Today’s CFOs have seen their responsibilities expand rapidly over the past decade, a shift that affects the entirety of the C-suite. Finance leaders are finding themselves weighing in on areas of strategy, technology implementation and operations, impacting how they interact with others in the C-suite — and, in some cases, reshuffling the chains of command.

For example, in some organizations today, the “CIO actually reports into the CFO; that's an evolving trend,” said Darren Heffernan, CEO of Trintech in an interview. “And we're seeing the role of a COO really kind of go away.”

The change in the CFO’s role from one of a numbers-focused position to one of strategy has been ongoing for a number of years, but was really cemented by the COVID-19 pandemic, “because the first thing we all did was run to that person to check for 50 different things, no matter what you were doing,” Heffernan said.

The pandemic represented a “sea change” for the finance chief, he said. In particular, CFOs saw their areas of responsibility overlap more and more with the chief operating officer, leading to an environment where, in Heffernan’s mind, the two roles have “morphed into one another,” he said.

The disappearing COO and the CFO ‘sea change’

Heffernan’s over two-decade career at the financial close and reconciliation software provider spans a number of roles, including stints as the Plano, Texas-based company’s CFO and as its COO, according to his LinkedIn profile. He became Trintech’s CEO in April of last year as part of a succession plan, he said.

Over the course of his career, the office of the CFO has steadily become the “cornerstone” of the organization, he said, with business leaders looking to their finance chiefs to manage everything from cash flow to human resources to technology implementation. 

For many businesses, this evolution has meant granting their CFOs the dual title of COO; software provider Qualcomm added COO responsibilities to the remit of its CFO Akash Palkhiwala this January, for example. Other businesses that have made similar choices over the past two years include electronics and entertainment company Sony as well as teen accessories retailer Claire’s, CFO Dive previously reported.

Other companies, meanwhile, have simply elected not to appoint a COO, or have not replaced them if the executive leaves. About 35% of businesses have utilized a COO over the past decade, according to data from Crist Kolder Associates’ midyear 2024 Volatility report.

Additionally, there have been 37 departures from the COO role so far in 2024, according to the report, which analyzed 671 companies in the Fortune 500 and S&P 500. Of those 37 departures, 73% resulted in a vacant COO position.

In the face of the evolving C-suite, the COO role has become less common in part because the position was something of a catch-all, which is no longer needed for many organizations, Heffernan said.

“There's more functions that are aligned in their own respective areas, [and the] COO kind of covered a lot of different functions, and we don't see that as important anymore,” he said, adding Trintech itself does not have a COO.

Presenting a united front

With the CFO role having evolved into a joint financial and operational position, maintaining an open, transparent relationship with other key members of the C-suite — notably, the CEO, Heffernan said — is essential for an effective business.

The CEO and CFOs need to be able to speak openly to each other, but also, “once you go outside the door to face, if you like, the wider world, it's critical that you're on the same page,” Heffernan said. “So a large amount of trust has to exist between the two positions as well…it can't be, a boss and a subordinate. It has to be very much [a relationship between] equals.”

Failing to be in sync with each other can lead to problems down the line for the business, Heffernan said, which is also true for other key relationships in the C-suite. For example, there’s more overlap today between the CFO and the role of a chief information or chief technology officer, so keeping those two areas siloed “is not conducive to a growing, inclusive organization,” Heffernan said.

Trintech, for example, has a centralized group which comes together to make purchasing decisions to ensure there is no duplication with the technology they are buying. Involving the users of those technologies from the start is both key from a procurement perspective and to making the jobs of both the CIO and CFO easier, Heffernan said.

Heffernan spoke to CFO Dive at a time when Trintech has reported ongoing growth, with bookings growing by approximately 20% year-over-year for the first half of its fiscal year, according to a recent press release.

The company’s owners, private equity firms Summit Partners and Vista Equity Partners, are also reportedly looking into a potential sale of the firm that could grant it a value of approximately $2 billion, Reuters reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Trintech did not respond to requests for comment regarding the possibility of a sale.