What is the Office of the CFO?

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The Office of the CFO refers to the full breadth of the finance function under a chief financial officer's leadership — not just the CFO themselves, but the teams, processes, and systems responsible for financial reporting, planning, treasury, tax, compliance, and finance operations across the organisation.

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It encompasses everything from month-end close and accounts payable, through to board reporting, capital allocation, and investor relations.

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What it includes

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The Office of the CFO typically covers: accounting and financial reporting (the record-to-report function), order-to-cash and procure-to-pay operations, financial planning and analysis, treasury and cash management, tax compliance, internal controls and audit, and management reporting. In large enterprises, these functions may be distributed across a head office finance team, regional finance teams, shared services centres, and Global Capability Centres.

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How it's changing

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The role of the CFO — and by extension the function they lead — has expanded significantly over the past decade. CFOs are now expected to be business partners and strategic advisors, not just financial scorekeepers. But this expanded mandate has landed on a function that is still carrying a heavy manual workload: reconciliations, close cycles, data cleaning, and report assembly.

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Finance automation is the mechanism by which the Office of the CFO is getting that workload off its plate. Automating the routine allows finance leaders and their teams to focus on the analysis, judgment, and strategic input that the business actually needs from them.

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Related: Finance Operations · FP&A · Autonomous Finance · Management Reporting