LinkedIn markets the role of CFO as:

• A strategic finance leader,
• Focused on forecasting,
• Capital strategy,
• Budgeting,
• Cash flow optimization,
• And high-level advisory support.

That’s the textbook definition, but it’s incomplete and misleading, especially for small and mid-sized companies.  And adding the secret code word “hands-on” does not do it justice.

The Reality: “CFO” in the SME Market Means ‘Hands-On CFO + Controller + Process Architect’

In enterprise environments, the CFO has a team of:

• Controllers
• Accounting managers
• FP&A analysts
• Revenue cycle specialists
• System admins
• Billing leads
• Treasury analysts

A CFO working with $3M–$75M revenue companies has none of that infrastructure.

So the true question – Is the CFO strategic, operational, financial, advisory or something else?

In small and mid-sized businesses – especially collection agencies – the answer is unambiguous.  Any CFO must ALSO be the Controller, the Process Designer, the Technology Evaluator, and the Implementation Leader. The CFO aligns the Chart of Accounts to the Financial Reporting that supports Strategic Vision – whether that be an Exit Strategy, Growth or Farming.

1. Smaller companies cannot afford two senior roles

A CFO + Controller model only works above ~$100M in revenue or with extremely complex audit requirements. Below that, having both roles is a structural inefficiency.

2. The financial operations need automation — not hierarchy

The future of small/mid-tier collections agencies hinges on:

• Automated reconciliation
• Automated trust accounting
• Automated payment posting
• Automated remittance
• Automated compliance reporting
• Accurate cost modeling
• Real-time profitability tracking

This is not “strategic only” work.

Further, consider how to make the leap with base automation. The embedded knowledge that your tenured accounting and posting teams have is precisely the insight that can drive innovation as the tools improve.  Don’t overlook that strategic advantage.  The CFO can extract that knowledge to leverage strategic advantage and weather the future consolidation that some predict for the industry.

This requires a hands-on CFO who also understands:

• Excel modeling
• Data pipelines
• Process workflows
• API integrations
• AI tools
• System configuration
• Automation logic

The traditional CFO skill set is insufficient for where the industry is headed.

3. Agencies can’t survive the coming AI wave unless they re-engineer foundational processes

Most small agencies:

• Reconcile in Excel
• Rely on legacy systems
• Have manual trust account workflows
• Still do batch-and-hash posting
• Lack data visibility
• Lack automated forecasting
• Have compliance blind spots
• Don’t understand their unit economics

The CFO cannot ignore that.  It is integral to the role.