Executive Summary
The Catch-22: Finance teams desperately need automation to free up capacity, but traditional implementations consume 250-350+ hours that already stretched teams simply don't have.
The Hidden Cost: Each month of delay costs $20K+ per entity in wasted manual labor, while your team sacrifices weekends working 60-hour close weeks.
The Solution: Maximor’s Done-For-You automation requires just 4 hours of internal bandwidth and delivers Day 5 closes in 60 days, guaranteed.
The Proof: PE-backed companies are achieving 70-80% auto-posting and recovering up to 300 hours of annual capacity without disrupting their day-to-day work.
The Core Problem: AI Adoption Without Security Architecture
Your finance team is already using AI. Recent industry reports indicate that AI tool usage in finance is significant, with many organizations moving quickly toward adoption.
But here's the crisis: Many teams are adopting AI without proper governance. The persistent gap? The answer is always security concerns.
The Core Problem: The Implementation Bandwidth Paradox
Your controller is drowning. Last month, your senior accountant spent over 40 hours on bank and credit card reconciliations alone. Your close takes 15 days. Your Operating Partner is reluctant to you adding headcount to keep up with the scale.
You know automation is the answer. But here’s the brutal reality of the traditional path:
Traditional Finance Automation Implementation:
Phase | Estimated Internal Bandwidth Consumption |
Requirements & Process Workshops | 40-50 hours |
Mapping Reconciliations into Templates | 60-80 hours |
Building, Testing, and Debugging Rules | 90-110 hours |
Team Training and Go-Live Support | 60-70 hours |
Total Year 1 Bandwidth | 250-350+ hours |
Meanwhile, your close still takes 15 days because your team has been too busy "implementing automation" to actually get anything automated.
One controller after six months with a DIY platform: "I don't know how confident I am at building an agent for myself that won't screw it up." Her team quietly reverted to Excel—a common outcome.
This is the bandwidth paradox: You need automation to create capacity, but every automation tool demands the capacity you don't have.
What CFOs Actually Fear (And the Risk of Waiting)
When we ask PE CFOs why they haven't automated, the surface answer is "bandwidth." But three deeper, more strategic fears emerge:
Fear #1: Implementation will disrupt operations - "We're mid-audit/M&A/platform integration. We absolutely can't break what's working."
Fear #2: The team will reject another failed system - "We tried close management software. It took 4 months and my controller stopped trusting it."
Fear #3: We'll pay for unused software - "We’re still paying for that workflow tool nobody uses because we never fully integrated it."
These fears are valid. But here’s what inaction costs you:
Excess Cost: APQC's research consistently shows that organizations with 15+ day closes spend 40-60% more on finance operations per revenue dollar than those with sub-5-day closes. For a typical $200M portfolio company, that’s $200K to $300K+ annually in avoidable costs.
Strategic Drag: Gartner found that over 70% of finance leaders cite "lack of time for strategic work" as their top constraint—yet teams waste 100-150 hours monthly on manual reconciliation that is prime for automation.
The real risk isn't just disruption from automation. It's the compounding cost of manual operations as your business scales 3x, turning your bandwidth gap from "stressed" to "unsustainable."
The Research: Why Traditional Automation Fails
Recent industry surveys of finance leaders reveal a clear pattern in AI adoption:
88% are attempting to use at least one AI or agentic tool in their finance processes.
Crucially, 86% have encountered inaccurate or "hallucinated" data from their AI tools.
Only 40% have fully integrated AI into their core finance function despite widespread experimentation.
The problem isn't a lack of AI adoption: it's the broken implementation and operating model.
Most vendors sell software for you to implement yourself: They hand you AI templates to customize, workflow builders to configure, and tell you, "Good luck!"
This DIY model creates three predictable failure modes:
Complexity Overwhelm - Teams hit critical edge cases the templates don't handle (multi-currency IC, non-standard bank formats, hybrid pricing) and realize they need to become prompt engineers.
The Re-Work Loop - When AI makes mistakes on complex financial tasks, the controller loses trust. The team manually fixes the errors—destroying the intended time savings.
Silent Abandonment - Teams quietly revert to Excel and paper processes while the meter for the unused platform keeps running. Only 40% achieve full integration despite 88% attempting AI adoption.
How PE-Backed Companies Are Actually Solving This
Three CFOs found a different path to immediate capacity:
$220M Manufacturing (14 entities, 5-person team): "Every vendor wanted 2-3 months of implementation. Our controller said: 'Two hours total to get started with Maximor. And now we close in 5 days.' That changed my mind on what was possible."
$180M SaaS (22 entities): "We were mid-Series C refinancing without a single hour to spare. Maximor implemented everything. We didn't build, map, or configure a single rule. It just worked."
Growth Equity Portfolio ($400M AUM): "Every vendor wanted 6 weeks of my controller's time. This was 3 hours total across 8 weeks. We scaled from 8 to 22 entities without adding finance headcount."
The pattern is definitive: Done-For-You automation that owns the outcome, instead of DIY platforms that dump the work on your team.
The Done-For-You Framework: 4 Hours, 60 Days, Day 5 Close
Here's how true, zero-bandwidth implementation works:
Step 1: Risk-Free Assessment (30 minutes)
You sign an NDA. Your IT grants read-only access to NetSuite (or your ERP) and 60 days of close files. That’s it.
No workshops. No process documentation. No requirements gathering.
The Maximor team analyzes your books, maps your specific reconciliations, identifies bottlenecks, and builds your custom Day 5 roadmap, all while your team works normally.
Your Bandwidth: 30 minutes
Step 2: We Build Everything (0 hours)
For 4-6 weeks, our forward-deployed finance engineers and proprietary AI agents build custom, audit-ready automation for you:
Cash: Multi-bank and card ingestion, achieving 70-80% auto-posting specific to your non-standard formats (including LATAM/EMEA CSVs).
Accruals: AI sub-ledgers auto-generating complex amortization schedules and month-end journal entries.
Intercompany: Automated transaction matching across your entity structure.
The 200+ hours this consumes? Our external team handles it, in parallel to your close cycle.
Your Bandwidth: 0 hours
Step 3: Controller Approval & Confidence (2-3 hours)
Two 90-minute sessions where your controller reviews AI-prepared work with full, traceable audit trails. They approve what works and flag adjustments. The external team refines.
The system starts read-only, only posting after your controller achieves 100% confidence. Trust is built on proof, not promises.
Your Bandwidth: 3 hours
Step 4: Go-Live and Optimization (30 minutes/month)
Quick monthly check-ins to review performance and handle rare edge cases. Maximor owns the outcomes and all model updates.
Total Implementation: 4 hours | Ongoing Monthly: 30 minutes
Compare this to DIY platforms consuming 250-350+ hours in Year 1. This is a net capacity gain from Day 1.
The Outcomes: What 4 Hours of Bandwidth Actually Buys
PE-backed companies using Maximor’s Done-For-You automation see:
Metric | Done-For-You Automation Result |
Close Speed | Day 5 close within 60 days (vs. 6+ months with DIY) |
Capacity Recovery | 250-300+ hours recovered annually per controller |
Automation Rate | 70-80% cash and bank postings automated |
Audit Readiness | 80% less PBC scramble; instant, traceable audit trails |
Scalability | 3x entity growth without adding finance headcount |
Cost Avoidance | $250K to $300K avoided cost per entity (vs. hiring) |
Portfolio Impact: One $400M AUM fund saved $2.1M across 7 portfolio companies, eliminating 8 planned finance hires while accelerating close speed by an average of 9 days.
Start With Proof, Not Promises
Most vendors demand a "90-day implementation commitment" before you see value. We want you to see proof on your actual books first.
Our Free Close Value Assessment requires:
30-minute call (or self-serve)
Read-only ERP access
60 days of close data
You receive:
Efficiency vs. industry benchmark
Exact bottlenecks causing your Day 15 close
Your Day 5 roadmap with a zero-bandwidth timeline
ROI model specific to your entity count
No workshops. No requirements docs. No 12-week plans. Just proof that automation delivers Day 5 without consuming your team's time.
Get your free value assessment today: click here
The Bottom Line
You don't have the bandwidth for another system. That is exactly why Maximor designed its Done-For-You 5-day close within 60 days automation program.
The question isn't, "Can we afford the time?" The real question is: "Can we afford another quarter of manual close work as the business scales and we miss strategic deadlines?"
Stop saying no to automation because you're too busy. Start saying yes to automation that doesn't need you to be less busy.
Get your free value assessment today: click here
