Top 15 Best Software Tools for CFOs

The modern-day business landscape requires chief financial officers (CFOs) to go beyond core finance functions and become guardians of a business’s digital transformation. To do so, they need to leverage different SaaS tools, including those that use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain. 

These tools for CFOs help improve efficiency, drive team value, and enable a better finance strategy. The ultimate goal is not only to manage finances but also to maximize business performance with sustainable growth. 

CFOs can master this juggling act by utilizing the best tools for finance teams. While getting the most out of these tools is crucial for staying ahead, finding the right one isn’t easy. That’s why we’ve created this guide to help you discover more about the best tools for CFOs and how to choose one that fits your organizational needs. 

What are software tools for CFOs?

Software tools for CFOs refer to the finance tool stack that CFOs use to streamline and manage different business functions. Here’s a quick overview of the activities these tools help with and how:

• Payment processing: handles customer payments via payment gateways
• Enterprise resource planning: offers visibility into core business processes
• Spend management: streamlines employee-initiated expense reimbursements
• Human resources: manages and automates tasks related to human resources
• Payroll management: manages compensations and financial records of employees
• Accounting: automates accounting-related tasks for data accuracy and better insights

What are the benefits of using tools for CFOs?

Choosing the right set of tools for finance teams is crucial for tracking business-critical financial planning activities, staying compliant with ever-changing regulations, and creating a single source of truth (SSOT) for finance stakeholders. 

Here are some of the benefits that you can experience with tools for CFOs:

Streamlined processes

Fragmented financial operations not only hinder efficiency but also compromise the integrity of cash management processes. Finance tools can help you to collaborate with different departments and streamline processes for better visibility. 

Improved compliance

Staying compliant with national and international accounting standards is the first and foremost priority for businesses with global operations. CFOs can easily leverage finance tools to adhere to these rules without missing any critical updates.

Financial transparency

Financial transparency is essential for gauging the financial health of your organization. With the right tools, CFOs and business leadership teams can have an accurate understanding of financial reporting, including cash flow and financial forecasts via custom dashboards. 

Better planning and productivity 

The best finance tools also help you automate routine tasks, leading to reduced chances of errors and fewer manual processes. This adds to your team’s productivity, data-driven decision-making capabilities, and helps you assess business situations better.

How to choose the best tools for finance teams?

Every organization looking to drive productivity and business growth can benefit from harnessing digital technology, but finding the right one requires comparison and consideration. Here are a few guidelines to help CFOs pick the best finance tech stack for their teams.

Automation 

Finance teams are in charge of manual tasks of all sorts, starting from data entry to data analysis to executing key finance processes like bank reconciliation. 

Intelligent automation allows your team to take part in more value-added tasks and make strategic decisions. Many cloud-based tools today come with automation capabilities that allow you to seamlessly drive business performance.

Data Security 

Businesses of all sizes deal with sensitive financial information every day. Having a financial management tool that keeps your data safe while offering granular access controls to users is key to success.

Scalability 

You don’t want to choose a finance tech stack that needs to be changed as your business expands. Finance tools that can evolve with the growth of your business are undoubtedly the best choice. Discuss this with your chosen tool’s team beforehand to ensure it’s something that can grow with you.

Budget 

Budget is perhaps the biggest concern for small and medium businesses trying to adopt financial systems. If you already have a few tools in place, look for finance software tools that can be integrated with those. Smaller operations may continue to use excel sheets or Google sheets until they feel the real need for a finance tool. 

Look out for these four factors when choosing your next software tools, and remember to consider your business needs going forward.

15 best software tools for CFOs

When it comes to choosing the best software tools for CFOs, you have multiple options to choose from. These tools come with different features, pricing options, and integrations. Depending on your needs, you should evaluate the pros and cons of each tool before choosing one. 

Here’s a list of the top 15 software tools that are absolutely necessary for modern CFOs.

Accounting tools

If your accounting team is still hooked to spreadsheets, perhaps it’s time to move to cloud-based accounting solutions for better visibility and leveraging automation. 

Here are some of the best accounting tools with key functionalities:

1. Freshbooks

Freshbooks is one of the topmost accounting software for businesses of all sizes. It comes with robust features like invoices, expenses, time tracking, reporting, accounting, and more. It also allows integrations with 100+ apps for seamless business accounting. 

Pricing starts at $6 per month and goes up to $20 per month.

2. Wave Accounting

Wave Accounting is another accounting tool that’s really popular with small businesses. It helps you to boost bookkeeping efficiency and streamline bank reconciliation with features such as invoicing, billing, payment tracking, finance management, and more.

Wave’s accounting software is available free of cost with no set-up fees or hidden charges. 

3. Zoho Books

Zoho Books is an online accounting software that offers end-to-end accounting solutions. Some of the core modules of the software are accounts receivables, payables, inventory, banking, time tracking, and 1099 reports. It also allows integrations with 40+ apps and makes it easier for you to stay tax compliant. 

It is free for businesses with a revenue of less than $50,000. The standard plan comes at $15 per month.

Spend management tools

Spend management or expense management tools play a crucial role in helping businesses process, pay, and audit employees’ expenses and reimbursements. 

With these tools, you can eliminate paper trail, enable cloud accounting, and streamline how employees utilize business financial resources. Here are some of the top spend management tools for CFOs to choose from:

4. Spendesk

Spendesk provides real-time insights by combining credit cards, expense reimbursements, invoice management and automated accounting in one, easy-to-use platform. It’ll also offer automated accounting tasks and rules to map expenses automatically—one less thing for you to focus on.

Plans are available on their website, but you’ll need to get in touch for information on pricing.

5. Rydoo

Rydoo is another popular expense claim management tool that helps you to handle employee expenses in real-time. It allows you to set spending limits, identify bottlenecks with insights, and leverage built-in local compliance. 

The Starter and the Growth plan are available at $7 and $9 per active user per month.

6. TravelPerk

TravelPerk is an all-in-one business travel management tool that--alongside its main purpose of facilitating corporate travel--can provide cost control solutions to help your business travel expense management.

It provides a centralized invoice collection feature for business travel expenses to enable you to keep everything in order, and allows integrations with other expense management tools for total coverage. Alongside this, the platform also provides:

• VAT reclaim
• The biggest worldwide travel inventory
• Exclusive discounted prices from partners

There are three pricing models—Free (€0/trip), Premium (€15/ trip), and Pro (€25/ trip).

Payment processing tools

Unless you run a cash-only business, you’ll be needing payment gateways to process payments received from customers. These tools are essential for delivering frictionless customer experience, generating month-end closing statements, and realizing profitability.

Here are some of the best payment processing tools that help you to get the job done seamlessly:

7. Stripe

Stripe’s payment processing infrastructure is ideal for businesses of all sizes. Besides having easy-to-use APIs, Stripe comes with different functionalities that allow you to send invoices, manage spend, beat fraudulent activities, and receive payments in multiple currencies. 

Stripe’s pay-per-go model costs you 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge.

8. PayPal

PayPal allows you to receive customer payments anyway and anywhere. Whether you are looking for a checkout solution, payment solution for a recurring payment, or buy now pay later solution—PayPal’s got you covered. 

PayPal has different rates for commercial transactions, so make sure to check out the details.

Human resources tools

Choosing the right human resources tools or human management software helps you to remove bottlenecks in the HR workflow and improve employee experience as well. 

Here are a few human resource tools that should be part of every CFO’s tech stack:

9. Workday

Workday is a popular human capital management tool that comes with advanced analytics, self-service tools, time tracking capability, payroll & benefits administration, and more. Workday also comes loaded with intelligent automation that reduces manual processes throughout the attract-to-pay process.

Workday doesn’t declare comprehensive pricing on the website, pricing starts at $100/month per user.

10. Breezy HR

Breezy HR is an end-to-end recruiting software that enables your team to optimize the hiring process. It comes with features like candidate sourcing, career portal, candidate management, job advertisement, reporting, and much more. 

It comes with different pricing options like bootstrap (free), startup ($143/month), growth ($249/month), and business ($399/month).

Enterprise resource planning tools

Enterprise resource planning software or ERP tools are crucial for optimizing routine business processes and having a bird’s eye view of the entire business operations. Here are some of the most efficient ERP tools for CFOs to choose from:

11. Acumatica

Acumatica is a cloud-based ERP solution that makes cross-team workflows seamless with a single data model and integrations. Its automated solutions allow you to run the entire business without hassle. It’s an especially popular ERP platform  with industries like manufacturing, retail, distribution, and ecommerce.

Acumatica comes with a pay-only-for-what-you-use model, meaning you pay for computing resources instead of each user you add.

12. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most popular ERP systems that allows businesses to deliver operational excellence by integrating multiple business applications. It comes with pre-built applications, AI-driven insights, advanced analytics, integrated cloud, and much more.

Dynamics 365 pricing varies, depending on the area of business you want to address. 

13. Odoo

Odoo is an open-source ERP that makes it easier for you to streamline operations by integrating services. Easy integration of different business areas—such as inventory, sales, marketing, and finance—paves the way for you to have a 360-degree view of business operations.

Odoo pricing varies based on the number of apps and users, so take a look at what solution could be right for you. 

Payroll management tools

Payroll software or management tools ensure that employees are paid on time and accurately. These tools also help you to calculate taxes and therefore comply with federal tax regulations. 

14. Paychex

Paychex is a leading payroll management software that comes with an user-friendly interface and allows you to process payroll on the go. Other capabilities include advanced analytics, streamlined general ledger service, tax deposit notices, payroll journals, and so on.

Pricing is not available online, but you can request a free quote on the Paychex website.

15. Patriot

Patriot is known for facilitating quick and accurate payroll management in three simple steps under three minutes. You can simply enter hours, approve payroll, print checks, and the tool will manage the entire process on your behalf. 

The basic payroll starts at $10 per month and the advanced payroll at $30 per month.

Wrapping up

With so many finance management tools available, CFOs often struggle with choosing the right ones. The key to finding the right fit lies in understanding the tech stack that will help you automate time-consuming processes, manage high-volume tasks, eliminate manual errors, and offer total visibility into financial health. 

Focusing on checking these boxes will ensure you get the most out of your chosen software, both currently and moving forward.