For years, CFOs were regarded as the guardians of the spreadsheet, serving as stewards of budgets, balance sheets, and board decks. But in SaaS, that definition is seriously outdated.

The companies that will win aren’t led by CFOs who only report on revenue. They’re led by CFOs who help to design it.

When Ben Murray (aka The SaaS CFO) and Nue CFO Brian Keare sat down on The Lift, one point was clear: too many finance teams are stuck debating fundamentals.

“A question comes up a lot is just, what is ARR today? What should I put in there? How should I calculate it? Traditional SaaS metrics are all over the place but ARR and tech have been some of those hot topics lately," Ben said. 

If CFOs in 2025 are still arguing over definitions, it’s not a technical issue. It’s a systems issue. The lack of clarity stems from outdated processes and legacy systems that can’t keep pace with today’s rapid pace of change.

In a market where sales motions shift monthly (PLG, SLG, hybrid), that lack of clarity is more than inefficient. It’s a growth risk.

Ben’s surveys show that finance leaders know people-power alone won’t suffice anymore. Yet many are asking: With AI on the horizon, should we wait to modernize?

The answer: you can’t. 

Companies that hesitate will find themselves locked into inflexible processes, while competitors build scalable systems that transform finance into a growth engine.

Modern CFOs are the architects who decide which flows, rules, and pricing models define how revenue is generated. That’s why the CFO is becoming a system designer.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• From number-cruncher to system builder: Instead of cleaning ARR reporting, CFOs design revenue infrastructure that makes those definitions obvious.
  
  
• From budget approver to growth architect: Instead of rubber-stamping RevOps spend, CFOs shape the tech stack that unifies sales-led and product-led motions.
  
  
• From finance silo to strategic partner: Instead of reporting on churn, for example, CFOs embed retention metrics into cross-functional systems that drive decisions in real time.
  

The job is no longer to interpret the numbers. It’s to ensure the system produces numbers that everyone trusts and can act on.

If there’s a key takeaway from Ben and Brian’s conversation, it’s that clarity is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a key growth multiplier.

Companies that can’t trust their own revenue data move more slowly, take fewer risks, and lose out on opportunities. Companies with a clear vision move fast, make bold bets, and win.

Hear the full conversation on The Lift, where we explore how modern CFOs are redefining revenue systems.