Guide for CFOs
CFO is a persona in this guide, not a built-in Clerked role. CFOs use Clerked for oversight of AP spend, processing, approval bottlenecks, security, and access across the companies assigned to them.
What you can do with Clerked
Clerked gives you one place to review the AP operation.
- Review spend, operations, and payment metrics in Insights, within the scope assigned for each company.
- Identify processing bottlenecks. Find where invoices are stuck and which approvers are holding things up.
- Verify financial controls. Approval policies enforce your authorization rules automatically on every invoice.
Your responsibilities
- Monitor AP spend and processing efficiency across all entities.
- Review approval bottlenecks and ensure invoices keep moving.
- Oversee security and access controls.
- Manage organizational structure: entities, users, role assignments.
Your role in Clerked
CFOs often have the Administrator primary role and an Administrator, Controller, or Auditor company role, depending on whether they need to configure or only review the platform. CFO itself is not a built-in role.
| Permission | Access |
|---|---|
| View invoices and inbound email | Depends on each company's invoice and inbox assignment |
| View Insights | Depends on company role and Insights scope |
| Full company configuration | Administrator role |
| Manage organization settings and users | Primary Administrator role |
| Billing and account ownership | Handled by Clerked support |
For the full breakdown, see User Roles.
Key features you use
- Insights. Company metrics within the assigned Insights scope.
- Insights metrics. How cards, periods, scopes, and breakdowns work.
- Entities. Configure and manage multiple entities in your organization.
- Organization Settings. Organization-wide configuration and billing.
- Security. Data protection, encryption, access control overview.
- Approval Policies. Approval chain design and bottleneck visibility.
Weekly workflow
CFOs typically check Clerked weekly or as needed, not daily.
- Open Insights and review the current company's configured spend, operations, and payment metrics.
- Switch entities to compare performance and identify underperforming ones.
- Look for invoices stuck in approval queues for too long. That usually points to an unavailable approver or missing delegation.
- Review security posture: confirm user roles follow least-privilege and the security overview meets your compliance requirements.
Common tasks
View AP spend across entities
Open Insights for each company and review the available metrics. Switch companies with the company switcher to compare.
Review processing metrics
See Insights metrics for how cards, sections, periods, and breakdowns work. The actual measures come from each company's metric configuration.
Investigate approval bottlenecks
If invoices take too long, check the approval queue. Long waits usually mean an approver is unresponsive or the approval policy is too narrow. Fix it with delegation or by adjusting the policy.
Check security and access
Review the Security overview for encryption, access controls, and audit logging. Use organization users for identities and invitations. Change a linked person's company role, invoice access, inbox access, and Insights scope from Company People.
Manage organization settings
Open Organization Settings for organization-level configuration: name, billing, and global settings that apply across all entities.
Tips
- Focus on trends, not individual invoices. Insights is for high-level oversight. Open specific invoices when a metric links to work that needs review.
- Set up proper approval chains. Well-designed policies with right-sized thresholds reduce bottlenecks while preserving controls.
- Require delegation coverage. A single unavailable approver can block an entire chain. Make delegation standard before vacations.
- Audit access quarterly. Review primary roles, company roles, invoice access, inbox access, and Insights scope as separate controls.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see metrics across all entities at once?
Insights shows metrics for the selected company and your assigned scope. Switch companies with the company switcher to compare.
How is my data secured?
Read the Security overview for the current security information, or contact Clerked support when you need details for a review.
What ERP systems are supported?
See Supported ERPs for the full list. If yours is not listed, contact support@clerked.ai.
How accurate is the AI extraction?
The AI Extraction system is accurate on standard invoices and improves over time as it learns from your corrections. Accuracy depends on document quality and complexity.