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TLDR
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Our team has 3 core pillars that help the company achieve their mission of building a high performance and happy team. Compliance and Control
Efficiency and Effectiveness
Insight
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What
Mission
To support Simply Wall St in achieving its strategy by being financially sustainable and responsible.
Why
Opportunity
A well-run Finance machine is critical in building a long-term, reliable business that produces outsized returns for SWS shareholders and employees.
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Is there enough cash runway to execute company, product, growth, operations strategies?Â
Are we helping the business make the right capital allocation decisions (hiring, tools, areas of focus (bets), market/ segment entry)?
Are we compliant with all financial and tax authorities?
Are we enabling SWS teams’ ability to execute their strategies and perform their day to day roles?
Are we driving a culture of commercial awareness and financial management discipline across the SWS teams?Â
Are we supporting the leadership team and board of directors with their reporting and legal obligations to employees, shareholders and government regulators?
How
Principles
Stewards of financial data
We take ownership, understanding and accountability for the numbers we present and are proud to stand by them.
Build processes and systems for scale
We design and build right-fit processes that can be easily and organically understood by anyone without unnecessarily exposing the company to any risks. We always look to automate to facilitate effortless scaling of operations.
Timeliness and Accuracy
The more timely and accurate we are with presenting the financial data, the stronger the foundation for good decision making is.
Free other teams to do their best work
We work tirelessly to earn our teams trust. Our employees are our biggest financial investment, so we ensure they are supported, happy and productive.
Business partner
Assumptions should not be made in a vacuum. We partner with the teams to ensure that we understand business drivers underpinning the strategy and resultant impacts on financial performance.
Transparency
We enable our employees, and shareholders to see how we operate in an honest way. We do this by providing information about SWS’s activities and performance that is accurate, timely and complete (except for sensitive and private data).
Strategic Pillars
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Pillar
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Description
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Ownership
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Compliance and Control
Ensuring SWS financial health, well-being and governance is maintained, measured and reported.
The team is responsible for accurately measuring and communicating SWS's financial transactions for external and internal purposes in line with international and local accounting standards.
The team ensures SWS’s operations are compliant with local and international laws and proactively manages any potential financial, legal and regulatory risks thereby enabling the business and teams to thrive.
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Financial Accounting
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Efficiency and Effectiveness
Streamlining cost-effective finance processes to enable the business to deliver on its strategic goals.
The team is responsible for executing all financial operational procedures, by establishing systems and processes which support all employees and teams whose goals are to continuously improve the core delivery of value to customers.
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Financial Operations
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Insight
Amplifying decision value to the business, and its stakeholders, in order to optimise revenue and investment outcomes.
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Additionally, the team is responsible for the flow of company and financial information between SWS and our investors, and other stakeholders.
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Management Accounting/ Investor Relations
Areas
The accountabilities of the Finance function are illustrated below.
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Area
Areas
Area | Objectives | Main Activities | Tools |
Financial Accounting | Timely & accurate reporting. |
| Accounting Software: Xero Financial reporting: Fathom or Spotlight Data automation: DataDear |
Financial Operations | Automation and process improvement. |
| Accounts payable: Approvalmax Month-end rec: Hubdoc Expenses: Xero Captable: Captable or Cake Leave: BambooHR Payments: Transferwise, Stripe, CBA, Paypal SaaS management: Airwallex, Hudled |
FP&A/Management Accounting/ Investor Relations | Boosting stakeholder trust and confidence. Linking company strategy to revenue performance. Empower internal stakeholders with financial literacy. |
| Business intelligence: Metabase Data visualisation: Metabase Budget/Forecast/Performance: Fathom or Spotlight or Causal Shareholder software: Visible.vc |
Key Metrics / Business Impact
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Ownership
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Strategic Pillars
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Key Metrics
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Impact
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Financial Accounting
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Compliance and Control: SWS financial health, well-being and governance is maintained, measured and reported.
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Complete month-end close procedures within T+8 days.
Every finance process is documented clearly.
100% correct allocation of transactions to general ledger accounts.
Monthly financial statement performance reporting to the business.
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Timely accounts drives faster commercial decisions.
Ensure there is no key man risk.
Accurate accounts helps us to make better decisions.
Transparency of accounts to business drives a fiscally responsible culture across the business.
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Financial Operations
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Efficiency and Effectiveness: Ensuring streamlined, cost-effective finance processes are enabling the business to deliver on its strategic goals.
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Reduce Payroll errors to zero.
Resolve employee queries in 2 days.
Every transaction has a supporting invoice.
Zero accounts payable paid past due date.
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Employees have no disruption so they can do their best work.
Happy employees = productive employees.
Accounts withstand tax audits.
Efficient working capital management drives good external relationships and reduces interest penalties.
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FP&A/Management Accounting/ Investor Relations
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Insight: Decision value to the business, and its stakeholders, in order to optimise revenue and investment outcomes.
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Close annual budget 1 month before fiscal year end.
Quarterly forecasting cadence.
Variances between forecast and actuals within +/-10%.
Have each business line manager use Finance KPIs dashboards.
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Timely budget allows for business to be thoughtful around resourcing required for the year.
Frequent forecasting means we can be flexible in our planning.
Accurate forecasting allows us to plan better.
By linking user metrics to financial metrics, the business adopts a commercial mindset when working on various initiatives.
Execution Roadmap
The planned activities mentioned below do not include Finance BAU.
Pillar
Ownership
Now
Next
Later
Compliance and Control: SWS financial health, well-being and governance is maintained, measured and reported.
Financial Accounting
Build scaleable, accurate and timely daily, weekly and monthly finance processes.
Intiaitives:
Document all regular accounting methodologies and compliance processes.
Complete month-end close procedures within T+8 days.
Create data transparency to support both business decision making and drive improvement on operational efficiency.
Initiatives:
Provide dashboards and data points to functions to understand their current spend to budget for Opex.
Drive monthly meetings with key stakeholders to review financial performance.
Become financial-audit ready.
Initiatives:
Implementation of appropriate business and financial procedures and controls.
Efficiency and Effectiveness: Ensuring streamlined, cost-effective finance processes are enabling the business to deliver on its strategic goals.
Financial Operations
Develop a high performance finance team to support growth of the business.
Initiatives:
Onboard finance operations associate.
Ensure employees are happy with the level of service the FinOps team provides on all operational and financial matters.
Initiatives:
Centralise all transactional activities to one hub and reduce double-handling of tasks/queries.
Create internal support channels & employee self service.
Automate as much of the Finance Operation processes as possible to reduce human errors.
Initiatives:
Implement software for all critical FinOps processes.
Insight: Providing decision value to the business, and its stakeholders, in order to optimise revenue and investment outcomes.
FP&A/Management Accounting/ Investor Relations
Achieve a robust and accurate budgeting/forecasting framework used to evaluate performance vs targets.
Initiatives:
Set up a quarterly rolling forecasting cadence with inputs from Growth and Data teams.
Drive the culture of intellectual honesty and data-driven decision making process in the business.
Initiatives:
Design and set up a Finance KPI dashboard which is communicated monthly to the business.
Drive the culture of intellectual honesty and data-driven decision making process in the business.
Initiatives:
Support leadership and teams in accurately measuring the financial ROI of planned growth and product initiativesv |
Focus
Focus Area | Goal | Specific | Measurable | Achievable | Realistic | Timely |
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Budget & Forecasting | Implement an effective budgeting and forecast process. | Develop and implement a comprehensive budgeting and forecast process that aligns with organisational goals and enhances financial planning. | Reduce the timeline of the budgeting process to ensure we have locked in budget for FY. | Cross-functional collaboration. Provide training to key personnel on the tolls and process. | Ensure budget/forecast aligns with KPIs and strategic objectives. | Robust and consistent process implemented within 3 years. Every 6 months monitor and assess what is working and what isn’t working. |
FP&A / Strategic Finance | Align company strategy with revenue performance. | Develop and implement a strategy to align company goals and initiatives with revenue performance. | Achieve x% increase in YoY revenue with an ability to explain what initiatives specifically drove the revenue. | Identify synergies between pillar objectives and revenue metrics. Establish cross-functional team to ensure collaboration. Build ROI modelling to measure revenue impact. | Realigns company focus to include revenue performance that supports long term sustainability and growth. | Develop and communicate the new strategy alignment framework within the next six months. Monitor progress quarterly for the next 3 years to ensure revenue/product alignment. |
Investor Relations | Develop and maintain a comprehensive investor report in preparation for an IPO. | Clearly outline the components of the investor report, including financial highlights, KPIs, business strategy, and risk factors. Identify the specific regulations and disclosure requirements relevant to the industry and jurisdiction in which the IPO is planned. | Define measurable targets for financial transparency, such as achieving a certain level of detail in financial statements and providing historical performance data. Set benchmarks for the completeness of non-financial information, such as market positioning, competitive analysis, and growth strategies. | Invest in technology and systems that facilitate data gathering and reporting, ensuring the efficiency and accuracy of the IPO preparation process. | Align the content of the investor report with the expectations of potential investors, addressing key concerns and providing a compelling narrative about the company's growth potential. Conduct thorough market research to understand the preferences and priorities of investors in the target market. | Develop a detailed timeline for the preparation of the investor report, with milestones for drafting, reviewing, and finalizing each section. Â |
Financial Reporting | Establish a consistent and timely schedule for financial reporting. | Identify the current challenges or bottlenecks in the financial reporting process that need improvement, such as data collection, validation, or review procedures. | Define specific deadlines for each stage of the financial reporting process, from data collection to final review, ensuring accountability at every step. | Assess the current processes and resources involved in financial reporting, identifying areas for optimisation and efficiency improvements. | Align the financial reporting timeline with the needs of stakeholders, such as investors, regulatory bodies, and internal decision-makers. Communicate the importance of timely financial reporting to the broader organisational strategy, emphasising its role in supporting informed decision-making and maintaining transparency. | Establish a specific timeframe for achieving the goal, such as implementing a new financial reporting schedule within the next 12 months. Break down the timeline into actionable phases, with interim milestones to track progress and adjustments as necessary. |
Operational Finance | Achieve operational excellence through the optimisation and automation of operational (transactional) finance. | Identify specific pain points or bottlenecks in the current processes that automation can address. | Set measurable targets for efficiency improvement, such as reducing processing times by a certain percentage. | Conduct a comprehensive assessment of existing processes to identify areas for optimisation and automation. Invest in suitable automation tools and technologies that align with the organisation's operational and technological capabilities. | Align the optimisation and automation efforts with broader organisational goals, emphasising how increased efficiency in operational finance contributes to cost savings and improved decision-making. | Set measurable milestones for each phase, such as completing the automation of invoice processing within the next six months and achieving full operational finance automation within 18 months. |