How to Align Sales, Finance, and Operations for Smarter Growth
- Chelsey Reynolds
- Sep 16
- 6 min read
When your business starts to scale, growth depends on more than new revenue. It depends on how well your internal teams move together. Misalignment between sales, finance, and operations is one of the fastest ways to create chaos; it is also one of the most overlooked growth levers in a founder’s toolkit.
In this episode of the Growth Department podcast, Chelsey Reynolds sat down with Marcus Rien, founder of Waves CPAs and a fractional CFO who helps fast-growing companies build stronger systems and smarter strategies. Marcus shares what really happens behind the scenes when businesses hit their stride, plus how to prevent internal silos from turning into revenue blockers.
Meet Marcus Rien: From Scratch Golfer to Startup CFO
Marcus is not your average CPA. He grew up with a love of precision from competitive golf and competitive diving, then brought that same focus to finance. After years in corporate accounting, he launched Waves CPAs to serve growing businesses that needed clarity and control without hiring a full-time CFO.
His edge is alignment. Marcus and his team connect finance with sales and operations so founders can make faster decisions, build trust with investors, and lead with confidence. As Marcus puts it, “Growth starts to break things. What got you here will not take you to the next level, especially if your departments are not communicating.”
Why Alignment Matters More Than Ever
Founders often assume that if each department is doing its job, the company will grow. Real life tells a different story. A disconnected team creates slowdowns, costly errors, and missed opportunities, even when individuals are talented and motivated.
Here is what misalignment commonly looks like in the wild. These patterns show up in companies of every size, from scrappy startups to maturing scale-ups.
Sales sets aggressive targets without including finance on cash flow impact. Deals close, discounts creep in, and cash collections lag. Everyone celebrates bookings while the bank account tells another story.
Operations is overwhelmed because fulfillment cannot keep pace with the pipeline. Quality dips and timelines slip. The team works harder, not smarter, and morale suffers.
Finance ships reports that no one uses in weekly decisions. The numbers are technically correct, yet they arrive late or in a format that does not drive action.
These disconnects slow everything down. They also create confusion and finger-pointing. Marcus helps teams replace friction with shared language, aligned metrics, and light processes that keep everyone on the same page.
What a Fractional CFO Actually Does
A great fractional CFO translates across departments. Marcus builds financial models, forecasts revenue and cash flow, supports fundraising, and connects the dots between the pipeline and the P&L. That work matters because leaders need real-time clarity, not static spreadsheets.
Beyond the numbers, the best fractional CFOs do something founders rarely get from pure bookkeeping. They shape incentives and visibility so growth is sustainable.
Clarify unit economics that sales and ops can use. When every leader understands contribution margin, pricing discipline improves and fulfillment plans get smarter.
Structure compensation plans that reward profitable growth. Commissions, bonuses, and team goals drive better behavior when they reflect cross-functional impact.
Recommend tools and systems that increase visibility. Fewer clicks to the truth means faster, better decisions.
Create workflows that reduce manual reporting and improve forecasting. Rolling forecasts beat once-a-year budgets because reality changes, often fast.
As Marcus explains, “You do not just need numbers. You need insight, and you need that insight delivered in a way that makes sense to every department.”
Build a System That Supports Sales Without Sinking Ops
One of the most common patterns Marcus sees is sales-led chaos. A company has a strong go-to-market motion, the pipeline is healthy, and revenue is climbing. Because operations and finance were not invited into planning, fulfillment starts to break. Cash feels tight. Service quality slips. The team loses steam.
The fix is not to slow down sales. The fix is to plan growth together and remove blind spots.
Marcus recommends a simple blueprint that any growth-stage company can adopt in a few weeks. Start with conversation, then codify the plan and keep it current.
Hold joint planning sessions between GTM, finance, and operations. Agree on targets, capacity, and risk. Leave the meeting with owners and dates for every dependency.
Create shared KPIs that reflect cross-functional impact. Tie bookings to margin thresholds, tie onboarding to capacity, and tie cash to collections performance.
Use rolling forecasts that update monthly or quarterly. Replace static budgets with a process that adapts to real data and changing conditions.
Automate data pipelines so every team has real-time visibility. Push the same truth into dashboards that leaders review each week.
As Marcus likes to say, “Every leader should know how today’s sales impact next month’s cash. Every salesperson should understand the margin implications of what they are selling.”
The Metrics That Matter (and Who Should Own Them)
There is no shortage of dashboards inside a growing business. The question is whether the right people see the right metrics at the right cadences. Ownership creates speed because everyone knows what to watch and when to act.
Use this simple ownership map to align your scorecards. Keep it visible and review it together in your weekly leadership meeting.
Sales owns pipeline velocity, customer acquisition cost, win rate, average deal size, and top-line targets. These metrics drive the front door of the business and should be tied to margin guardrails.
Finance owns gross margin, operating margin, burn rate, and cash runway. These metrics set the reality of what is possible in the next one to three quarters.
Operations tracks fulfillment timelines, capacity utilization, cost of delivery, and NPS or CSAT. These metrics protect quality and keep promises to customers.
Do not let these sit in separate reports. Build a unified scorecard that shows how each function affects the others. In Marcus’s words, “You are not just running departments. You are running an ecosystem.”
When to Bring in a Fractional CFO
Not every company needs a full-time CFO. Most growth-stage companies do need someone who can think strategically about cash, metrics, and cross-functional planning. If any of the following sound familiar, it is time to bring in a fractional CFO for at least one or two quarters.
You are making six- or seven-figure decisions without a solid financial model. Scenario planning will reduce regret and increase speed.
You are preparing to raise capital or secure lending. Clean data and credible forecasts build trust with investors and banks.
You are struggling to connect sales goals with operational capacity. A cross-functional plan keeps growth from burning out your team.
You have outgrown basic bookkeeping and need rolling forecasts. It is a signal that leadership needs forward-looking visibility, not just reconciled books.
Waves CPAs partners with companies from early-stage to maturity. The goal is simple; help you grow without losing control.
Tools That Bridge the Gap
More tools are not the answer. The right tools, connected well, create one source of truth that leaders can trust. Marcus recommends starting with the platforms you already use and adding integrations that remove manual steps.
A focused stack works best for most teams.
Start here, then layer as your operating rhythm matures.
Fathom for visual reporting and forecasting. Finance can model scenarios and leaders can see trends at a glance.
QuickBooks Online with advanced integrations. Accounting stays clean while data flows into your dashboards automatically.
HubSpot or Salesforce connected to finance. Sales sees margin and collections impact, finance sees pipeline health, and both teams plan with the same data.
ClickUp or Notion for collaborative planning. Cross-functional projects move faster when tasks, owners, and dates live in one place.
Choose the smallest number of tools that give you end-to-end visibility. The target is not feature depth. The target is clarity you can act on.
Founder-Led Alignment: Culture First, Numbers Always
Founders set the tone. If you treat finance like compliance, your team will do the same. If you celebrate transparency, honest metrics, and shared ownership of the plan, your team will rise to that standard.
Marcus sees the same pattern in companies that scale with less drama. They turn finance into a growth tool and make clarity a habit. “The smartest founders I know do not just want clean books. They want insight that leads to better decisions,” he says.
Alignment is not a one-time project. It is a discipline. Invest in it and you give your company the ability to scale without breaking, to protect margins while you grow, and to keep every part of the business rowing in the same direction.
Listen to the episode to learn more about how to align sales, operations and Finance:
Tune in to the Growth Department podcast to hear the full conversation with Marcus Rien and get the playbook for aligning sales, finance, and operations. You will learn how to stand up a unified scorecard, when to bring in a fractional CFO, and how to turn your data into momentum.
Learn more about Marcus and Waves CPAs at https://wavescpas.com/, and connect with Marcus on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going.
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