#32 - Julian Rowlands, Founder & CEO at Cashboard

Slice of Finance Team

03/26/2025

#32 - Julian Rowlands, Founder & CEO at Cashboard

Join us on this week's episode of the Slice of Finance podcast, hosted by Jared S. Taylor!

Our Guest: Julian Rowlands, Founder & CEO at Cashboard.

What you’ll get out of this episode:

Cashboard’s Mission: A next-gen BI and analytics platform for finance teams, automating FP&A workflows with AI.
The Solo CFO Concept: How AI is reducing the need for large finance teams by automating complex financial processes.
The Future of FP&A: AI will handle execution, while human CFOs focus on strategy and decision-making.
The Skills CFOs Need: Data fluency, SQL knowledge, and understanding data systems will be key for future finance leaders.
Scaling with AI: How Cashboard is helping mid-market companies streamline finance operations.

Watch

Listen

From CFO to Fintech Founder

Julian Rowlands, Founder & CEO of Cashboard, has an impressive background as a CFO at high-growth startups like Spruce (acquired by Zillow) and Zendit. His experience juggling financial data across multiple platforms led him to create Cashboard—a BI and analytics tool that automates FP&A workflows using AI.

"Not the best CFO in the world, not the best data engineer, but I have a unique overlap of both," Julian says. This unique skill set positioned him perfectly to address inefficiencies in financial planning and analysis (FP&A).

The Birth of the Solo CFO

One of the boldest ideas Julian and his team are working toward is the "Solo CFO"—a future where AI handles the execution of financial analysis, reporting, and forecasting, allowing CFOs to focus on strategy.

While the concept is still evolving, Cashboard has already made strides in automating tedious financial tasks. "We’ve built AI-powered workflows that pull data from multiple sources, clean and map it correctly, and generate reports autonomously," Julian explains.

What AI Can and Can’t Do

Despite the excitement around AI, Julian is realistic about its capabilities. AI is great at synthesizing data, automating workflows, and even drafting reports. However, it lacks wisdom and experience—qualities essential for making high-level financial decisions.

Rather than replacing CFOs, AI will serve as an execution tool, allowing finance leaders to focus on strategic decision-making. "You're not going to hire AI to be your CFO, but you will hire AI to handle execution," Julian clarifies.

The Future of FP&A Jobs in an AI-Driven World

With AI automating much of the manual work in FP&A, the traditional career path of starting as an analyst and working up to CFO may evolve.

Julian predicts that future finance professionals will take on roles similar to Revenue Operations (RevOps) in sales, ensuring AI systems are correctly implemented and data flows smoothly. "Data fluency will be a must. Understanding SQL, data modeling, and AI workflows will separate top finance professionals from the rest," he says.

Who Needs Cashboard?

Cashboard is designed for mid-market businesses (around $15M+ in revenue) that struggle with complex financial data spread across multiple systems. "If you're five employees and have all your data in your head, you don’t need us. But if you’re dealing with Salesforce, NetSuite, payroll systems, and spreadsheets, that’s where we help," Julian explains.

What’s Next for Cashboard?

As Cashboard continues to develop its AI-driven financial automation, the company is focused on expanding its capabilities. "We’re working toward fully enabling the Solo CFO, starting with BI and analytics, and moving into budgeting and forecasting automation," Julian hints.

Final Thoughts

AI is reshaping finance, but the human CFO isn’t going anywhere. Instead, the role will evolve—less manual work, more strategic insight. Cashboard is at the forefront of this transformation, helping companies scale their financial operations efficiently.