# The Founder’s Guide to Finance for Omnichannel CPG Brands January 23, 2026 15 minutes ## A Practical Guide **How to build a finance function that actually helps your CPG brand grow profitably** If you’ve spent any time on the internet as a founder, you’ve probably been bombarded by self-proclaimed marketing gurus telling you exactly how to scale your brand. They know where you should source your creative. They know who you should hire. They know which agencies to pay and how to allocate every dollar across every channel. All it takes is a cool $1,000 per month for their course. So here it is - a real guide to finance for omnichannel consumer brands that actually helps you. Yes, it’s real and no you don’t have to pay for it. This guide breaks down how to design a finance function that supports growth, profitability, and long-term value creation for brands selling across ecommerce, Amazon, Shopify, TikTok, and more. We’ll focus on three core ideas: 1. What a great finance function does 2. The key roles and tools to run one well 3. How finance priorities change as your business scales Let’s start with the most important question. ## What Does a Great Finance Function Do? A best-in-class finance function for a consumer brand accomplishes two things: 1. Instills financial rigor 2. Positions the business to achieve its goals whether that’s aggressive growth or profitability Everything finance does ladders into one or both of those outcomes. ## Instilling Financial Rigor Financial rigor is not something you've probably heard much about for the last 15+ years. It's not because financial rigor is not important, but rather that capital markets were so flush with cash that, generally speaking, growing companies could ‘outraise’ their lack of financial discipline. In today’s market, and likely into the foreseeable future, financial rigor is of the utmost importance. So, what exactly is financial rigor? Really its just discipline. Strong efficiencies, secure operations, robust reporting, and then some. Below are the tasks the finance function performs that accomplish the goal of instilling financial rigor within the organization. ### Cash Management Cash management is foundational. This means: - Monitoring cash inflows and outflows - Maintaining a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast - Actively managing excess cash instead of letting it rot in a checking account Short-term instruments like money market funds can generate meaningful incremental income. And as recent market volatility has reminded everyone, deposit security matters. ### Financial Reporting Reporting matters for two reasons: 1. You can’t steer the business if you can’t see what’s happening 2. Investors, lenders, and stakeholders require confidence Strong, consistent reporting increases trust in management and improves your ability to raise capital when needed. You can’t dodge the iceberg if you’re blindfolded. ### Compliance Tax compliance, especially sales tax, is an area where founders routinely shoot themselves in the foot. Improper nexus setup or incorrect tax collection can: - Become a massive cash expense - Completely derail an acquisition If a buyer looks under the hood and finds tax issues, it can be catastrophic. ### Cost Accounting This is the bedrock of business. If you don’t know what something costs, you don’t know if you’re making money. Omnichannel brands often underestimate fees embedded in different platforms and fulfillment structures. Small strategic changes here can dramatically improve margins. ### Financial Controls Controls protect the integrity of the business. A company without them is always exposed to fraud, errors, and operational chaos. ## Positioning the Business for Success We don’t always get a ton of love in the back office, but in reality without us you would be screwed. Our job as the finance function is not only to keep the wheels on the race car, but it is to give the racecar the most badass wheels and maybe some jet fuel so that the drivers can win the race. The following are a few examples of how a great finance function can position the company for success in ways no other function can. ### Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) FP&A is one of the highest-leverage functions in any business. A strong FP&A function: - Produces realistic but ambitious budgets - Helps marketing understand return on invested capital - Plans inventory and demand - Guides decisions on hiring, pricing, and expansion A financial model may look like a spreadsheet, but it’s really a book full of instructions if you know how to read it. ### Business Intelligence Here is one special thing about the finance function that no other function can claim: we know _everything_. - Every number that falls through my QuickBooks - Every business contract - Every SaaS price - Every PO - Every sale What this means is that the finance function is uniquely positioned to be the primary source of business intelligence. Only the finance function knows both the trailing 3 month cohort behavior, as well as the upcoming PO planning for inventory. Sorry to break it to you, marketers. You may be sexy, but you still can’t read a balance sheet (I’m clearly not bothered by the attention marketing teams get). Business intelligence in Ecom can primarily come from customer behavior analysis, attribution modeling, channel analysis, and more. ### Capital Markets Understanding capital markets is essential if you plan to raise, refinance, or exit. If you don’t know what’s happening in the market and try to raise anyway, it’s like showing up to Expo West to sell cars without knowing what cars people want. You’ll look clueless and no one will give you money. But if you can navigate capital markets well, you unlock: - New growth pathways - Liquidity options - Long-term equity value Brands like **Iron & Resin** increased margins while growing over 50 percent by leveraging disciplined financial insights and planning with Iris. [See their story here.](https://www.irisfinance.co/customer-stories/how-iron-resin-grew-50-while-expanding-margins-using-beacon-by-iris) ## Key Roles in a Great Finance Function A strong finance function requires two things: **people and software**. Let’s start with the people. ### CFO This is your hefe of finance in the organization. Once upon a time, CFO just meant glorified accountant – that doesn’t cut it these days. The modern CFO must be both backward and forward looking. They manage strategy, reporting, treasury, investor relations, and long-term planning. ### Controller The backbone of controls, cost accounting, and reporting. ### Accounts Payable & Receivable At scale, managing working capital requires focus. Bills must get paid and cash must be collected consistently. ### Tax Manager Responsible for compliance and minimizing risk. ### Inventory / Demand Planner Critical for omnichannel brands. Stockouts kill growth, over-investing kills cash flow. ### Treasury Once cash balances grow, leaving money idle becomes irresponsible, especially in a high rate environment. ### Investor Relations Increasingly relevant for private brands with institutional capital. ## Essential Finance Software for CPG Brands Technology enables scale, efficiency, and security. Examples include: - **Accounting**: QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage, etc. - **Spend management**: Rho, Ramp, Divvy - **Tax**: Avalara, TaxJar - **Payroll**: Gusto, Rippling, ADP - **Equity management**: Carta - **Data rooms**: Docsend, Carta The right software is critical for optimizing for efficiency as well as security. ## How Finance Priorities Change as You Scale ### $0–$1M: Zero to One This is foundation building mode. **Priorities:** - Accrual accounting (not cash) - QuickBooks + a freelance bookkeeper - Basic tax compliance - Regular reporting habits Fixing broken infrastructure after your first million is a nightmare. Set it up right early. ### $1–$10M: “This Thing Has Legs” Once your brand has scaled past the 7-figure mark, there is actually real money sloshing around in on and around what you call your business. **Priorities:** 1. Bookkeeper/controller 2. FP&A 3. Inventory planning 4. Fundraising ### $10–$100M: To the Moon At this stage, we are going to assume that everything I have already mentioned in the last 622 words is taken care of – if it hasn’t been, you either didn’t make it here or you are very lucky and your death is imminent. **Priorities:** 1. Enhanced visibility / systems optimization 2. CFO 3. Treasury management 4. M&A 5. Reporting 6. Investor relations ## Final Thoughts A great finance function does two things well: 1. Instills financial rigor 2. Maximizes the company’s ability to make money In omnichannel CPG, finance is your growth engine. If you want to scale profitably, raise capital intelligently, and build a durable brand, you need to build your finance foundation now.