Financial Operations Playbook for Series A Startups

# Financial Operations Playbook for Series A Startups

You just closed Series A. Congrats. Now the real work begins.

We've worked with hundreds of startups through this inflection point, and we see the same pattern repeatedly: founders who excelled at lean financial management in seed stage suddenly hit a wall. What worked with $500K in annual burn doesn't work with $2-5M. The spreadsheets break. The manual processes fail. Visibility into cash position becomes a guessing game.

**Series A financial operations** isn't about getting "more professional"—it's about building systems that scale with your company while giving you better visibility and control. This playbook covers exactly what you need to implement, when, and why it matters.

## The Series A Financial Operations Reality Check

Before diving into the playbook, let's acknowledge what's actually changing:

- **Your burn rate is now material.** $2-5M per year means $200-400K monthly. A single process failure costs real money.
- **Investors expect reporting.** Board meetings, quarterly reviews, and investor updates require reliable numbers—not best guesses.
- **You're managing more stakeholders.** Your finance function now serves the CEO, board, investors, and operations team simultaneously.
- **Complexity increases non-linearly.** Adding 10 employees isn't 10x more complex—it's often 50x more complex because of process interdependencies.
- **Your CFO hiring matters.** Whether you bring in a full-time hire, fractional CFO, or operations manager will shape your entire financial culture.

Most founders underestimate how quickly Series A growth destabilizes finance operations. We typically see companies discover gaps 4-6 months post-funding, when the initial momentum slows and questions start coming: *Where did our cash go? Why don't our numbers match the board deck? When do we run out of money?*

Don't be that founder.

## The Five Pillars of Series A Financial Operations

We organize series A financial operations around five interconnected systems:

### 1. Accounting Foundation

Your seed-stage accounting was probably "enough to file taxes and know rough burn rate." Series A requires something more rigorous.

**What needs to happen:**

- **Chart of accounts audit.** Your current chart is probably too vague. You need accounts that map to your business model: revenue by product line, payroll by department, infrastructure costs separate from COGS, customer acquisition costs tracked specifically.
- **Monthly close process.** This isn't bureaucratic—it's your monthly system check. Close the books within 7-10 days of month-end. If you can't, something is broken in your data flow.
- **Real-time transaction capture.** Expense cards, software subscriptions, and contractor payments need to flow into your accounting system automatically. Manual entry doesn't scale and creates audit risk.
- **Sales revenue recognition.** If you're selling annual contracts, you need proper revenue recognition. Monthly billings ≠ monthly revenue. Most founders bungle this, overstating cash position.
- **Dedicated accounting infrastructure.** This means QuickBooks Online or Netsuite (not spreadsheets), integrated with your banking, expense management, and payroll systems.

**Common Series A mistake:** Founders delay investing in accounting infrastructure because it feels like overhead. Then they make cash forecast errors, miss investor reporting deadlines, or get dinged in audits. Spend 2-3 weeks setting this up properly post-Series A. It's not wasted time—it's foundational.

### 2. Financial Forecasting That Actually Predicts

Your seed-stage model was probably useful for fundraising but not for management. Series A requires forecasts that actually drive decisions.

**What needs to happen:**

- **Move from annual to rolling 13-week cash forecasts.** Monthly forecasts are too coarse when your burn is $300K/month. Thirteen weeks gives you enough visibility to act on problems before they become crises.
- **Build bottom-up revenue forecasts.** Don't extrapolate growth rates. Model your sales pipeline: weighted by conversion probability, account by account, deal by deal. This is harder but infinitely more useful.
- **Link headcount to cash burn.** Your operating expense forecast should start with headcount plans, not line-item tweaking. This forces product/go-to-market teams to own the financial impact of hiring decisions.
- **Separate assumptions from calculations.** [The Assumption Trap: Why Your Startup Financial Model Fails](/blog/the-assumption-trap-why-your-startup-financial-model-fails/) walks through building models where assumptions are explicit and tested, not hidden in formulas.
- **Test scenarios, not just actuals.** What if CAC increases 20%? What if churn picks up? What if we don't hit the next hiring milestone? Build sensitivity analyses that let you stress-test your plan.

**Common mistake:** Founders spend weeks on the perfect 5-year model that nobody looks at again. Invest instead in weekly rolling forecasts tied to actual metrics. [The Dynamic Financial Model: Beyond Static Spreadsheets](/blog/the-dynamic-financial-model-beyond-static-spreadsheets/) covers how to build models that evolve with your business.

### 3. Cash Management & Runway Clarity

Series A companies fail on cash management more often than they fail on unit economics. You have $10M in the bank—until suddenly you don't.

**What needs to happen:**

- **Weekly cash position review.** Your CFO or finance ops lead should review actual cash balance, payables due, and expected receipts weekly. This takes 30 minutes and prevents surprises.
- **Payables management process.** You need a consistent rhythm for vendor payments. Extend payables strategically (not desperately), maintain vendor relationships, and avoid late fees that evaporate cash.
- **Revenue collection discipline.** If you have customers, the time from invoice to cash matters enormously. Implement invoice tracking, automate payment reminders, and measure Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) monthly.
- **Accurate runway calculation.** Most founders calculate runway wrong by either missing operating expenses or overestimating collections. [The Burn Rate Trap: Why Your Runway Calculation Is Probably Wrong](/blog/the-burn-rate-trap-why-your-runway-calculation-is-probably-wrong/) covers the specific mechanics.
- **Working capital strategy.** As you grow, working capital requirements change. Longer customer payment terms or inventory needs can consume cash quickly. [The Hidden Cash Flow Killer: Working Capital Mistakes Costing You Months of Runway](/blog/the-hidden-cash-flow-killer-working-capital-mistakes-costing-you-months-of-runway/) walks through the specific traps.

**Common mistake:** Founders treat cash management as a finance problem instead of an operations problem. It should be CEO business review #1, not #5. If you can't answer "How many months of runway do we have?" in 30 seconds with precision, something is broken.

### 4. Real-Time Metric Dashboards

Your CEO dashboard should be alive, not buried in a monthly report.

**What needs to happen:**

- **Build real-time financial dashboards.** Revenue recognized (not invoiced), cash balance, monthly burn vs. plan, headcount vs. budget. These should update daily or weekly, not monthly.
- **Operationalize unit economics.** For SaaS companies, this means tracking CAC, LTV, churn, and payback period weekly by cohort. [SaaS Unit Economics: The CAC/LTV Trap Most Founders Miss](/blog/saas-unit-economics-the-cacltv-trap-most-founders-miss/) covers why naive calculations mislead you.
- **Create departmental KPI clarity.** Marketing owns CAC, Sales owns pipeline and conversion, Product owns retention. Each should see their own metrics weekly.
- **Board reporting infrastructure.** Build templates for board updates that pull from actual data, not manual assembly each quarter. This saves 4-6 hours per board meeting and eliminates "let me check our spreadsheet" moments.

[CEO Financial Metrics: The Real-Time Dashboard Framework](/blog/ceo-financial-metrics-the-real-time-dashboard-framework/) walks through specific metrics worth tracking and why they matter.

### 5. Finance Team & Talent Structure

Series A is when finance becomes its own function instead of "the founder wearing the finance hat."

**What needs to happen:**

- **Decide: full-time hire, fractional CFO, or operations manager.** This isn't about job titles—it's about what your company needs. A $10M revenue SaaS company and a $10M burn-rate Series A Series B are different problems. [The Fractional CFO Decision Matrix: How to Know If You're Ready](/blog/the-fractional-cfo-decision-matrix-how-to-know-if-youre-ready/) walks through this decision framework.
- **If hiring FP&A talent, prioritize execution over pedigree.** You need someone who can build systems and processes, not someone with McKinsey experience building 100-slide decks.
- **Define the financial operating model.** Who closes the books? Who builds the forecast? Who manages investor relations? Who approves expenses? Ambiguity here creates chaos.
- **Create regular financial rhythm.** Monthly close, weekly cash review, weekly metric review, monthly board prep, quarterly forecast update. This rhythm becomes your management system.

**Common mistake:** Founders hire a CFO too late (after cash problems appear) or too early (before they know what problems need solving). The real metric is: "Can the founder confidently answer every financial question a board investor asks within 5 minutes without research?" If not, you need finance infrastructure.

## The Implementation Timeline

Don't try to do all five pillars simultaneously. Here's what actually works:

**Month 1 (Days 1-30 post-close):**
- Audit current accounting setup
- Install accounting software if missing
- Build monthly close checklist
- Define chart of accounts

**Month 2-3:**
- Build 13-week rolling forecast
- Implement weekly cash review process
- Create metric dashboard (even if manual initially)
- Hire or contract finance help

**Month 4-6:**
- Automate metric calculations
- Build board reporting templates
- Implement departmental KPI tracking
- Refine revenue recognition process

**Ongoing:**
- Weekly review cadence
- Monthly close within 7 days
- Monthly forecast update
- Quarterly deep-dive analysis

## Common Gaps We See in Series A Finance Ops

We audit financials for Series A companies regularly. The most common gaps:

1. **No consistent revenue recognition process.** Companies book revenue when invoiced, not when earned, making ARR/MRR numbers unreliable.
2. **Forecast inputs disconnected from sales pipeline.** Revenue forecasts come from extrapolating trends instead of bottom-up modeling of actual deal flow.
3. **CAC calculation doesn't match reality.** [The CAC Payback Period Mistake: Why Your Unit Economics Are Lying](/blog/the-cac-payback-period-mistake-why-your-unit-economics-are-lying/) walks through the specific misconceptions, but fundamentally, most companies misattribute expenses to CAC.
4. **No working capital management.** DSO, DPO, and inventory turnover go unmanaged, creating cash surprises.
5. **Finance and operations teams in separate worlds.** Finance forecasts what will happen; operations does something different; nobody reconciles.
6. **Founder still owns all financial decisions.** At Series A scale, the CEO should make strategic financial decisions, not operational ones (like approving every $500 expense).

## The Specific Technology Stack We Recommend

You don't need expensive enterprise software. You need connected tools that eliminate manual entry:

- **Accounting:** QuickBooks Online or Netsuite (if $25M+ ARR)
- **Banking & Expenses:** Mercury or Brex (integrated with accounting)
- **Payroll:** Guidepoint or Rippling (integrated with accounting)
- **FP&A Dashboard:** Lattice, Mosaic, or even Tableau (pulling from accounting software)
- **Sales Pipeline:** Your CRM with pipeline discipline (not a separate system)
- **Unit Economics Tracking:** Customer.io or Amplitude for product metrics; your CRM for sales metrics

The key is integration. If you're manually transcribing data from one system to another, something is wrong with your stack.

## What Series A Financial Operations Enables

When you get this right, several things become possible:

- **Confident fundraising for Series B.** Your data is real and auditable. Investors trust it.
- **Better operating decisions.** You know which product lines are profitable, which customer segments have the best unit economics, where capital is being wasted.
- **Faster board meetings.** Board prep becomes 30 minutes, not 6 hours.
- **Reduced audit risk.** Clean records, clear processes, and documented assumptions.
- **Team alignment.** When everyone sees the same financial reality, arguments are about strategy, not facts.

## Starting Your Series A Financial Operations Build

If you've just closed Series A and your finance operations still look like your seed stage, you're not behind—but you need to move quickly.

Start with a financial audit. Bring in experienced eyes (whether internal hire, fractional CFO, or external firm) to map what's working and what's broken. This usually takes 20-40 hours and costs $3-8K, and it will identify exactly which of the five pillars above needs attention first.

**At Inflection CFO, we offer a [Key Financial Metrics Every CEO Should Track](/blog/key-financial-metrics-every-ceo-should-track/)** that maps your current state, identifies the 3-5 highest-priority gaps, and gives you a roadmap for the next 90 days. It's not a sales call—it's a working session that often clarifies what your company actually needs.

If you're building series A financial operations right now, we'd be happy to help. [The Financial Model Mistake Costing You Investor Meetings](/blog/the-financial-model-mistake-costing-you-investor-meetings/).