cfo-review

Overview of cfo-review skill

What cfo-review does

cfo-review is a finance-oriented Claude skill for stress-testing any plan that commits meaningful money. It turns a proposal into a CFO-style interrogation around burn, runway, unit economics, dilution, opportunity cost, revenue quality, downside risk, and decision thresholds.

The skill is best for founders, operators, Finance Operations teams, chiefs of staff, and department leads who need a sharper pre-approval review before hiring, fundraising, pricing changes, channel scaling, or signing a large contract.

Best-fit decisions for cfo-review

Use the cfo-review skill when a plan could materially change cash position, margins, or financing options. The upstream guidance explicitly points to situations such as spend above 1% of revenue, new hiring requisitions, fundraising conversations, pricing or unit economics changes, and multi-year contracts.

It is especially useful when the plan sounds strategically attractive but the financial assumptions are thin. Instead of asking “is this a good idea?”, cfo-review pushes for the numbers that decide whether the idea is affordable, scalable, and reversible.

What makes it different from a generic finance prompt

A generic prompt may produce a broad business analysis. cfo-review is narrower and more useful for approval workflows because it applies a repeatable set of CFO forcing questions. It asks for base, bull, and bear cases; calls out weak burn multiples; checks LTV/CAC and payback; examines dilution if funding is required; and compares the proposal with alternative uses of capital.

That structure helps prevent common executive-review failure modes: approving spend without a downside case, scaling broken acquisition channels, treating cash runway as a static number, or ignoring the cost of choosing one investment over another.

How to Use cfo-review skill

cfo-review install and source review

To install with a compatible skills CLI, use:

npx skills add alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill cfo-review

The skill lives in:

c-level-advisor/c-level-agents/skills/cfo-review/SKILL.md

There are no extra scripts, rules, resources, or reference folders in the current file tree preview, so read SKILL.md first. The main value is the embedded review framework, not external tooling. After install, invoke it in Claude with the command pattern:

/cs:cfo-review <plan>

Inputs the skill needs to work well

The cfo-review usage quality depends heavily on the financial context you provide. A weak input is “Review our plan to hire five salespeople.” A stronger input includes revenue, cash, burn, expected ramp, CAC, payback, quota assumptions, timing, and what decision you need.

Useful inputs include:

• Current cash balance, monthly net burn, and runway
• Revenue, ARR/MRR, gross margin, and net new ARR
• Spend amount, timing, and whether it is fixed or variable
• Expected return, payback period, and confidence level
• Base, bull, and bear assumptions
• Financing impact, valuation assumptions, or dilution concerns
• Alternatives you are considering instead of this spend
• The decision required: approve, revise, delay, reject, or fundraise first

Prompt pattern for cfo-review usage

Use the command with a complete decision memo, not a vague plan. For example:

/cs:cfo-review We are considering a $450k annual paid acquisition increase for Q2. Current ARR is $6.2M, net burn is $180k/month, cash is $2.4M, gross margin is 78%, current blended CAC payback is 14 months, paid search payback is 11 months, paid social is 19 months, and net new ARR last quarter was $520k. Base case assumes $900k ARR from the spend, bull case $1.3M, bear case $350k. We want to know whether to approve the full budget, cap it, or reallocate to product-led onboarding.

This gives the skill enough data to calculate pressure points rather than inventing assumptions.

Suggested workflow for Finance Operations

For cfo-review for Finance Operations, use it before the approval meeting, not after the budget is already socially committed. Start with a short plan memo, run the skill, then turn the output into a decision checklist: missing data, risks, thresholds, and required revisions.

A practical workflow:

1. Draft the proposal in plain English.
2. Add the financial facts and scenarios.
3. Run /cs:cfo-review.
4. Ask follow-up questions on any weak assumption.
5. Convert the review into approval conditions, such as “approve only if CAC payback stays under 12 months” or “delay until bear-case runway exceeds 12 months.”
6. Save the final assumptions beside the decision so the team can compare actuals later.

cfo-review skill FAQ

Is cfo-review only for CFOs?

No. It is written from a CFO perspective, but it is useful for anyone preparing or reviewing a financial decision. Founders can use it before investor discussions, department leaders can use it before requesting budget, and Finance Operations teams can use it to standardize pre-approval questions.

When should I not use cfo-review?

Do not use cfo-review as the only source for accounting, tax, legal, treasury, or investment advice. It is also a poor fit for decisions with no meaningful financial commitment, or for plans where you cannot provide basic numbers. If the issue is brand positioning, product taste, or team morale with minimal spend, another strategy or operating review skill may fit better.

How is it different from spreadsheet modeling?

The cfo-review skill does not replace a spreadsheet. It helps identify what the spreadsheet must prove. Use it to pressure-test assumptions, expose missing scenarios, and define decision thresholds. Then validate the math in your financial model or planning system.

Is the cfo-review guide beginner-friendly?

Yes, if the user can provide basic operating metrics. The skill explains core CFO questions such as burn multiple, runway, LTV/CAC, payback, dilution, and opportunity cost. Beginners should still verify formulas and company-specific definitions, especially for ARR, CAC, net burn, and gross margin.

How to Improve cfo-review skill

Improve cfo-review inputs with real constraints

The fastest way to improve cfo-review output is to include constraints the model should not ignore. Examples: “We cannot drop below 15 months of runway,” “Board target is burn multiple under 1.5x,” “Sales capacity is already the bottleneck,” or “We plan to raise only if dilution is below 18%.”

Constraints convert the review from a general critique into an actionable finance decision.

Watch for common failure modes

The most common issue is under-specified economics. If you omit current burn, cash, revenue, CAC, payback, or margin, the skill may produce useful questions but weaker conclusions. Another failure mode is giving only the upside case. CFO-style review depends on base, bull, and bear scenarios; without them, runway and dilution risk are easy to understate.

Iterate after the first output

After the first cfo-review response, ask for a tighter second pass. Good follow-ups include:

• “List the three assumptions that most change the decision.”
• “What numbers must we verify before approval?”
• “Create approval, delay, and reject thresholds.”
• “Rewrite this as a board-ready finance memo.”
• “Compare this spend against hiring, product, and marketing alternatives.”

This turns the skill from a one-time critique into a repeatable investment committee workflow.

Adapt the skill to your operating model

If your company uses different targets, add them to the prompt. For example, a PLG SaaS company may care more about activation and expansion payback, while an enterprise sales company may tolerate longer CAC payback but require stronger pipeline coverage. The cfo-review skill is strongest when its CFO questions are paired with your actual planning rules, board expectations, and capital strategy.