The CFO & Controller's Reference Guide

Download the First 90 Days Preview

The opening chapter of the guide — the week-by-week playbook for the CFO who just walked through the door. What to look at first, who to talk to, what to fix before month-end close, and the discipline that decides whether the rest of the tenure runs smoothly. The honest version, not the seminar version.

14 pages · PDF. No email required.

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Who this guide is for

Written for the working CFO and the people they collaborate with. Each chapter has practitioner depth on the technical side and frank handling of the people-side topics other CFO books skip. The persona-routing table below tells you where to start.

You are…	Start with these chapters
First-time CFO in your first 90 days	Ch 3 The CFO's First 90 Days · Ch 7 Three-Statement Modeling at PE Depth · Ch 22 Debt Covenants & Lender Management · Ch 30 Treasury & Banking · Ch 33 Hiring & Comp
Sitting CFO at $5M-$50M company	Ch 11 Working Capital Management · Ch 14 Capital Allocation & CapEx Discipline · Ch 16 AI in the Finance Function · Ch 28 KPI Dashboards · Ch 35 Board Management
Sitting CFO at $50M-$500M company	Ch 7 Three-Statement Modeling · Ch 18 Audit Prep & SOX · Ch 23 PE Operating Partner Cadence · Ch 30 Treasury & Banking · Ch 36 The CFO-CEO Partnership
Fractional CFO building a practice	Ch 3 First 90 Days · Ch 28 KPI Dashboards (use as client deliverable template) · Apx N AI Tool Prompts · cfo-engagement.html (engagement profitability tool)
Controller targeting CFO	Read front-to-back. The technical chapters (1-15) are the controller's strong suit; the strategic chapters (28-38) are the gap.
PE operating partner evaluating CFOs	Ch 23 PE Operating Partner Cadence · Ch 27 Portco KPI Dashboards · Ch 33 Hiring & Comp (the rubric for what good looks like)
CEO hiring a CFO	Ch 33 Hiring & Comp · Ch 36 The CFO-CEO Partnership · Ch 3 First 90 Days (so you know what to expect)

38 chapters across 5 parts plus appendices including the AI Tool Prompts library (50+), comprehensive glossary, and index. Page counts approximate.

PART I · The First 90 Days & Foundations

1What CFOs Actually Dop1

2CFO Persona Routing & How to Read This Bookp7

3The CFO's First 90 Daysp13

4Building the Finance Function from Scratchp25

5Close Calendars & Reporting Cadencep35

6Books, Records & the Audit Trailp43

PART II · Technical Accounting & Modeling

7Three-Statement Modeling at PE Depthp51

8Revenue Recognition & ASC 606p65

9Lease Accounting & ASC 842p73

10Stock Comp & ASC 718p81

11Working Capital Managementp89

12Cash Flow Forecasting (13-Week + LRP)p99

13Tax Provision & Deferred Tax Mechanicsp107

PART III · Capital, Debt, Treasury

14Capital Allocation & CapEx Disciplinep115

15Tech Stack & ERP Selectionp125

16AI in the Finance Functionp135

17Cyber, Data Security & SOC 1/2p147

18Audit Prep, SOX, & External Auditor Managementp155

19Pricing Strategy & the CFO's Rolep165

20Customer Profitability & Cohort Economicsp173

21Sales Operations & the CFO-CRO Partnershipp181

22Debt Covenants & Lender Managementp189

PART IV · Operating & Performance

23PE Operating Partner Cadence (if PE-backed)p199

24Inventory Operations & the Inventory CFOp209

25Manufacturing CFO Specificsp221

26Services / Software CFO Specificsp229

27Multi-Entity / Multi-Currency Operationsp237

28KPI Dashboards & the Monthly Packp247

29FP&A Cadence & Forecast Disciplinep259

30Treasury & Bankingp267

31Insurance, Risk & Captive Programsp277

32Estate Tax, §1202 & Liquidity-Event Planning (for the founder you serve)p287

PART V · The People & the Career

33Hiring & Comp Structurep297

34Building & Managing the Finance Teamp307

35Board Management & the Audit Committeep315

36The CFO-CEO Partnershipp325

37Common Mistakes & the Recovery Playbookp333

38CFO Career Architecture (private, public, fractional, founder)p341

Appendices

ASample Monthly Reporting Packp349

BSample 13-Week Cash Flow Forecastp353

CSample Operating LRP (5-year)p357

DVendor Scorecard / Cyber Scorecard / AI Readiness Scorecardp361

NAI Tool Prompts Library (120+ practitioner-grade prompts)p369

GComprehensive Glossaryp381

IIndex of terms with page referencesp389

Preview the inside pages

14 sample pages from the actual guide — cover, table of contents, persona routing, sample chapter openers, AI prompt examples, and back matter. These are the actual pages that ship; not marketing renders.

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What's actually in the bundle

1. The reference guide (PDF)

38 chapters + appendices. Searchable, hyperlinked TOC and index. AI prompts inline at section boundaries in 15 chapters, plus a 50+ prompt library in Appendix N. Single-user license for one practitioner.

2. The companion Excel workbook (XLSX)

The actual templates a sitting CFO uses — three-statement model with formula-driven tie-outs, 13-week cash flow forecast, 5-year operating LRP, monthly reporting pack, KPI dashboard, vendor scorecard, cyber scorecard, AI readiness scorecard, CapEx justification template with NPV/IRR/payback. Branded, formatted in thousands, no $-signs in cells, right-justified numerics. Same workbook the partner uses, not a textbook example.

3. The AI Tool Prompts Library

120+ practitioner-grade prompts for Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. Each prompt is field-tested for finance use cases — board memo drafting, variance analysis writeup, lender covenant compliance memos, M&A working-capital normalization, year-end audit prep questions, ASC 606 revenue recognition fact patterns. Use them directly in your AI tool of choice.

Plus: Free live tools derived from this guide

Ten free interactive tools at tools.baratelliinstitute.com run the math from the guide on your scenario. No purchase required.

CapEx Justification Three-Statement Builder WACC Calculator CFO Engagement Profitability AI Readiness Assessment

Companion tools for Chapter 19 (Stock-Based Compensation)

Five companion calculators for Chapter 19 — the four standard ASC 718 / IFRS 2 valuation models plus Phil's SBC Reality Check framework (not offered by any other public web tool).

SBC Reality Check (Phil's framework) Black-Scholes-Merton Option Valuer Binomial / Lattice Option Valuer Monte Carlo Market-Condition (TSR) Valuer Intrinsic Value / RSU Valuer

Editorial provenance

This guide has gone through 8 simulated review committees and a compliance review. The committees included sitting CFOs at $20M-$500M companies (private and PE-backed), Big-4 audit partners specializing in middle-market, fractional-CFO practice owners, controllers targeting CFO, and a PE operating partner who evaluates portfolio-CFO talent. The compliance review covered IRS, SEC, FASB (ASC 606, 842, 718, 820), and state-revenue specialist perspectives, with a particular focus on accounting-policy disclosures and audit-trail standards.

Every issue flagged in review has been folded into the text. The guide is in final pre-launch polish.

About the author

Philip A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA — Founder, Baratelli Institute. Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

20+ years in operating finance and M&A. The guides in this library are the references he wished existed when he was doing the work.