Building the finance function after Series A: the first 90 days

Why the finance function breaks after Series A

Up to Series A, a tax advisor, a bookkeeper and a founder with Excel carry the numbers. After that, three things change at once: investors expect monthly reporting and a forecast, the team doubles, and often the first foreign subsidiary arrives. At vialytics, fast revenue growth met a freshly closed Series A financing and the wish to set up foreign subsidiaries in France and the US. Day-to-day business ate the time the build-up would have needed.

That is the starting position I find in most mandates after a financing round: good numbers in the product, no reliable numbers in finance. What an interim CFO delivers in this phase is described in the FAQ under When do I need an interim CFO? The following 90 days follow the four phases of my approach: create clarity, deliver fast, secure results, hand over cleanly.

Days 1 to 30: create clarity

The first month belongs to the stocktake, but one that already triggers decisions. Three questions come first: how much cash is really there, and how long does it last? Are the books right, and who closes them? Which commitments to investors, banks and authorities are already running?

Cash first

Before any structure comes the liquidity view. In the first two weeks a rolling liquidity plan over the coming months is built, on a weekly rhythm, fed from bank data, open items and payroll runs. It is the first tool founders and board read together, and it remains the most important one until the next round.

Books and contracts

In parallel I review the state of the bookkeeping, the chart of accounts, the accruals, the open points from the tax advisor and the contract position: investor agreement with reporting obligations, customer contracts with terms, leases, loans. Whatever is missing here will surface in the next due diligence.

The mandate goal

At the end of the first month there is a written goal for the next 60 days that founders, board and I carry together. Without a clear mandate goal there are no measurable results; that is phase 1 of every mandate.

Days 31 to 60: deliver fast

Month-end close on a rhythm

The second month brings the first close that is on time, complete and traceable. Not perfect: an 80 per cent solution that works every month beats the perfect process that never runs. The close fixes which number is called ARR, how churn is calculated and when a month is closed. These definitions later become the basis of investor reporting.

One report from one source

On top of the close sits the KPI dashboard. At vialytics it contained ARR, churn, cash burn and Rule of 40, plus plan-versus-actual and forecast. More important than the number of metrics is that all of them come from the same source and reconcile to the close. Board-ready means the investor reads the numbers without asking how they were produced. I have built three such dashboards in my mandates.

Team plan

Now it is clear who is missing. Usually that is first a person for accounting and document processes, then someone for controlling and planning. The positions are advertised in the second month so that onboarding still falls within the mandate. At vialytics that meant targeted recruiting of specialists and coaching of the existing team; the company grew from 60 to 120 employees over that period.

Days 61 to 90: secure results

The ERP decision

Most start-ups get to Series A on DATEV and Excel. After that, structure decides: foreign subsidiaries, consolidation, integration with the CRM. At vialytics the choice was Oracle NetSuite with a Salesforce integration, in the med-tech start-up NetSuite as well. Implementation takes 6 to 9 months on average, see Can an interim CFO lead an ERP implementation? Within the first 90 days the decision is made, not the go-live. Why projects fail is the subject of the next guide.

Data room for the next round

Preparation for Series B starts right after Series A. From the third month the data room is built, in which closes, contracts, cap table, reporting packs and board minutes are filed continuously. Whoever starts this only before the due diligence loses weeks in the hot phase. At vialytics I was responsible for the due diligence of two rounds, in the med-tech start-up for the data room of an exit valued at over €100m.

Planning tool and forecast

The forecast moves from Excel into a planning tool connected to the close. Rolling forecasts replace the annual budget round; what AI can contribute is in the guide AI in finance.

What is in place after 90 days

After 90 days the basics are in place: cash visibility on a weekly rhythm, close on a fixed rhythm, reporting that investors read without questions, key positions advertised or filled, and an ERP decision with a project plan. Not finished are the ERP itself, the consolidation of several entities and full audit readiness. At vialytics the road from zero to a finance organisation running independently at Series B level took 30 months, with two financing rounds and the incorporation of the entities in France and the US.

Phase 4 still starts on day one: hand over cleanly. Every definition, every process and every dashboard is documented so that the team continues without me. I have taken two accounting departments from zero to investor-ready this way, and introduced decision-making foundations through controlling, cash-flow and margin transparency four times. What remains at the end is under What happens at the end of the mandate?