The finance team’s first 100 days after a major funding round
A funding round changes the expectations on a finance team overnight. Investors want cleaner reporting. Leaders want faster answers. Departments want to hire and spend. The first 100 days set the tone for all of it.
Most finance teams feel the pressure to move quickly. The teams who handle this well do the opposite. They slow down long enough to build structure before the spend starts. You do not need to create a new system. You need to make sure the one you have will survive the next stage.
Here is what strong finance teams focus on in the first 100 days.
• New capital exposes weak systems faster than growth itself.
• Clarity and control matter more than speed in the first 100 days.
• Your reporting cadence needs an upgrade before your headcount does.
• Early discipline protects you from messy audits and avoidable rework.
Day 1 to 30: build clarity before spending begins
New capital invites new commitments. The first danger is letting spend move faster than the controls. The smartest finance leaders start by rebuilding clarity.
They define what approval rules look like at the new scale.
If the company is about to double headcount or expand into new markets, the approval matrix needs to adjust before the spend lands.
- Who approves hiring
- Who approves subscriptions
- Who approves marketing campaigns
- Rules need to be simple, visible and consistent
They clean the chart of accounts.
A messy chart becomes a serious problem once burn increases. The first month is the right time to retire old codes, group similar ones and set naming rules.
They check the reporting foundations.
If reporting struggled before the round, it will not improve on its own. Cash reports, burn forecasts, variance reports and spend summaries all need to be crisp. Investors expect accuracy and speed.
Many teams using ApprovalMax report fewer coding issues and fewer exceptions when controls are reset during this first stage. It is easier to fix structure before spend ramps up.
Day 31 to 60: create visibility across the business
Once the basics are in place, the work shifts to visibility. The business moves faster after funding. The finance team needs to stay ahead of it.
They upgrade the month end process.
You cannot run a funded business with a month end that drags into the next month. Leaders focus on:
- Clear handoffs
- Clean cut off
- Standard folders
- Better backup documentation
Quiet month ends are a competitive advantage. They free the team to focus on analysis instead of clean-up.
They formalise budget ownership.
Before the round, most departments spend ad hoc. After the round, that becomes risky. Each budget owner needs:
- A clear number
- A shared forecast
- Access to real time spend
- Accountability for variances
This step usually uncovers old commitments the business forgot about. Better visibility helps avoid burn surprises.
They standardise how spend enters the system.
If receipts, invoices and purchase requests come in through email, Slack or private chats, the process becomes unmanageable. This is where many finance teams adopt software such as ApprovalMax to route spend consistently and attach documents at the source.
Day 61 to 100: tighten controls and prepare for the next audit
By the third month, spending has usually increased. The team now shifts to long term resilience.
They automate predictable work.
Coding rules, approval routing, document attachment and two way matching. Anything repetitive should follow a rule, not a person. This protects the team from scaling the wrong way.
They build a clean audit trail.
Funding increases scrutiny. Auditors pay attention to:
- Approval consistency
- Segregation of duties
- Document completeness
- Coding accuracy
- Whether the process matches what the company claims
Fixing these late is painful. Building them now keeps the next audit calm.
They refresh the forecast.
The post funding forecast is usually the first real test. It needs to reflect hiring, spend plans, revenue assumptions and timing. Finance leaders tighten forecasting methods early so they do not rely on rough estimates later.
They reset expectations with the wider team.
A funded company feels fast. People assume money solves problems. Finance has to remind everyone that discipline protects the runway. Clarity wins over speed. Structure outperforms improvisation. Spending becomes easier as long as controls stay firm.
Why the first 100 days matter more than the rest of the year
Money increases volume, not discipline, so if the finance team does not create clarity in the first 100 days, the next year becomes a cycle of corrections, rework and late reporting.
Investors lose trust., leadership panics, spend drifts away from the plan and the month-end takes too long.
The first 100 days give finance the leverage to set expectations. A clean process now prevents hundreds of small problems later. The teams who succeed treat funding like a reset, not like fuel.
Good finance teams react. Great finance teams design.
Finance teams who thrive after a funding round do not wait for problems. They prepare for them. They design a system that can handle more people, more suppliers, more spend and more scrutiny without burning out.
They know growth does not break a finance team. Weak structure does.
The first 100 days are your chance to make sure your structure will hold.
