Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance on flexible CFO advantages for AI in 2023

Quality advantages when hiring fractional Chief Financial Officer with Sam McQuade today: Make More Informed Business Decisions: Having a fractional CFO on your team can be incredibly helpful when making financial decisions. The amount of financial data companies require, and track can be overwhelming. Instead of getting lost in the numbers, you can focus on making data-backed decisions based on what your fractional CFO provides. They analyze current and historical data to provide transparency and definitive information. Financial projections come into play here, too. Find extra information at Sam McQuade.

Just like a full-time CFO, a fractional one provides such expertise and at the same time offers excellent flexibility and favorable cost advantages to serve the needs of smaller companies. A modern CFO’s responsibilities are varied and complex; thus, each company’s role requirements will vary depending on their situation. For some businesses, hiring a full-time CFO is beyond their needs and financial capabilities, despite the many apparent benefits gained from the leadership and strategic knowledge of a hire.

A fractional CFO helps determine how to get you from where you are to where you want to go. Growing a business requires strategic use of capital. For many fractional CFOs, one of their most important contributions will be providing a financial forecast that will act as a blueprint to achieve the growth in the most efficient, accelerated, and sustainable way possible. With a short-term (next 90 days), mid-term (rest of this year), and long-term (next 3-5 years) view of the business, a company can better anticipate its trajectory and cash position or requirements. It can make it easier to manage through the lean times, help determine when and how to secure loans or investments, anticipate future owner compensation, and help plan and prioritize future business decisions such as staffing, production, geographical expansion, etc.

Looking to hire your first CFO or need interim coverage? We offer solution CFOs for immediate very short term objectives and longer term engagements. Flexible with fair pricing so you solve the needs of your business and don’t have to rush into a potentially bad solution and costly full time hire. The Fractional CFO and Interim CFO experiences gained by the executives assigned to these positions throughout Panterra Finance offers them a broad perspective of the dynamic changes in international markets. The part time CFO executives at Panterra Finance have access to worldwide teams that are proficient in and have initiated innovative strategies in projects centered on DeFi, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto, Tokenization, ICO, IDO, and STO services.

CFOs usually are responsible for key finance functions which have included broad categories of accounting, treasury, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), controls, compliance, tax, and audit. Going forward towards 2022, the same functions exist, but they are getting more automated, so the CFO can focus more on forward perspectives. Storytelling requires strong emotional intelligence and solid communication skills. Here’s the four key areas the CFO can be messaging: Why & Purpose: Communicating the “Why” is one of the strongest messages the CFO can deliver. It’s not only the reason for the corporate existence, but it’s also very motivational for all the stakeholders. This message should be repeated frequently and consistently to make people feel the genuine purpose.

What’s driving that investment in expertise? Often, CEOs who are at a strategic crossroads and recognize the value of an expert financial adviser who can help them grow market share, and their businesses. In short, smart companies now view the CFO position — both internal and on a virtual or fractional CFO basis — as more of an investment than an expense. There’s no doubt that a global pandemic made the value of an experienced hand on the finance helm very evident. But our take is that there’s more to the rise of the CFO than an economic crisis. Let’s look at the role, responsibilities and skills finance chiefs need to serve their companies well.

Benefits of Having a CFO: CFOs guide the finance and accounting team and have a broad view of an organization’s financial health, allowing the CEO as well as peers including the CMO, COO and VPs of HR and sales to focus on their own goals and operational issues. While a CEO or COO may have a background in accounting or finance, they generally don’t possess the same level of technical acumen and experience that a chief financial officer brings to the table.

Now, suppose there is a problem with the website. Maybe the server goes down, or maybe there is a bug in the code. In such a case, the smart contract will still be functional, and the transactions will still take place. This is because the smart contract is running on the blockchain, which is a decentralized network. Even if one node in the network goes down, the other nodes will still be up and running, and the transactions will take place. This is just a very simple example to show you how a DAO works. In reality, DAOs can be much more complex, and they can do many more things. For instance, they can be used to create decentralized versions of traditional companies or organizations.

We are your ally in managing business risks. In a world that is rapidly changing, we help you identify what that change means for your business and what measures you need to employ to protect it from a range of risks in the new economy.

A lot of our clients at Panterra Finance ask us about DAOs, what they are, and how they work. So we thought it would be helpful to write a blog post explaining them. Before getting into DAO, a brief few things about blockchain. A blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that records transactions on many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the collusion of the network. Sounds complicated? Let’s take an example to understand this better. Suppose there are two people, A and B, who want to transact with each other. A wants to buy a product from B worth $100. In the old way of transacting, A would hand over the $100 to B, and B would hand over the product to A. This process is called ‘centralized’ because there is one central entity, in our case, a bank or PayPal, through which both parties have to go through to complete the transaction.

To summarize, a fractional CFO brings all the benefits of a full-time resource, but at a fraction the cost. They work an agreed upon amount of time, and on an ongoing basis. The benefits are myriad, and range from improved reporting and decision-making, clearer insight into the business for planning and forecasting, and stronger financial management and controls. Perhaps the biggest benefit however, is how the CEO can transfer the financial and administrative burden to the CFO, and thus free themselves to work on other critical aspects of the business.

Smaller companies, incubators and startups could not match the salaries that the full time CFO commanded on the world financial stage. The seeds for the concept of an Interim or Fractional CFO were planted in the mind of Sam McQuade almost 3 decades ago when he first entered the world of International Finance as an Entrepreneur Consultant in Geneva Switzerland after achieving his MBA/MA at European University. During this tumultuous time at the turn of the century on the international financial scene, Mr. McQuade was ahead of his time. He offered as needed financial consultation services for international behemoths the Swiss based Nestle Corporation and the US based medical device corporation Stryker. The focus of his services, which would years later be foundational in the concepts of Panterra was a new model in product development, manufacturing and marketing. Read more details on Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance.