Lucas
MathisGuide · AI executive team
Seraf’s CFO advisor: cash flow, invoices and financial decisions
The CFO advisor is the role on Seraf’s Council that looks after your business’s money: cash flow, invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable and the tax calendar. Every morning, it spots a late invoice, an upcoming payment or a GST and QST deadline, then recommends the order in which to review them. It pays nothing and files no return: the decision and the action stay human.
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This role is part of the Council, Serafex’s virtual executive team presented in the guide An AI executive team for your company. The CFO advisor replaces neither your accountant nor your tax advisor. It helps you see clearly between two meetings with them, based on what your Serafex space contains.
What the CFO advisor watches
Its mission covers cash flow, invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, the tax calendar and financial risks. It is accountable for three outcomes: visible cash flow, visible deadlines and financial controls ready to be exercised by the right person. It watches four signals.
- An overdue receivable: an invoice you issued whose due date has passed.
- An upcoming payment: an invoice you received from a supplier that is coming due.
- A tax deadline: a return or a remittance that is approaching.
- An invoicing anomaly: for example, an invoice with no PDF on file, or a payment that has been reported but not yet confirmed.
Like the CEO advisor, it is part of the first ring and takes part every morning. It works with the Chief of staff, who coordinates follow-up, and with the Finance and administration function in the third ring, which follows invoices, collections, accounts payable and recurring obligations most closely, and passes its signals up to it. Other roles rely on it: the CEO advisor to decide between priorities, the Legal and compliance role for obligations, the Procurement role to compare options.
Its information comes from your Finances space, which opens on the app’s Business page. There you’ll find Invoices (the invoices you issued and received, their PDFs and their payments), Accounting (revenue, expenses and payments in your annual workbook), the Tax and payroll section (the files, supporting documents, calculations and deadlines available for your entity), as well as Approvals. The home screen of your space also shows a tile for invoices to pay.
One rule matters a great deal for a financial role: no payment is ever invented. A payment reported by a client stays reported until it is confirmed; only a payment that has been received and confirmed counts as received. The CFO advisor therefore works with amounts you can verify, and it tells you when information is missing.
In a team, these topics don’t concern everyone. In Settings, under Users and access, you choose who holds the right to approve payments and which profile Seraf presents to each person (Leadership, Finance or Employee, for example). Your administrative assistant can then prepare and follow up on invoices, while approval stays with the person you have designated.
It pays nothing and files nothing: the action stays human
The CFO advisor has four reserved actions: no payment, no filing, no accounting judgment and no financial representation. In practice, it pays no supplier, files no GST, QST or income tax return, doesn’t settle a question of accounting treatment and doesn’t speak on your behalf to your bank, a lender or the tax authorities.
Seraf, for its part, can prepare the work in your space, always under your control. It can prepare a draft invoice with the recipient, the line items and the exact amounts. Issuing that invoice and sending it to the client require your explicit confirmation. Confirming receipt of an Interac e-Transfer reported by a client also requires your confirmation. And to pay an invoice received in your Serafex space, you are the one who clicks the pay button: Seraf never holds the payment link.
This separation is not a detail. It keeps an analysis, even a sound one, from turning into a financial action that nobody has checked. It also matches the scope of Serafex’s services: preparing invoices, contracts and client follow-ups is not a full accounting, tax or payroll service. Choices that call for professional expertise (calculation method, deductions, payroll, the structure of the business) stay in the hands of your accountant or tax advisor.
The tax calendar illustrates this division well. Revenu Québec, which administers the GST and the QST in Quebec, assigns each business a filing frequency. According to its page on reporting periods (new tab) (in French), a monthly or quarterly return must reach it no later than one month after the end of the period it covers, and an annual return generally no later than three months after. The CFO advisor can remind you of the deadline and spot the missing documents; you or your accountant file the return.
A morning with the CFO advisor
Take a fictional machine shop in Drummondville with eleven employees, invented to illustrate the method. On a Tuesday in October, the brief shows an item labelled with the CFO advisor seat and its mission. Three signals come together there: two invoices issued to the shop’s biggest client are several weeks overdue, a steel invoice is due on Friday, and the quarterly GST and QST return is due at the end of the month.
The recommendation could look like this: “Recommendation: follow up with the client today about the two invoices, before paying for the steel on Friday. Reason: these two invoices are the largest amount you are expecting this month, while the steel and the GST and QST remittance both fall due before the end of the month. Next step: I’ll prepare a follow-up email for you to review, with the invoice numbers and the client’s purchase order.”
The owner chooses to edit it: he wants a warmer tone and a mention that the delivery was accepted without reservation. Seraf adjusts the draft. Before it goes out, the app asks whether Seraf may take this action, and the owner confirms. On Friday, he pays for the steel himself. At the end of the month, his accountant files the return from the documents on file.
This habit of following up early echoes the BDC’s advice for better cash flow management (new tab): generate an invoice as soon as the goods or services are delivered, and remember that the longer you remain out of contact with a customer, the less likely you are to recover the full amount owed. The BDC adds that making a cash flow budget should be your first priority. Prepare it with your accountant; the CFO advisor then helps you check it against your actual invoices every week.
Questions to ask your CFO advisor this week
Ask Seraf these questions as they are. Each one matches a signal the CFO advisor watches, and the answer will also tell you what is missing from your records.
| Question to ask Seraf | Why ask it |
|---|---|
| “Which of the invoices I issued are overdue, and by how many days?” | Following up early improves your chances of being paid in full |
| “Which supplier payments are due within the next two weeks?” | Avoid a surprise in your cash position |
| “Which of this month’s deliveries don’t have an invoice yet?” | Invoice as soon as you deliver |
| “When is my next GST and QST deadline, and which documents are missing?” | Arrive at your accountant’s with a complete file |
| “Which payments has a client reported that aren’t confirmed yet?” | Don’t count money you haven’t received yet |
| “Which of the invoices I received have no document on file?” | Keep your books verifiable |
| “If my biggest client pays a month late, where does it pinch?” | See the risk before it happens |
After each answer, ask: “Which invoices and payments are you basing this on?” If an invoice lives in another piece of software and isn’t in your space, the CFO advisor can’t see it: better to know that before you make a decision.
A simple routine is enough. Every morning, decide on the financial items in your brief. On Monday, ask the first two questions. Before the end of each tax period, ask the fourth one. To keep invoice statuses clear, from draft to payment received, the guide to tracking your projects and invoicing suggests a weekly review.
Money questions often involve other roles. To decide which project to push back when cash is tight, see the guide to Seraf’s CEO advisor. To find out whether a promised delivery will be ready on time, and therefore billable, see the one on the COO advisor. The executive team page presents all the roles. The Council is in service for Serafex clients.
Let’s look together at how the Council would follow your finances.
