Hi ,
I first launched The Finance Fix as a way to connect directly with finance professionals who weren't just thinking ahead, but leading the way.
I shared my perspective as a former finance leader, and what started as a personal note has grown into something more: a shared space for ideas, insights, and lessons from across the Cube community. The future of finance isn't built in isolation—it's built together.
Now, it's time for The Finance Fix to evolve.
Starting with this issue, you'll hear more from our broader team at Cube, as well as from special guests across the industry. Together, we'll continue to share actionable ideas and resources so you can spend less time wrangling data, and more time driving strategy. Our goal is to help you feel confident as you take on what's next.
Here's to a new chapter of The Finance Fix and growing as strategic finance leaders, together.
Happy planning,
Christina Ross | Cube CEO & Founding Editor of The Finance Fix |
🗻 Learn how to climb the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs.
👤 Which CFO persona are you? Deloitte breaks down four archetypes.
🧭 Explore tactics for staying competitive in volatile times with strategic finance.
💬 Share your biggest time-sucks in our community Q&A. |
Evolving beyond the spreadsheet
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At Cube, we understand that the modern finance team doesn't just report what happened; they help shape what comes next.
But the reality is, they're held back by the burden of bad data. |
Breaking the cycle of data chaos |
Few understand this challenge better than Christina Ross, our Founder & CEO, who observed that finance teams dedicate the majority of their time to just getting the data ready for analysis, leaving limited time for insights and partnering with the business.
Finance teams still spend nearly 50% of their time gathering data instead of making decisions (McKinsey, 2024).
"Most finance professionals are capable of doing so much more," she says. "But they don't have the time to do it, because they're spending all their time trying to get the data to make sense."
Jim Bullis, Cube's Head of Solutions Consulting, agrees—emphasizing that while the desire to be strategic is there, the ability to act is often limited by bandwidth.
"It's a problem of capacity more so than capability," he says. "You have the capability, it's just that you're weighed down by manual work."
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A layer-by-layer approach to strategic finance
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How can finance teams evolve from data wranglers to strategic partners?
Enter the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs.
At its foundation is the data—an organization's bread and butter—followed by reporting and analysis, planning and modeling, and finally, strategy.
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This framework serves two key functions:
- A diagnostic tool to help pinpoint where your organization is today.
- A roadmap for what comes next, layer by layer.
Data is the bedrock of strategic finance. Errors can lead to incorrect assumptions, misleading forecasts, and a lack of trust in a team's insights. To build a strong, accurate foundation, start with a thorough data audit to answer fundamental questions like:
- Is our data correctly structured?
- Is our data clean and correct?
- Is our data mapped and tied out?
"Getting the data right—and getting it into your team's hands quickly and easily—is crucial," says Bullis. "Without that foundation, you can't confidently move on to the next layers in the framework. And you can't influence strategy if no one trusts the numbers."
Once the data is solid, the next steps in the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs are to:
- Report with context: Transform your data into the right information, for the right people, at the right time—translating relevant insights for each of your business partners.
- Plan for different outcomes at scale: Move beyond slow, siloed planning. When your systems and teams are connected, you can pivot faster, update forecasts in real time, and collaborate more effectively. Modern finance means spending less time building plans and more time helping their teams act on them.
- Grow a strategic finance function: With data, analytics, and modeling in top shape, take on the higher-order tasks your team is capable of. Leverage your understanding of the business to share insights that drive decisions across the organization.
Want a stage-by-stage guide to our framework? Stay tuned for our upcoming playbook on how to achieve this balance. |
Resources & recommendations
Five stories for finance pros worth bookmarking… |
1. New research shows CFOs are increasingly focused on strategic planning, with 55% citing long-term planning as a top priority—up from 30% in previous surveys. (McKinsey)
2. The 2025 FP&A landscape is being shaped by five key trends: AI-driven forecasting, integrated corporate planning, self-service tools, improved data integration, and value driver-based approaches that enable more strategic decision-making. (Apliqo)
3. CFOs must evolve beyond number-crunching, harnessing real-time data and new technologies to future-proof their organizations. Here's how. (Cherry Bekaert)
4. Deloitte identifies four CFO personas—Responder, Challenger, Architect, and Transformer—for becoming a more effective strategic partner. (Deloitte)
5. This all-in-one financial planning calendar template helps finance teams avoid common pitfalls through strategic organization of milestones, feedback loops, and cross-departmental collaboration. (Cube) |
AI promises to transform the role of finance—but only when it's built for context, accuracy, and control.
That's exactly how we're building products at Cube. Our AI features are purpose-built for the demands of FP&A and aligned with how modern finance teams operate.
Join us on Wednesday, April 30 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT for a fireside chat with Suresh Bala, Cube's Chief Product & Technology Officer.
In this 30-minute session, you will:
- Learn about the state of AI
- See how Cube is approaching AI (including an inside look at Smart Variance and some of Cube's other AI features)
- Get a sneak peek at Cube's new conversational AI capabilities
- Receive information on how to join the conversational AI beta program
Save your seat now.
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Fill in the b l a n k
Reply with your answer—we'll share our favorite response in our next newsletter.
The time-sucking task I get stuck on the most is ______.
Christina's answer: Making the underlying data make sense. |
Thanks for joining us for the first edition of our revamped newsletter. We look forward to bringing you insights from our roster of experts in future issues!
Loved this newsletter? Feel like something's missing? Send us any and all feedback on our new format.
Ready for your team to climb the Strategic Finance Hierarchy of Needs? We can help.
Book a free consultation to diagnose where your team is now and how to plan for tomorrow. |
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