The Modern CFO’s Stack: What to Keep, Replace, or Automate in 2025

2025 isn’t just another budgeting cycle. It’s a make-or-break year for operational finance.

Mid-market companies are under pressure to do more with less: more complexity, more regulation, more cross-border operations—less bandwidth. And CFOs? They’ve graduated from being spreadsheet stewards to being strategic operators.

That evolution starts with the finance tech stack.

Here’s what modern finance leaders are keeping, replacing, and automating to stay ahead—without breaking the bank or their sanity.

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What to Keep (aka, Don’t Fix What’s Working)

Let’s be honest: not everything is broken. There are tools in your stack that still pull their weight.

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1. Your Core ERP (But Only If It’s Integrated)

If your ERP:

• Syncs in real-time with bank feeds
• Integrates with AP and expense tools
• Doesn’t require 4 days to close the books

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Then keep it. Modern ERP systems like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and even well-managed QuickBooks Enterprise setups can anchor your stack effectively—especially when paired with good middleware.

Bonus: If your ERP plays well with AP automation tools like Finofo, you’re already ahead.

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2. Your Reporting & Forecasting Tool

Whether you’re using Fathom, Power BI, or Google Sheets on steroids—if your team trusts the numbers, you’ve got a keeper.

Just make sure you’re not relying on someone’s desktop Excel file named - Forecast_FINAL_v8_UPDATED_use_this_one.xlsx

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What to Replace (Before It Costs You More Than It Saves)

Some tools age like milk. They once served a purpose, but now they just slow things down.

1. Email-Based Approvals

If invoices still need to be approved by someone forwarding an email with a vague “Approved 👍”… it’s time.

Email approvals are:

• Not trackable
• Not audit-friendly
• Easily missed

Switch to automated workflows that route approvals based on role, threshold, and department. Finofo’s approval flows do this seamlessly and efficiently.
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2. Disconnected Vendor Records

If your vendor master list lives in a spreadsheet that gets emailed around every quarter, pause and ask:

• How many duplicates are we paying?
• Are bank details being verified?
• Who owns this list?

Clean it up. Centralize it. And make it accessible across entities—with proper access control.
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3. Bank Portals for FX Payments

Logging into 3 different portals to send USD, EUR, and GBP wires? You’re leaking time and money.

Banks often charge 2–3% FX markup without blinking. In 2023 alone, Canadian SMBs lost over CAD 800 million to hidden FX fees. Smart CFOs are moving to fintech platforms with transparent rates and consolidated currency management.

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What to Automate (So You Can Finally Think Again)

2025 is the year you automate the boring stuff—so you can focus on the strategic stuff.

1. Accounts Payable (Especially Multi-Entity)

AP is still one of the most manual processes in mid-market finance.

If you’re managing multiple entities, currencies, and payment cycles, you need automation that:

• Consolidates payables across subsidiaries
• Applies approval thresholds intelligently
• Executes batched, multi-currency payments from one dashboard
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2. Cash Flow Forecasting

Manually updating cash forecasts weekly? It’s 2025. Automate inflow/outflow tracking and let your team build scenarios instead of chasing bank balances.

Tools like Finofo help bring forecasting closer to real-time reality.
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3. FX and Cross-Border Payments

You can now:

• Batch pay 50+ vendors in multiple currencies
• Convert FX at competitive, rule-based rates
• Avoid 2% markups that your bank forgot to tell you about

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TLDR; Your finance stack doesn’t need to be sexy. But it does need to work.

✅ It should show you what’s happening across entities
✅ It should help you spend less time on admin
✅ It should give you confidence in every number

If it doesn’t? Replace it. Automate it. Or integrate something better.

Because the smartest thing a CFO can do in 2025… is stop doing what they don’t need to.

Want to Modernize Without Overhauling?

Finofo helps mid-market CFOs:

• Automate AP approvals
• Batch pay in multiple currencies
• Consolidate finance ops across entities—without switching ERPs
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Book a demo and explore the modern finance stack without the heavy lifting.