PelicanCFO finance research

Before we start

Which of these best describes your role?

Owner or managing director

Finance director, financial controller or senior finance lead

Other senior manager

Accountant or adviser to businesses

Other

Where finance gets difficult

There are no right answers. Answers describing arrangements that already work well are as useful as answers describing problems.

How much time do you personally spend each week on finance-related tasks: invoicing, chasing payments, reviewing figures, dealing with the accountant?

Under 2 hours

2 to 5 hours

5 to 10 hours

Over 10 hours

None - someone else handles all of it

If you could fix one thing about how finance works in the business, what would it be?

Optional.

How the business actually operates

These questions are about what actually happens, not what good practice looks like.

When you need to know the current cash position, what do you actually do?

Check the bank app or online banking directly

Log into the accounting software

Ask the bookkeeper or accountant

Look at a spreadsheet we maintain

Look at a cash forecast we keep updated

Rely on a rough figure we carry in our heads

We do not really check between month-ends

How confident are you that you know whether the business is genuinely profitable right now, not just whether there is money in the bank?

1 - Not at all confident

2

3

4

5 - Completely confident

Not sure

At what point do finance problems usually become visible?

Immediately - we have good real-time visibility

Within a few days

At month-end, when reporting comes through

Only when cash starts getting tight

Usually after they have already affected operations

Not sure

How often do you sit down and review the financial position of the business?

Daily or near daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Less often than quarterly

When something prompts it

Decisions and the information behind them

In the last 12 months, has uncertainty about the financial picture affected a significant business decision?

Select all that apply. If you choose "No" or "Not sure / cannot recall", it will replace any other selections.

Yes - we delayed a decision

Yes - we went ahead without all the information we wanted

Yes - we changed or scaled back a decision

No

Not sure / cannot recall

What was the decision about?

Optional.

A major hire

Investment or equipment

Pricing

Premises or expansion

Funding

An acquisition

A sale or exit

Something else

How far ahead do you normally have a usable view of cash?

No meaningful forward view

Current month only

Around 1 to 3 months

Around 3 to 6 months

Around 6 to 12 months

More than 12 months

It varies too much to say

Not sure

How soon after month-end do you normally have financial information you can actually use?

Within 5 working days

6 to 10 working days

11 to 20 working days

More than 20 working days

Quarterly or less often

It varies

Don't know

What else have you tried?

Optional.

And what currently works well? What would you not want to change?

Optional.

Automation and where judgement belongs

We are also exploring where practical automation could remove repetitive finance work or surface useful information earlier. This could include things such as collections follow-up, reconciliations, exception alerts, management information or plain-English summaries, working with the systems a business already uses. We are interested both in where this could help and where human judgement should remain involved.

For your business, where would you want the balance between automation and human involvement to sit?

Optional. One answer per row.

Finance task	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Routine transaction processing and reconciliations	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Credit control and collections follow-up	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Cash-flow and exception alerts	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Management reporting and summaries	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Forecast updates and scenario modelling	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Identifying unusual results or potential risks	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure
Recommending actions or decisions	Comfortable automating without routine human review	Automate, but with human review	Keep human-led	Not sure

How confident are you that the financial data and processes in the business are consistent enough for more automation to work reliably?

Very confident

Fairly confident

Not very confident

Not at all confident

Don't know

About the business

Roughly what is the business's annual revenue?

Under £500k

£500k to £1m

£1m to £2m

£2m to £5m

£5m to £10m

£10m to £20m

Over £20m

Prefer not to say

How many people does the business employ, including yourself?

Just me

2 to 9

10 to 49

50 to 249

250 or more

Is the business primarily based in the UK?

Yes

No

Who does most of the day-to-day finance work: the bookkeeping, invoicing, reconciliations and routine reporting?

Mainly me or another director

An employed bookkeeper or finance assistant

An employed finance team led by a finance director or financial controller

An external bookkeeper

Our accountancy firm - the same firm that does our year-end accounts

A separate outsourced finance provider, not our year-end accountants

It is split between people with no clear owner

Other

Finance support

The final few questions are about possible types of finance support. They help us understand what businesses would actually consider using.

How useful would an independent senior review of your finance function be to the business today?

Optional.

Very useful

Fairly useful

Slightly useful

Not useful at the moment

Not sure

PelicanCFO currently offers a fixed-fee Finance Health Check for £2,500. Which is closest to your reaction?

Optional.

I would seriously consider it now

I could see myself considering it when a particular need arises

The idea is useful, but £2,500 feels too high

I do not currently see enough value in it for our business

I do not currently see a need for this kind of review

Not sure

If you needed senior finance input, which arrangement would be most useful?

Optional.

A one-off review

Help around a specific decision or project

Regular fractional CFO input

Support alongside our existing finance team or accountant

Not something we would currently use

Not sure

Contact and permissions

No name or contact details are required.

First name

Optional.

Last name

Optional.

Business name

Optional.

Email address

Optional.

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