AI is a technologically derived intelligence. But AI models mostly just repeat what they have been taught. They don’t really “know” things or think like people do. When truly original “thinking” is required – such as creating an original, testable scientific hypothesis – it turns out that current AI models are quite dumb.

Looking at it through this lens, is AI a bane or boon to today’s CFOs?