Design a CFO work sample around a business decision

A CFO work sample should show how a candidate approaches a decision the position will face. If the job primarily involves cash planning and operating trade-offs, a short scenario about funding a customer expansion can be more relevant than a complex valuation exercise. Define the competencies you need before selecting the case.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management describes work samples as tasks resembling the work performed in the job, particularly where the relevant competence is expected on entry. Use that principle to select a realistic assignment. Do not test specialist knowledge the company plans to teach after hiring and then mistake unfamiliar terminology for weak judgment.

Keep the exercise bounded and explain the expected time, format, permitted tools and evaluation criteria. Agree compensation when the assignment warrants it and have the hiring team review the arrangement. A candidate should not discover halfway through that the company expects a complete strategic plan or an unpaid solution to a live business problem.

Use the same core brief for comparable candidates. If the role changes during the search, update the assessment deliberately and consider how earlier candidates will be evaluated fairly against the revised requirements.

Provide a concise set of invented financial and operating facts. For example, a fictional business has $300,000 of available cash, existing monthly commitments of $80,000 and a proposed customer project requiring $120,000 before the first payment. Include a timeline, relevant contract assumptions and enough information to identify what remains unknown. Label the entire packet as fictional.

Choose one or two uncertainties that a competent finance leader should investigate, such as an unconfirmed payment milestone or a capacity estimate that excludes training. Avoid hiding dozens of arbitrary traps. The exercise should reveal prioritization and reasoning, not reward a candidate for guessing the examiner's preferred surprise.

Ask for a short recommendation, the questions that would change it and a calculation showing the cash consequence. A spreadsheet may be appropriate, but do not require elaborate formatting when the role needs clear decision support. Let the candidate distinguish facts supplied in the packet from assumptions they introduce.

Exclude real customer names, bank details, credentials and confidential forecasts. The FTC recommends limiting access to sensitive information according to business need. A fictional case can assess judgment without exposing records that a candidate has no operational reason to possess.

Create a scoring guide tied to the role. For cash judgment, look for correct sequencing of payments and receipts, awareness of committed obligations and a response to delayed collection. For analysis, look for traceable assumptions and calculations. For communication, assess whether the recommendation tells management what decision is needed and what evidence could change it.

Use descriptive scoring anchors. A weak response might treat an unsigned customer estimate as guaranteed cash. A stronger response would identify the uncertainty and show its effect. An excellent response might propose a smaller staged commitment that preserves the commercial opportunity while reducing the immediate funding requirement. Those examples are assessment design choices, not a validated universal CFO test.

Have reviewers score independently before discussing the candidate. Record evidence from the response, such as a specific calculation or stated assumption, instead of broad labels like impressive or not strategic. This makes disagreements easier to resolve and prevents presentation confidence from substituting for financial reasoning.

Have qualified hiring or legal staff review the assessment for job relevance, accessibility and applicable requirements. The EEOC explains that employment tests can create discrimination issues and that employers remain responsible for the procedures they use. A sensible-looking finance case is not automatically a legally validated selection method.

After the candidate explains the recommendation, introduce one relevant change: the customer payment is delayed, a supplier accepts staged billing or the delivery estimate increases. Ask how the decision changes and which part of the model needs updating. This tests whether the candidate understands the reasoning behind the original answer.

Keep follow-up conditions consistent across candidates where they affect scoring. Avoid giving one person helpful commercial information while leaving another to guess it. Allow clarification questions and record any additional facts supplied so the review can distinguish candidate reasoning from interviewer assistance.

Discuss uncertainty directly. A finance leader should be able to say what cannot be concluded from the packet and propose a proportionate way to resolve it. Do not reward unwarranted certainty merely because it sounds decisive. Equally, a response that refuses to make any provisional recommendation should explain what immediate action remains possible.

Ask the candidate to translate the result for an operating manager. The explanation should preserve the financial trade-off while using terms the decision-maker can act on. A technically correct model that nobody can interpret may not meet the needs of the position.

Compare the work sample with role-relevant interviews and other appropriate evidence. One short exercise cannot establish every aspect of finance leadership, such as team development, professional judgment over time or the ability to manage a difficult close. Identify the competencies it did and did not assess before making the final selection.

Retain the brief, scoring guide and assessment records according to the company's approved hiring-record practices. Restrict access and remove unnecessary copies. Do not reuse a candidate's submission as operating work without an appropriate agreement; the stated purpose was assessment.

After the hire, compare the role's actual demands with the exercise. If the assessment focused on fundraising while the first months required process ownership and cash management, revise the next search accordingly. Keep the case current and review whether its instructions, tools and scoring still reflect the work a new finance leader must perform.