How CFOs and Their Teams Manage Uncertainty

Share information.

During a crisis, it’s tough to know which way is up. “Are we losing money?” “Will there be layoffs?” Uncertainty creates fear, giving way to poor performance and even turnover. It’s important to share information openly with the team. 

Create a sense of purpose.

CFOs and virtual CFO services can foster a shared sense of purpose by sharing company growth goals, performance information, and roadblocks. By sharing both the good and bad, your company can quell employee fears and create a united, effective front. Share information early and often to motivate and empower teams.

Build contingency plans. 

Maybe you are losing money. Even if that’s happening and the house is on fire, the business needs ways to deal with all short- and long-term scenarios. During a crisis, the biggest challenges usually stem from inflation, rising interest rates, recession risks, and talent shortages, among other things. 

You need to be able to adapt to both the best- and worst-case scenarios. Data-driven contingency planning helps your business devise strategies and plans of action, helping to weather challenges related to:

• Capital expenditures
• Supply chain risk management
• Human capital management

When your virtual CFO services lead the charge, they can collect data to inform your forecasts and cash flow plans, finding clear revenue opportunities.

Integrate digital solutions.

When things are going haywire, you have to get a little creative. Remember how popular food delivery platforms got as the COVID-19 pandemic set in? Cloud-based accounting software and artificial intelligence (AI) don’t fill your belly, but they fill the need to make your business more efficient through technology. CFO services lean on software to help you get more done, from managing charts of accounts to generating reports to performing reconciliations.

Start seeing savings.

By leaning on digital solutions, you start to save time and money so both the CFO and team can focus on more important facets of their job. AI lightens the load to handle time-consuming, redundant, and repetitive tasks and reduces human errors—and their resulting costs.

Build in flexibility

We’re far away from the old ways of spreadsheets, printed documents, and calculations done by hand. Your team flexes the way they work, so you need to do the same with sharing information. Software and AI tools enable data visibility, so authorized parties can view information in real time from anywhere and adapt to the unexpected. Of course, virtual CFO services can do this with a backbone of security, too, protecting your company and customer data against breaches.

Guide mergers and acquisitions.

If things aren’t going your way during a crisis and other options haven’t helped, there’s another way. Virtual CFO services can help you pursue merger and acquisition opportunities to keep your business going. 

Be a trusted advisor.

Sell-side CFOs represent your business’s interests, collecting and sharing information about your business with potential buyers. That might mean being transparent about operational data or pointing out the financial pros and cons of a partnership. That means digging up and compiling information on the business, including:

• Financial statements
• Budget and sales projections
• Tax returns 
• Capital structure and capitalization table
• Fixed and variable expenses
• And more

Nervous about the way things are going right now? Whether it’s lingering pandemic anxieties, recession risks, or a completely different animal, virtual CFO services and your accounting team are uniquely suited to find the best solutions—trust them!

Leave uncertainty behind with Ignite Spot.

One of the hardest things for businesses to deal with is uncertainty and crisis because the path forward is just as unclear. But your CFO can light the way by taking a few key steps, whether that means opening up lines of communication or adopting tech solutions to lighten the load. See how virtual CFO services can help your business navigate uncertainty. Check out Ignite Spot’s CFO services to see how a partnership can improve your position.