Meet AI CFO: instant what-ifs, real accuracy
When I recently asked, “Who hates doing finance?” at SaaSOpen, almost the whole room raised their hands.
Yet — if your company were a living, breathing organism, its financial statements would be its vital signs. Monitoring them shows your business's financial health, performance and future. There’s no way around it.
Running a business in 2025 isn't getting any easier. According to Gartner, CFOs face slower revenue growth, rising costs and difficulty finding skilled finance talent. Whether you're a founder or finance lead, the pressure is on to make wise decisions — fast.
That’s why we’ve put together a guide on how to do a financial analysis, even if finance isn’t your favorite topic.
This 4-step plan walks you through everything you need: preparing financial statements, tracking metrics and more. And with Fuelfinance in your corner, you don’t have to do it alone.
Let’s break it down so you can do a financial statement analysis like a seasoned CFO.
There's no need to do things manually when plenty of financial management solutions can help you save time and avoid errors in financial analysis.
Here's how to do it with the help of Fuelfinance, a cloud-based financial forecasting tool that acts like your personal outsourced CFO.
Before you can start analyzing financial statements, you need to prepare your financial statement reports. This is the first key step in understanding how to do a financial analysis with clarity and precision.
You can do that manually or using accounting software such as Xero or QuickBooks, but it'd be much more effective to use an all-in-one finance tool such as Fuelfinance that can provide you with more insights and a higher level of automation.
Read also: 5 Best QuickBooks Integrations for Better Financial Management
Fuelfinance is your source of truth for all financial and operational data — consolidating information from your CRM, accounting software, ERPs and more. Instead of going between platforms or juggling spreadsheets, you get centralized access to your company’s financial data in a customized dashboard.
Here are the most important financial statements that you can generate with a few clicks through our financial reporting software:
We also offer an automatic report feature, which generates financial statements for any period. Use a simple prompt — no spreadsheets or manual calculations required — and our platform will auto-generate the report you need, ready for deeper analysis or presentation.
Here are some valuable tips for preparing financial statement reports:
These small practices make a big difference — and they’re a key part of mastering how to do a financial analysis the right way.
It’s now time to conduct a financial statement analysis. There are three techniques that we use at Fuelfinance:
To properly assess your financial reports, you need to be an extremely good detective or download Fuelfinance — your super detective. Here’s how we support you:
While analyzing financial statements gives you the big picture, zooming into metrics helps diagnose the specifics of your financial health. That’s a core lesson in how to do a financial analysis that generates actionable insights.
Here are some of the key financial metrics that show your business's financial performance:
Tracking financial metrics regularly is harder than it sounds, especially when things get busy. Fuelfinance makes it easy, bringing all your key numbers into one place. Whether you’re looking at ARR growth, net profit, COGS or operating profit margin, everything is automatically updated and ready to review.
This FP&A software suggests which KPIs matter most for your type of business. If you’re running a SaaS company or an agency, Fuelfinance will highlight the metrics that align with your financial model. No guesswork — just the correct data at the right time to help you make confident, informed decisions.
The last step in our how to do a financial analysis guide is to compare forecasts with reality. You need to regularly compare your budget or forecast against actual results to measure your company's performance.
Furthermore, you may want to share the financial analysis results with internal and external stakeholders, including management, investors or other relevant parties.
You can leverage your results if you're satisfied with them in your pitch deck.
Here are some ways in which you can use Fuelfinance to make this process faster:
Performing a financial analysis is complex, especially when you’re wearing multiple hats as a founder or managing multiple teams as a CFO.
That’s exactly why Fuelfinance exists. We’re more than a financial analysis tool — we’re your outsourced finance department. Our software automates repetitive tasks, and our experts work alongside you to provide ongoing strategic insights.
Here’s a brief summary of what you get in the package:
Want to feel confident about your financial analysis finally? Book your free demo and see Fuelfinance in action.
If you're a founder, CFO or CEO, you already know how important it is to stay on top of your numbers. But between revenue pressure, rising costs and limited internal resources, financial analysis often gets pushed aside.
Fuelfinance gives you the structure, tools and expert support to take control (and teaches you how to do a financial analysis correctly!). Everything you need from real-time dashboards and auto-generated reports to AI forecasting and scenario modeling is in one platform — built specifically for companies like yours.
You don’t need to build an in-house finance team to get clarity. Start using Fuelfinance to get powerful automation and dedicated guidance that scales with your business.
Book a demo, and let's work together toward achieving your financial goals.
If this seems overwhelming, you can always hire a fractional CFO to help you create a financial analysis report.
For example, a company’s financial analysis could include examining its income statement and balance sheet to assess its revenue, expenses and profit margins. It could also involve calculating different financial ratios, for example, burn rate, that would provide insights into business performance and assess financial risks.
There are many different methods for effective financial statement analysis, but here are the most common ones:
The first step is familiarizing yourself with financial terms, financial statements and ratios. You should then learn how to create different spreadsheets, use formulas and analyze data with the help of financial analysis software. Our blog is a great place to start as we write in a way that's easy to understand, even though you're not a finance professional. You can start with this article on managing finances in a startup.
Just imagine how that would transform your team’s productivity and focus? Talk to our financial experts to know more.
