10 Signals that Your Company Needs a CFO (before it's too late)

Introduction

You run your business. Your product works, your customers are satisfied, your team is growing. But you spend your evenings working in Excel, you don't really know how many months of cash flow you have left, and your last presentation to the board of directors was... laborious.

You're not alone.

Most managers underestimate when they need financial help. The result: they realize too late that they have a cash flow problem, miss a fund-raising opportunity for lack of credible figures, or lose the confidence of their investors.

The good news? There are clear signs that it's time to structure your finance function - not necessarily with a full-time CFO (CHF 200-300,000 per year), but at the very least with professional guidance.

Here are 10 warning signs. If you tick 3 or more, it's time to act.

1. 🚨 You don't know your exact runway

The symptom

They ask, "How many months' cash do you have?"

Your answer: "I'd say about 8-9 months, but I'd have to check exactly."

You check. In reality, it's more like 5 months. Or even less, if you factor in upcoming deadlines.

Why it's dangerous

The runway (financial autonomy) is the most critical indicator for any growing company. If you don't know it precisely, you're steering blindly.

Case in point: A Swiss SME thought it had 9 months' cash. On closer analysis :

• A quarterly VAT statement for CHF 85,000 arrives in 3 weeks' time
• The next quarter's social security contributions (CHF 45,000) are due the following month.
• A machine investment ordered (CHF 120,000, forgotten in the forecast) is to be paid for on delivery in 6 weeks' time.
• A major customer (30% of sales) systematically pays in 90 days instead of 30.

Actual runway: 4 months, not 9. The margin of error is dangerous.

What a CFO brings

A CFO sets up a 13-week rolling cash flow forecast, updated weekly.

You always know :

• How much actually comes in (taking customer payment terms into account)
• How much goes out (salaries, suppliers, VAT, social charges, investments)
• Your projected minimum cash flow
• When you need to take action (negotiate an overdraft, reduce certain expenses, speed up collection)

The test: Can you now say how much money you'll have in your bank account on the 15th of next month? If the answer is no, you need to structure.

2. 📊 Your investors are asking for indicators you don't have

The symptom

At your last board meeting, an investor asked:

• "What is your customer acquisition cost?"
• "Your lifetime value?"
• "Your multiple burn?"
• "Profitability by sales channel?"

You reply, "I don't have those figures at hand, so I'll send them to you within the week."

A week later, you still haven't sent anything. Because you don't really know how to calculate them properly.

Why it's dangerous

Investors - whether shareholders, bankers or family offices - assess your credibility through these indicators. Not having them signals either :

• A lack of rigor in management
• A lack of understanding of the financial fundamentals of your sector
• The risk of not mastering your business model

Result: Confidence eroded, decisions difficult to validate, next lift compromised.

What a CFO brings

It structures a monthly dashboard with indicators relevant to your sector and stage of development:

For a SaaS startup:

• MRR, ARR, monthly churn, expansion revenue
• CAC (customer acquisition cost)
• LTV (lifetime value)
• LTV/CAC ratio
• Burn rate and multiple burn

For a commercial SME:

• Gross margin and net margin by product line
• Stock rotation
• Average customer vs. supplier payment terms
• Cost per order
• Profitability by distribution channel

For an industrial company:

• Cost per unit
• Capacity utilization rate
• Production lead times
• Fixed/variable cost ratio

These indicators are automated and updated on a monthly basis, enabling you to make informed decisions.

3. 💸 You're preparing to raise funds and don't have a data room

The symptom

You're in talks with investors. They are interested. You're moving towards a term sheet.

Then comes the due diligence phase. They ask:

• 3 years of financial history (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
• Your 5-year forecast with detailed assumptions
• Your complete cap table (shareholding, options, convertibles)
• All your customer, supplier and premises contracts
• Your tax and social security situation (certificates, statements)

You panic. These documents are scattered across three computers, emails, at your trustee's office, and some... don't exist in usable form.

Why it's dangerous

An ill-prepared data room can lengthen the fundraising process by 2 to 4 months. Worse still, it can derail the deal if investors discover :

• Inconsistencies between your statements and reality
• Skeletons in the closet" (disputes, hidden debts, non-compliance)
• Disorganization that calls into question your ability to perform

Real-life example: A Swiss start-up in discussion for a Series A. Due diligence reveals that the forecasts presented are based on an Excel spreadsheet with broken formulas. Result: valuation revised downwards by 30%, tense negotiations.

What a CFO brings

He prepares a structured data room in advance, even if you don't raise money immediately:

Finance section:

• Audited financial statements (last 3 years)
• Monthly reporting (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) over 24 months
• 3-5 year financial forecasts with sensitivity
• Monthly budget vs. actual

Legal & Corporate Section:

• Articles of association, shareholders' agreement
• Cap detailed table with history
• Material contracts (customers > CHF 50K, strategic suppliers, leases)

Fiscal & Social Section:

• Certificates from AHV/IV and BVG funds
• VAT statements
• Tax rulings (if applicable)

Result: smooth due diligence, reassured investors, accelerated negotiations.

4. 🤯 You spend 10 hours a week on finance (and you hate it)

The symptom

At the end of each month, you spend :

• 3 hours to reconstitute your income statement
• 2 hours chasing up non-paying customers
• 2 hours to prepare documents for your trustee
• 3 hours to update your Excel forecasts

Total: 10 hours a week. And you don't like it. It's not your job, it exhausts you, and you do it badly.

Why it's dangerous

Opportunity cost: 10 hours per week = 40 hours per month = 25% of your time.

If you are a manager, these 10 hours should be devoted to :

• Selling (meeting customers, closing deals)
• Product development (vision, roadmap)
• Recruiting (attracting the right talent)
• Raising funds (meeting investors)

Simple calculation: If your time is worth CHF 200/hour (which is conservative for a CEO), you're wasting CHF 8,000 a month doing finance badly.

What a CFO brings

It frees up your time by taking care of :

• Monthly reporting (automated)
• Cash flow monitoring (up-to-date forecasts)
• The relationship with the trustee (he speaks their language)
• Collection (or at least process management)
• Board preparation

Each month, you receive a summary dashboard (1 page), a 30-minute check-up, and that's it.

Result: You get 10 hours a week to do what only you can do.

5. 📉 Your cash flow is a mystery

The symptom

You look at your bank account on Monday morning: CHF 180,000.

You're reassured. But in reality :

• You have CHF 120,000 in wages to pay on Friday.
• CHF 85,000 from urgent suppliers (reminders, threats to halt deliveries)
• CHF 42,000 VAT payable by the 25th of the month
• CHF 28,000 quarterly social security deposit due in 10 days

On Friday evening, you realize that you are overdrawn.

Why it's dangerous

Feeling cash management is the #1 cause of failure for even profitable SMEs.

Classic problem: You've got a good order book and customers are buying, but :

• Your customers pay in 60-90 days
• Your suppliers want to be paid within 30 days
• Your fixed costs fall each month (wages, rent, insurance)

Result: Growth that kills cash flow. You sell more, but you have no cash.

What a CFO brings

It sets up a structured cash management system:

13-week rolling forecast:

• Week by week, all projected entries and exits
• Identifying cash flow troughs
• Anticipation of needs (credit lines, supplier lead times)

Optimization of working capital requirements:

• Reduce customer payment times (reminders, discounting, factoring)
• Negotiation of supplier lead times (60-day payment terms for large volumes)
• Inventory optimization (no unnecessary overstocking)

Result: You no longer look anxiously at your bank account. You drive.

6. 🎯 You don't know which levers to use to improve profitability

The symptom

Your annual income statement shows :

• Sales: CHF 5 million
• Net income : -CHF 150,000

You're losing money. But you don't know exactly where.

Is it :

• The rising cost of raw materials?
• Wages that are too high?
• A product that makes no money?
• A loss-making sales channel?
• Soaring fixed costs?

You don't know. So you can't act.

Why it's dangerous

Piloting without analysis = navigating without a map.

You risk :

• Cut bad costs (marketing that works, R&D needed)
• Maintaining loss-making activities without knowing it
• Investing in channels that yield no return

Real-life example: A Swiss SME thought its e-commerce business was profitable. Detailed analysis: gross margin 40%, but customer acquisition costs + shipping costs + returns = net loss of 15% per online order. Physical retail, on the other hand, was highly profitable.

Decision: Reduce e-commerce investment, double retail investment. Return to profitability in 6 months.

What a CFO brings

It slices up your P&L to identify the levers:

By product or service:

• Gross margin per unit
• Sales volume
• Contribution to net income

By sales channel:

• Customer acquisition costs by channel
• Medium basket
• Net profitability

By customer or segment:

• Top 20% of customers = how much margin?
• Bottom 20% = how much loss?

Fixed vs. variable cost analysis:

• If you increase sales by 20%, how much will your profit increase?
• What's your breakeven point?

Result: You know exactly where to put your energy (and your money).

7. 🤝 Your board presentations are improvised

The symptom

You have a Board of Directors (or Advisory Board) that meets quarterly.

The day before the session, you realize you haven't prepared anything. You spend the evening making a PowerPoint with :

• A few slides on "what happened this quarter".
• Figures pulled out of Excel without context
• Rough graphics

On the big day, the directors ask some awkward questions:

• "Why did the margin drop by 5 points?"
• "What explains this increase in charges?"
• "Your forecast last year was CHF 8M, you're now at CHF 5M, what happened?"

Your answer is vague. The board is not convinced.

Why it's dangerous

Administrators assess your credibility through the quality of your reporting.

Sloppy reporting signals :

• Lack of rigor in management
• Lack of transparency (voluntary or not)
• Risk that you are not in control of the situation

Result: Loss of confidence, blocked decisions, difficulty getting support when you need it.

What a CFO brings

He prepares a professional board package, which is sent 72 hours before the session:

Standard contents:

• Executive summary (1 page): highlights, decisions to be made
• Key figures: sales, EBITDA, cash flow, workforce
• Variance analysis: budget vs actual, N vs N-1
• Sector-specific KPIs (depending on your activity)
• Updated forecasts
• Points of attention / risks
• Recommendations

Format: clear PDF, easy-to-read graphics, concise messages.

Result: Directors arrive prepared, meetings are productive, decisions are made quickly. Your credibility rises.

8. 🏦 Your banker or investor is asking for "a serious business plan".

The symptom

You need a line of credit or are preparing to raise capital.

Your banker or an investor says, "Can you draw up a serious business plan with 3-year forecasts?"

You open Excel. You make "wet-finger" assumptions:

• Sales growth: +30% per year (why not?)
• Gross margin: 50% (sounds good)
• Expenses: +20% per year (roughly...)

You send the file. The bank's response: "Your assumptions are not justified, your model lacks robustness."

Why it's dangerous

A poorly thought-out business plan kills your chances of financing.

Bankers and investors see dozens of models a month. They immediately detect :

• Unrealistic assumptions (frictionless linear growth)
• Broken Excel formulas (it happens)
• Lack of sensitivity (what if sales only increase by 15%?)
• Inconsistencies (your workforce is growing but your payroll taxes are not?)

Result: Financing refused or conditions downgraded.

What a CFO brings

It builds a professional financial model over 3 to 5 years:

Documented assumptions:

• Sales growth based on sales pipeline, historical conversion rate, production capacity
• Gross margin by product/service with realistic trend (economies of scale, inflation)
• Detailed line-by-line expenses (salaries, marketing, R&D, rent, etc.)
• Planned investments (machinery, recruitment, premises)

Three scenarios:

• Optimistic (everything is going well)
• Realistic (base case)
• Pessimistic (what if sales are 30% lower?)

Sensitivity:

• Impact of a +/-10% variation in sales on earnings
• Impact of a 6-month delay on marketing
• Impact of a 15% cost increase

Result: banker or investor reassured, financing secured.

9. 📈 You've exceeded CHF 5 million in sales and still don't have management control

The symptom

Your company is growing. You've gone from 10 to 40 employees in 3 years. Your turnover is CHF 8 million.

But you still drive like you did when you were at CHF 1 million:

• No formal budget
• No monthly budget vs. actual tracking
• Hiring decisions are made "by feel
• Pricing is all about instinct
• You don't really know which products or customers are profitable.

Why it's dangerous

Scaler without structure = accident guaranteed.

Above CHF 5 million in sales, complexity increases exponentially:

• More products, more customers, more employees
• More suppliers, more contracts, more risk
• More taxes, more social charges, more compliance

Driving by instinct becomes impossible. You will :

• Hiring too quickly (soaring costs)
• Or too slowly (missed opportunities)
• Investing in the wrong projects
• Losing money without realizing it

Real-life example: Swiss SME grew from CHF 3M to CHF 12M in 4 years. No financial structure. Result: net margin fell from +8% to -2%. The company almost went under despite spectacular growth.

What a CFO brings

It structures management to support growth:

Rigorous annual budget:

• By department (sales, marketing, R&D, production, admin)
• Per month
• With clear objectives and identified managers

Monthly budget vs. actual:

• Variances analyzed and explained
• Corrective actions defined
• Empowering managers

Operational management control:

• Product costing
• Profitability per customer
• Make-or-buy analysis (outsource or insource?)

Structured decision-making:

• Every decision > CHF 10,000 requires an ROI analysis
• Investments validated on business case
• Recruiting planned according to budget

Result: You scale without losing control or profitability.

10. 🔥 You're in hypergrowth and it's scary

The symptom

Your business is booming. Sales double every year. That's fantastic.

But internally, it's chaos:

• You're hiring like crazy (20 people in 6 months)
• Your suppliers can't keep up (out-of-stock situations)
• Your cash flow is tight despite growth
• You no longer sleep
• You're afraid of breaking everything

Why it's dangerous

Poorly managed hypergrowth kills more companies than stagnation.

Classic problems:

• Exponential cash burn: You recruit too fast, costs explode faster than sales
• Culture dilution: You hire anyone to keep up the pace
• Loss of quality: You deliver poorly, customers are no longer satisfied
• Team exhaustion: Turnover, burn-out, resignations

Result: You risk implosion just when everything should be going smoothly.

What a CFO brings

He manages growth rigorously:

Structured recruitment plan:

• Based on clear sales assumptions
• With trigger thresholds (you recruit when you reach X sales)
• Anticipated HR budget (salaries, expenses, training, tools)

Tight cash management:

• Forecast updated weekly
• Identify financing needs before they become critical
• Proactive negotiation with banks/investors

Alert KPIs:

• Expense / sales ratio (must not exceed X%)
• Average delivery time (quality indicator)
• Customer satisfaction rate (NPS)
• Employee turnover

Tempo mastered:

• "You can grow fast, but not at any price".
• "This opportunity is tempting, but do we have the resources to execute it?"

Result: You scale quickly, but sustainably.

Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

Do you recognize yourself in 3 or more signals?

It's time to structure your finance function.

You have three options:

Option 1: Recruit a full-time CFO

• Cost: CHF 200-300,000 per year
• Relevant if : Sales > CHF 20M, finance team of 3+ people to manage

Option 2: Call in a fractional CFO

• Cost: CHF 8-12,000 per month (2 days/week)
• Relevant if : Sales between CHF 2M and 20M, need to structure or raise funds

Option 3: Business as usual

• Cost: free (short-term)
• Risk: cash flow crisis, missed opportunities, loss of investor confidence

At Finlift, we support the managers of Swiss SMEs and startups who want to structure their finances without overburdening their organization.

No endless Excel spreadsheets. No useless jargon.

Just the clarity, distance and mastery you need to grow serenely.

Want to talk it over?

Book a free 30-minute diagnosis by filling in the form below!