Role module · CFO

The CFO's data checklist

Every figure you sign off comes from a system you do not own, through a transformation you did not write. This is what to ask for, in what order, so the number you defend is one you can trace.

Read time ~9 min Includes six questions and a 90-day plan For CFO and their team

01 The numbers you own

Five you should be able to defend

Not the longest list — the shortest one that covers the job. Each links to its full definition, including where the number lives and how it gets read wrong.

CCR

Cash conversion ratio

The fastest read on whether the profit you reported is real.

operating_cash_flow ÷ net_income OM

Operating margin

What the market judges, and the first place growth bought with overhead shows up.

operating_profit ÷ net_revenue CCC

Cash conversion cycle

The working capital your growth will consume, split by three owners.

dso + dio − dpo FCF

Free cash flow

What is genuinely available once the business has been kept running.

operating_cash_flow − capital_expenditure LC

Lineage coverage

Whether you can evidence any of the above under challenge.

critical_data_elements_with_end_to_end_lineage ÷ total_critical_data_elements

02 Questions to ask

Six questions for your next review

Ask them of your own team before anyone asks them of you. The uncomfortable answers are the useful ones.

Can we trace a board-pack figure to its source entry, today, without a manual investigation?
How many of the numbers in the monthly pack have a written definition and a named owner?
Where do the first three days of the close actually go — and is it consolidation or reconciliation?
When two reports disagree, who decides which is right, and how long does it take?
Which figures would we struggle to evidence if an auditor picked them at random?
What would it take to produce the pack a week earlier without adding people?

03 First 90 days

A plan that finishes something

Narrow and finished beats broad and half-built. Each stage produces evidence that funds the next one.

First 30 daysFirst 30 daysPick the ten figures in the board pack that matter most. Write the definition, the source and the owner for each. Half will not have one, and that list is the plan.

Days 30–60Days 30–60Govern those ten definitions in one place and point the pack at them. Publish the price / volume / mix and cash bridges rather than single variances.

Days 60–90Days 60–90Add lineage for the same ten, end to end. At that point the pack defends itself, and the argument moves from the numbers to the decisions.

04 Where the data lives

The systems behind your numbers

System	What it holds	Key records
ERP and general ledger	The financial truth, and the only acceptable reconciliation point for anything the tree produces.	Company code, Cost element, Cost centre, Invoice line
Consolidation	Group-level elimination, currency translation and the reporting hierarchy.	Reporting unit, Intercompany pair, FX rate
AR / AP and treasury	The cash story: ageing, disputes, terms and facility headroom.	Open item, Payment, Facility, Covenant

05 Questions

Frequently asked

Where should a CFO start with data?

With the board pack, not the platform. Governing the ten figures you already defend every month produces visible value in a quarter and builds the case for everything after it.

How do we shorten the close without more people?

Most of the close is reconciliation, not calculation. Removing the reconciliation — by having one governed definition instead of several — is what takes days out.

Bring your hardest number

We will trace one of your own figures back to source, live, on your data.

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