Before signing a CFO offer, most boards run a package checklist. Base, bonus, equity, notice, benefits, start date. Standard practice.
We now recommend a second checklist, run before the offer letter is drafted. Four questions the candidate should be able to answer specifically, in writing.
Why this checklist matters
References tell you about a candidate's past. This checklist tells you about their intent for your business specifically. It is the single best predictor we have found of first-year outcomes.
Good CFOs can answer all four questions in an hour of preparation. Weak ones cannot. And the specific quality of the answers tells you more than another round of interviews would.
Question one: what will you do in the first 30 days
Specifically, what are the three things you will do before you know the business in detail.
Weak answers: variations on "meet the team, understand the processes, review the reporting pack." These are default answers that any CFO with a pulse can give.
Strong answers: specific and slightly counterintuitive. "I will spend the first week with the Commercial Director rather than the finance team, because the biggest question I have about your business is your unit economics." Or: "I will not touch the reporting pack in the first 30 days because the incumbent format is what the board is used to and I do not have permission to change it yet."
The specificity is the tell. A CFO who has already thought concretely about their first 30 days will land differently to one who has not.
Question two: what will you not touch in the first 90 days
The mirror image of question one. What is off-limits.
Weak answers: silence, or a vague "I will be careful about making changes too quickly."
Strong answers: a named practice or system they will explicitly leave alone. "I will not restructure the finance team in the first 90 days regardless of pressure to do so, because turnover in that window damages morale for a full year." Or: "I will not change the audit relationship in the first 90 days even if it looks suboptimal, because auditor changes mid-year create risk that outweighs any process improvement."
Strong CFOs understand that restraint is a leadership choice, not the absence of one.
Question three: who inside the finance team do you want to protect, and who do you want to move on
By the end of the interview process, a good CFO has formed views on the second-tier finance team. Not detailed performance judgements, but instincts about which people they see themselves partnering with and which they do not.
Weak answers: refusal to name specifics on grounds of "not knowing enough yet." This is either genuine (they were not paying attention in interviews) or evasive (they are avoiding a hard conversation).
Strong answers: named views on two or three individuals, framed carefully but honestly. "The Head of FP and A struck me as the person I would build around. I have questions about the Financial Controller that I would want to explore in the first 60 days before making a call."
CFOs willing to give you their honest early read are almost always better hires than CFOs who deflect the question.
Question four: what would tell you within six months that the role is not what you were told it was
The one candidates find hardest and the one that reveals the most.
Weak answers: "I am confident it will be." This is either naive or dishonest.
Strong answers: two or three specific signals they will look for. "If the CEO does not send me a private thank-you after the third board meeting, I will know I have not landed the relationship I was hoping to build." Or: "If I have not been asked to present at an investor call within six months, the role is not the investor-facing one I was told it would be."
CFOs who can name their own disengagement signals are usually the ones who will raise them with you directly if they start firing. Which means you get 90 days of lead time on any retention problem.
How to run the checklist
Send the four questions to the shortlisted candidate the day after the final interview. Ask for written responses within a week. Do not ask them to elaborate in a call; the written version is the point.
Then compare the four answers against the reference calls. Any inconsistency is worth understanding before the offer goes out.
If you are running a CFO shortlist now and want to use this checklist against your candidates, get in touch. We include it in every process we run.
