The CFO’s First 90 Days A Week-by-Week Plan, and the Win That Justifies Your Hire
Every new CFO is on the clock, and a fractional CFO is back on it with every new client. The company is paying for you, and somewhere around day 90 the CEO asks whether it was worth it. This plan gets you to that conversation with a documented, hard-dollar result in hand.
Written by Robert Day, just under 30 years in credit card processing, including more than a decade as an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments.
Why the first 90 days decide everything
A CEO who hires a CFO, especially a fractional or interim one, is making a bet. Your fee shows up on the P&L from the first month. Your value has to show up just as clearly, and it has to be something the CEO can repeat to a partner, a lender or a board in one sentence.
That is the whole design of this plan. The first two phases build the foundation every good CFO builds. The third phase puts a number on the table that makes your fee look small.
If you are a fractional CFO, you run this plan once for every client you take on. Build it once, and the same first win repeats across your whole book.
Days 1 to 30: learn the business
Resist the urge to change things. The goal of the first month is to understand how money moves through this company, and to start the one task with the longest lead time.
Agree on what success looks like
Sit down with the CEO and agree on the three numbers you will both watch, how often you will meet, and what a clear win at day 90 would look like. Write it down and send it back to them.
Map the cash
List every bank account, credit line and payment channel. Find out how the company gets paid: card, ACH, check and wire, and roughly what share arrives each way. Start a 13-week cash flow forecast, even a rough one.
Gather the contracts, and start the audit clock
Request loan agreements and covenants, leases, insurance policies, the vendor list with renewal dates, and the merchant agreement with the last twelve months of processing statements. Send the processing statements for an independent audit now. It runs in the background while you do everything else, and the results land right when you need them.
Walk the close
Sit with whoever closes the books. How many days does it take, where does it stall, and what lives in one person’s head? You are not fixing it yet. You are finding out what month two has to fix.
Days 31 to 60: stabilise
Month two is about making the numbers trustworthy, so that the win you present in month three is believed.
Run the 13-week forecast every week
Update it weekly and compare forecast to actual. Show card receipts gross and the processing fees separately, so the cost of getting paid is visible instead of buried in net deposits.
Tighten the close and the reporting pack
Set a target close date, document the steps, and build a one-page monthly report around the three numbers you agreed in week 1.
Build the recurring cost inventory
List every recurring cost over a threshold that makes sense for the business, with owner, contract terms and renewal date. Flag the ones nobody has reviewed in two years or more. Processing fees are almost always on that list.
Days 61 to 90: deliver
Now you put numbers on the table.
Present the first win
Bring the CEO a documented saving, what it is worth per year, and what it took to get it. One real number beats ten promising initiatives.
Rebuild the budget and forecast
Fold what you have learned into a 12-month forecast the CEO and lenders can rely on, with the savings already in it.
Present the 12-month roadmap
Close the 90 days with a short plan: what you fixed, what you found, what comes next and what it is worth. This is the meeting where a fractional engagement gets extended.
The win that pays for you: merchant processing fees
Most first-quarter savings claims are soft: a process improved, a vendor asked nicely. Processing fees are different. They are large, recurring, documented on a monthly statement, and almost nobody inside the business owns them.
- The industry is non-regulated. Processors price however their salespeople can get away with, so two companies on the same processor can pay completely different amounts.
- The rules move twice a year. The card networks change over 200 rules and rates every April and October, so an account set up correctly two years ago rarely still is.
- The contract lets the price change. Every merchant agreement lets the processor change its fees, and even its terms, at any time.
- It fits the calendar. Send the statements in week 3, and the findings arrive in time to present in weeks 9 and 10.
How to put it to the CEO in week 3
The 90-day checklist
- Three success numbers agreed with the CEO, in writing
- Every bank account, credit line and payment channel mapped
- 13-week cash flow forecast running weekly, with processing fees on their own line
- Loan covenants, leases, insurance and vendor contracts collected
- Merchant agreement and 12 months of processing statements sent for independent audit
- Close process documented with a target close date
- One-page monthly report built around the three success numbers
- Recurring cost inventory with owners and renewal dates
- First documented hard-dollar win presented to the CEO
- 12-month forecast and roadmap presented
We do the work. You get the win.
weAudit is America’s #1 Credit Card Processing Auditing Firm, and our team came from inside the processors, so we know the rules as well as they do. We audit the statements, fix what is wrong with the existing processor or a new one, and keep auditing every month because accounts drift. You bring the result to the CEO.
- It works at every client. Send us a statement from each client and run the same week-3 audit across your whole book.
- The first audit is free, so your first win needs no budget approval.
- Our fee is flat and never a percentage of savings, so the savings stay with the company you are working for.
- We take no revenue share, referral arrangement or financial tie from any processor or ISO, so the advice is not for sale.
See the credit card processing audit, decode a line item with the statement decoder, or read how fractional CFOs work with weAudit. Still interviewing? Start with our CFO interview questions and answers, and see what the market pays in fractional CFO rates and salary.
Frequently asked questions
What should a CFO do in the first 90 days?
Spend the first 30 days learning the business, the cash cycle and the close; the next 30 stabilising cash forecasting and reporting; and the last 30 delivering a measurable win and a 12-month plan. The win matters most, because it is what justifies the hire.
What is a good quick win for a new CFO?
A recurring cost that is large, contract based and rarely reviewed. Merchant processing fees are one of the best, because the industry is non-regulated, rates change twice a year and an independent audit can be done without a budget.
How long before a new CFO shows results?
A strong CFO should be able to show one hard-dollar result inside 90 days. Structural improvements to forecasting and reporting take longer, so pick a first win that can be verified quickly.
What documents should a new CFO request first?
Bank statements for every account, loan agreements and covenants, the last twelve months of financials, the vendor and contract list with renewal dates, insurance policies, and the last twelve months of merchant processing statements with the merchant agreement.
Start the audit clock in week 3
Send us a recent processing statement from each of your clients and we will show you where the money is going. No cost, no obligation.
Or call 800-672-1292
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