If companies also want to grow in a macroeconomic environment, there is a lot to do.
ZenBusiness CFO Katie Royce has put in place systems and processes that will help the company continue to grow and prepare for an initial public offering (IPO).
Royce joined the company in July after being CFO for North America at IT services and consulting firm Cognizant and holding senior analyst and investor relations roles at several other companies.
Prior to Royce’s addition as CFO, ZenBusiness, a platform that helps entrepreneurs start, run and grow their businesses, closed a $200 million Series C funding round last November.
Royce is now tasked with helping the company position itself for the next step, including expanding its in-house expertise and providing guidance on how to expand its role as a not-for-profit corporation.
“A lot of longer-term planning to manage cash flow has been the focus,” Royce told PYMNTS.
Working on scenario planning
In an interview for the PYMNTS series “A Day in the Life of a Digital-First CFO,” she said that during her three months with the company, her main focus was on cash planning, cash conservation and scenario analysis.
“When you enter an uncertain macro environment,” Royce said, “I found that I was trying to think a little more about scenario planning and trying to introduce a level of forecast accuracy and predictability and thinking about the bottom line, and then the consequences of that in terms of cash flow, probably a bit more than what I would otherwise have at a company of this size.”
With this round of funding closed, ZenBusiness has a solid balance sheet that the goal now is to maintain it and keep it that way, Royce said.
The company has made acquisitions and Royce also aims to build a capital structure, balance sheet and liquidity that allows it to continue to do so in order to grow the company and its platform.
Optimizing data and system connectivity
Also on the agenda is the automation and connectivity of data and systems.
Pain points for CFOs include issues related to data, system connectivity and a lack of tools, Royce said. The world of finance is still balancing between the traditional desire to have time to sift through data and think about analysis and the current demand for real-time answers at the push of a button.
Many finance teams still use Excel for financial analysis, which doesn’t lend itself to the speed, efficiency, and scalability that many desire today.
“Finance needs to have a pretty good understanding of how data and information gets into the organization, where it’s stored, how it flows into systems, and really — when we need to access or change reports or get new reports — where that source dataset is and how to work that source to get what we need,” Royce said. “That’s still a pain point in a lot of organizations, I think.”
Preparing for the IPO
Among the company’s other features, billing and payments are seamless and automated, with customers completing their checkout on the site and making credit card payments. ZenBusiness is handling this at scale, with the company adding 10,000 to 15,000 new customers monthly through its website and app.
Payroll is the company’s largest expense item. Fund partners with human resources here by setting up pay bands and other data and budgeting capital pools for pay increases, promotions and hiring.
ZenBusiness also has ambitions to go public — a goal that will benefit from Royce’s investor relations experience.
This goal also requires an investment by the company not only in systems, control and reporting, but also a different level of auditing than a startup. So, Royce and her team worked to build the kind of management discussion and analysis (MD&A) required in a public company filing.
“It’s been a very powerful way for me to get the business on board with controls, reports and things like that,” Royce said. “It’s been fun watching the teams go through this.”
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https://www.pymnts.com/cfo/2022/companies-see-higher-than-usual-cfo-turnover-in-uncertain-climate/partial/
See more in: B2B, B2B Payments, CFO, Day in the Life of a Digital First CFO, Financials, IPO, IPO, Katie Royce, News, Nonprofit, ZenBusiness
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