CFO Course: Chief Financial Officer, 200+ Finance Tools

• Grasp preventive and detective controls and core accounting control systems.

• Key metrics: cash conversion cycles, breakeven, reinvestment metrics, and capital ROI.

– M&A strategy, due diligence, integration

• Analyze budgeting methods, rolling forecasts, goal setting, and reporting systems.

• Master value-based, premium, psychological, dynamic, and elasticity-based pricing.

Explore responsibility of CFOs, bottleneck analysis, NPV, and payback methods.

• Explore liquidity management, centralization, and conditional consolidation.

• Deep dive into bonds, T-bills, deposits, repo agreements, and effective interest rates.

• Compare invoice discounting, factoring, leasing, long-term loans, and alternatives.

• Learn about restricted/unrestricted shares, angels, VCs, guarantees, and crowdfunding.

• Understand credit scoring, rating agency processes, and business implications.

• Evaluate pros/cons of public listing and IPO process.

• NYSE, NASDAQ, Toronto exchange, and delisting dynamics.

• Conduct earnings calls, roadshows, and comply with investor regulations.

• Work with earnings per share, interim reports, and major forms of disclosure.

• Three parts of a rep's pay and OTE as the planning unit
• Pay mix by role and deal cycle: from 70/30 for SDRs to 50/50 for AEs
• The rule of three components: why a plan with more stops working
• A pay mix map of your company: role, OTE, base, variable, components, deviation
• At least 7 signs of a broken sales compensation plan

• Quota and its three types: by volume, by revenue, by activity
• Top-down, bottom-up and capacity-based quota calculation with formulas
• Quota-to-OTE ratio: 4–6× for SMB and mid-market, 5–8× for enterprise
• Ramp for a new rep and a guaranteed variable during the first months
• At least 5 signs of a wrong quota

• Base commission rate from variable OTE and quota
• Three forms of rate: flat, tiered and quota-based
• Accelerator above quota, threshold and decelerator below it, and when a payout cap is needed
• A commission matrix with payouts at 50%, 80%, 100%, 120% and 150% attainment
• At least 5 commission rate mistakes

• How a bonus differs from commission
• SPIFF for one behaviour, MBO for a long sales cycle, team bonus for a shared pipeline
• A bonus plan in 7 fields: goal, metric, threshold, amount, period, who counts, when paid
• Bonus budget inside OTE: SPIFFs at 5–10% of OTE a year
• At least 6 bonus plan mistakes

• One role, one plan: pay for what the role actually influences
• SDR plan on meetings and SQLs; AE plan on new ACV with discount and margin rules
• AM plan on renewal and expansion; CSM plan on net revenue retention
• Sales manager plan with an override on team revenue
• A plan matrix for five roles: OTE, pay mix, components, weights, period

• The sales comp plan document in 10 sections
• Commission earning event: the moment a commission is earned
• Clawback rule and windfall rule for deals above 3 quotas
• Territory change and termination: whose deal it is
• Payout dispute procedure by the document, not by memory

• A 4-week launch plan for a new compensation plan
• Three materials every rep takes away, including a what-if payout calculation
• Scripts: presenting the plan to the team, talking to a top rep, a payout dispute
• At least 6 cases with debriefs

• Share of reps at quota and the shape of the attainment distribution
• Compensation cost of sales (CCOS): 8–15% of revenue for B2B
• Payout spread and rep turnover
• Ramp time and the number of payout disputes
• A plan dashboard of 6 metrics and an annual review checklist that starts 8 weeks before the new period

• Three roles of a chief strategy officer: adviser, referee and builder

• Three reporting lines of the CSO and who can overrule a decision to stop an initiative

• Days 1–30 listening, days 31–60 a quiet draft, days 61–90 the first choice on paper

• Five meetings of the first week and the same five questions for each

• The day-90 pack for the CEO: one page, one money ask, a kill list and four dates

• Profit pool of the market in four steps

• Growth split into three sources: market growth, share change and acquisitions

• Unit economics of a segment: LTV, fully loaded CAC and payback with benchmarks

• Six metric cards with benchmarks and the Rule of 40 as a scale with action zones

• The diagnosis one-pager and the five numbers for the CEO

• Bottom-up market sizing in one sheet, with TAM, SAM and SOM in numbers

• Thirteen free sources of competitor intelligence

• A competitor teardown card with five fixed slots

• Signals from job postings, pricing pages and release notes

• AI prompts for market research and an evidence pack with sources and dates

• The diagnosis as one sentence that names the obstacle

• A guiding policy and what it rules out

• Five steps from options to the call

• Four signs of an empty strategy and three tests before the CEO sees it

• The strategy on one page template and the do-not list

• An inventory of every running initiative with owner, cost and status

• A scoring model with four weighted criteria

• The true cost of an initiative in dollars

• The reallocation rate of your company and kill thresholds at three gates

• The portfolio sheet and five numbers for the budget conversation

• Three levels of the cascade: company, function and team

• Translating one strategic move into three goals

• A cascade workshop in four steps and one named owner per goal

• Leading and lagging measures for every goal

• The cascade map template and six signs of a broken cascade

• The calendar of the strategy year: quarterly, monthly and annual reviews

• A 90-minute quarterly review agenda and five areas of the review checklist

• A dashboard of no more than twelve metrics with thresholds

• Rules of the room, the invite list and the decision log after the meeting

• A strategy office of one person

• Five slides of the board pack

• At least 20 questions from the board and ready answers to the hardest ones

• The script of a twenty-minute board presentation

• Six cases of good and bad answers

• Announcing the strategy to the company and answering “what does it mean for me”

- Define the mandate around the decisions compliance must influence.

- Separate administrative support from functional oversight.

- Specify access rights, intervention thresholds and board contact.

- Draft reserved decisions and test the unresolved disagreement route.

- Map the operating risk universe before listing legal labels.

- Write risk statements with cause, uncertain event and consequence.

- Score likelihood, impact, control strength and residual exposure.

- Assign a response, owner, review date and action zone.

- Start policy design with a real employee decision.

- Separate code, policy, standard, procedure and job aid.

- Control exceptions with approval, evidence and expiry.

- Build a policy map that exposes gaps, conflicts and overdue reviews.

- Identify exposure through purpose, geography, payments, access and ownership.

- Convert observable risk drivers into basic, enhanced or deep review.

- Carry review findings into approval conditions and operating controls.

- Define refresh dates and trigger events that reopen the decision.

- Test the reporter experience across every available speak-up channel.

- Apply consistent triage for urgency, severity, credibility and conflicts.

- Plan evidence, interviews, safeguards and decision rights.

- Connect findings to protection, remediation, verification and closure.

- Diagnose the pressure and information around a risky decision.

- Set an observable behavior objective for each relevant audience.

- Design realistic decision practice and choose accessible channels.

- Measure completion, comprehension and behavior evidence separately.

- Write an assurance question that can change a decision.

- Define the population, sample logic and evidence needed for testing.

- Distinguish control design from operating effectiveness.

- Turn findings into owned actions, due dates and retest decisions.

- Begin each measure with a board oversight question.

- Define numerator, denominator, source, owner and limitation.

- Add a selected threshold, trend, interpretation and action zone.

- Present the decision or challenge required from the board.

- Recognize when a material scenario requires coordinated activation.

- Protect people, evidence, systems and future decision options.

- Keep facts, unknowns, assumptions and confidence visibly separate.

- Document disclosure advice, communication, remediation and tabletop gaps.

- Structure the first month around listening, evidence and diagnosis.

- Prioritize a limited portfolio for days 31 to 60.

- Deliver a complete operating loop during days 61 to 90.

- Establish weekly, monthly, quarterly and board review cadences.