Pilot on paid demand: deposits, sprint delivery, setup conversion and recurring retainers. Spend only when revenue-backed.
What finance teams actually run internally
Research-backed map of the real finance operating stack: accounting, FP&A, cashflow, SaaS metrics, billing, CRM, BI and spreadsheets — plus the ORIJINS Finance OS wedge.
1. Accounting / ERP source of truth
Owned by CFO, finance ops, accountant. Records invoices, expenses, P&L, balance sheet, tax and month-end close.
2. FP&A / planning layer
Owned by CFO/FP&A. Used for budgeting, forecasts, scenario planning, hiring plans, revenue plans and board reporting.
3. Cashflow / treasury visibility
Owned by founder/CFO. Tracks bank cash, 13-week cashflow, burn, runway, receipts, payables and cash-out risk.
4. SaaS metrics / subscription analytics
Owned by founder, revenue ops, CFO. Tracks MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, cohorts, LTV/CAC and subscription growth.
5. Revenue / CRM / billing inputs
Owned by sales/revenue ops. Pipeline, closed deals, invoices, contracts, payment links and customer records.
6. BI / spreadsheet operating layer
Owned by founder, ops, finance. Used when the company is too early for heavy FP&A but needs clarity now.
Finance tool deep-dive — more detailed map
More detail on what each finance tool category owns, who uses it, where it breaks, and how ORIJINS Finance OS should position itself.
| Layer | Tools | Primary user | Data owned | Limitation | ORIJINS Finance OS wedge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting / ERP | QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Zoho Books | Accountant, CFO, finance ops | Actuals, expenses, invoices, tax, P&L, balance sheet | Backward-looking; not built for founder decision speed. | Convert actuals into burn/runway, scenario deltas and investor-ready commentary. |
| FP&A planning | Runway, Pigment, Cube, Jirav, Vena, Anaplan | CFO, FP&A, founder | Budget, forecast, headcount, scenarios, board plan | Can be heavy or finance-team centric; outputs still need interpretation. | Founder-first cockpit: “what changed, why it matters, what to do this week.” |
| Cashflow / treasury | Float, Fathom, Agicap, Tesorio, Excel/Sheets | Founder, CFO, controller | Cash balance, payables, receivables, 13-week cashflow | Often disconnected from CRM pipeline and SaaS metrics. | Blend cash + weighted pipeline + burn into runway alerts and action gates. |
| SaaS metrics | ChartMogul, Baremetrics, ProfitWell, Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly | Founder, revenue ops, CFO | MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, cohorts, LTV/CAC | Metrics dashboards do not automatically produce strategy or action memos. | Translate metric movement into priorities: churn fix, expansion, CAC, pricing. |
| Revenue / CRM | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Stripe, Paddle, GoCardless | Sales, founder, revenue ops | Pipeline, deals, customers, contracts, payment status | Pipeline rarely updates cash/runway model automatically. | CRM-to-runway bridge: every deal updates forecast, cash coverage and hiring room. |
| BI / spreadsheets | Google Sheets, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Notion | Founder, ops, finance | Manual models, dashboards, KPIs, operating notes | Flexible but fragile: version drift, hidden assumptions, no narrative layer. | Keep spreadsheet speed but add structured assumptions, audit trail and memo exports. |
Exact workflows ORIJINS should own
These are the concrete Finance OS workflows to show in demos and investor/founder conversations.
1. Weekly founder finance memo
Inputs: bank cash, burn, pipeline, closed deals, SaaS metrics, runway assumptions.
Output: 1-page weekly memo: runway, cash risk, sales gap, decisions needed, investor narrative.
Founder-firstBoard ready2. Pipeline-to-runway bridge
Inputs: HubSpot/Salesforce/manual deals, probability, ACV, expected close date, burn.
Output: weighted forecast, cash coverage, “must-close” accounts, hiring/spend decision gate.
Revenue → cashHigh ROI3. SaaS health interpretation
Inputs: MRR, churn, expansion, ARPA, CAC, margin, cohorts.
Output: ARR trend, NRR explanation, churn risk, expansion opportunity, pricing signal.
SaaS metricsAction layer4. Scenario planning cockpit
Inputs: deals/month, ACV, conversion, retainer, burn, hiring and runway targets.
Output: base/bull/bear scenarios with explicit tradeoffs and survival/scale decisions.
Runway-styleDecision support5. Investor update generator
Inputs: KPIs, wins, pipeline, burn, runway, asks, risks, next milestones.
Output: investor update / board memo in clean language with numbers and narrative aligned.
FundraisingNarrative6. Spend decision gate
Inputs: cash, burn, expected revenue, strategic priority, payback assumption.
Output: green/yellow/red recommendation: hire, pause, cut, accelerate, or wait for close.
CEO operating systemDisciplineHow ORIJINS should position vs finance tools
Clear positioning so the team does not pitch Finance OS as accounting software.
vs QuickBooks / Xero / NetSuite
They are systems of record. They reconcile what happened.
- Do not compete on bookkeeping.
- Use them as source data.
- Win on runway, narrative and decision-making.
vs Runway / Pigment / Cube
They are FP&A planning platforms. Powerful for finance teams.
- ORIJINS should be lighter and founder-first.
- Focus on weekly operating decisions.
- AI memo + action layer is the wedge.
vs Float / Fathom
They clarify cashflow. Strong for cash visibility.
- ORIJINS connects cash to pipeline and GTM.
- Explain what to do, not only what cash says.
- Better for CEO/CRO/CFO alignment.
vs ChartMogul / Baremetrics
They track SaaS metrics. MRR, churn, NRR, cohorts.
- ORIJINS should interpret movement.
- Turn metric changes into actions.
- Connect MRR to runway and fundraising story.
vs Sheets / Excel
They are flexible but fragile. Every founder uses them.
- Do not remove spreadsheet speed.
- Add structure, persistence and export.
- Make assumptions visible.
ORIJINS unique space
Founder/investor interpretation layer.
- Finance source-of-truth summary.
- Scenario + action recommendations.
- Investor memo generation.
- Cash/pipeline/SaaS metrics in one view.
Strategic conclusion: Finance OS should not be a heavy accounting/FP&A replacement. It should be the CEO-level finance intelligence layer that converts fragmented finance/revenue data into decisions, weekly operating rhythm and investor narrative.
Finance tool discovery script
Questions to ask founders/CFOs before pitching the dashboard.
| If they use... | Ask... | Listen for... | ORIJINS angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks / Xero / NetSuite | How often do you convert accounting numbers into runway decisions? | Month-end lag, founder still uses Sheets. | Forward-looking Finance OS. |
| Runway / Pigment / Cube | Who interprets scenario changes for founder/investors? | Heavy model, not enough narrative. | AI operating memo + decision layer. |
| Float / Fathom / Sheets | Is pipeline included in cash forecast? | Cash and sales forecast disconnected. | Cash + pipeline cockpit. |
| ChartMogul / Baremetrics / Stripe | Do MRR metrics trigger actions automatically? | Metrics seen, actions manual. | SaaS metrics → next actions. |
| HubSpot / Salesforce | Does weighted pipeline update runway and hiring decisions? | Pipeline not linked to burn. | CRM-to-runway bridge. |
Cash & runway cockpit
Float-style visibility: cash balance, burn, runway and cash-out risk.
Forecast vs actuals
Runway/Cube-style operating table: target, actual, weighted pipeline, variance and confidence.
| Month | Target | Actual closed | Weighted pipeline | Forecast total | Variance | Coverage | Status |
|---|
Editable scenario planner
Runway/Pigment-style what-if scenarios. Change assumptions and see revenue/MRR impact instantly.
SaaS metrics layer
ChartMogul/Baremetrics-style MRR health metrics for the App + B2B recurring engine.
Investor memo generator
Fathom-style board update generated from current numbers.
Executive finance brief
Latest CFO crosscheck, converted into operating guidance.
Commercial assumptions
| AI Power Sprint | €10K–15K / 30d |
| Deposit | €5K min |
| Post-sprint setup | €30K+ |
| Retainer | €5K–15K/mo |
| Proof gate | 3 paid sprints + 1 retainer |
Numbers audit
Reconciled with the Dylan/Samba business plan and the two CFO crosscheck files.
- Original business plan: M1 €9K, M2 €24K, M3 €33K; M1–M3 total €66K; original annual scenario €1.329M / €88K MRR.
- CFO challenge: Prudent €550K–€750K, Base CFO €850K–€1.15M, Upside €1.3M–€1.8M.
- Latest crosschecked operating base: €750K–€950K CA, €48K–€64K MRR, 6–8 MRR clients, 18–22 audits, 14–18 sprints, 6–8 setups.
- Decision rule: dashboard keeps the original monthly ramp visible, but labels €1.329M / €88K MRR as upside rather than the default operating base.
Finance tools benchmark
What the best FP&A, cashflow and SaaS-metrics tools do — translated into ORIJINS product requirements.
Driver-based forecasts, what-if scenarios, forecast vs actuals, board-ready reports, headcount and OpEx planning.
13-week cash forecast, daily/weekly/monthly cash views, runway alerts, cash threshold warnings, accounting integrations.
MRR/ARR, churn, expansion, cohorts, LTV/CAC, segmentation, retention insights and subscription benchmarks.
Feature gap audit
Current dashboard vs best-in-class finance software.
| Feature | Current state | Best-in-class expectation | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash / runway cockpit | Missing | Cash balance, gross burn, net burn, runway months, warning threshold. | Critical |
| Scenario planning | Static cards | Editable Conservative / Base / Upside assumptions with instant impact. | Critical |
| Forecast vs actuals | Manual closed + pipeline separated | Monthly target, actual, weighted pipeline, variance, confidence score. | High |
| SaaS metrics | MRR displayed only | ARR, churn, expansion, NRR, ARPA, cohorts, LTV/CAC. | High |
| Integrations | Manual/local browser | Stripe, bank, accounting, CRM, Google Sheets, Notion. | High |
| Investor reporting | Board-ready narrative | PDF/share link, monthly memo, audit trail, source-of-truth timestamps. | Medium |
CFO scenarios
Base plan is intentionally sober; upside is earned after proof.
12-month operating plan
Original Dylan business-plan monthly ramp, now treated as upside/monthly reference unless delivery capacity proves it.
| Month | Revenue target | MRR end month | MRR clients | EBITDA approx |
|---|
Manual sales pipeline
Add next-month deals. Values are saved locally in this browser and can be exported.
| Deal | Offer | Amount | Prob. | Weighted |
|---|
Closed deals
Record deals that are actually closed/won. This is separate from projected pipeline.
| Deal | Offer | Amount | Date |
|---|
Google Sheets export
Fastest safe flow without connecting ORIJINS Google credentials.
Execution gates
Simple checkpoints to keep decisions aligned with cash reality.
€66K target. Prove the market pays. No GPU spend unless contract-backed.
€282K target. Prove sprint → setup → retainer conversion.
€850K–€1.15M CFO base. 7–10 MRR clients. Hardware only if financed by revenue.