The portfolio company CFO's first 90 days: cash, covenants, systems and records
A new portfolio company CFO should spend the first 90 days securing cash visibility and lender reporting, learning the sponsor's value creation plan, and building two documents that are easy to defer: a systems-and-archive map and a covenant check. Together they make later decisions on migrations, add-ons or a data license fast.
Why the CFO seat is the right place to start
A new CFO of a PE-backed company sits where cash, lenders, contracts and systems meet. In the first quarter you will build the 13-week cash flow, sign the first compliance certificate, rework the close calendar and learn what the sponsor expects in the monthly reporting pack. Each of those tasks touches the company's systems and agreements, which makes the CFO the natural owner of two documents that are easy to defer: a systems-and-archive map and a covenant check.
Both pay off well beyond day 90. They speed up add-on integrations, ERP and CRM migrations, audit requests and lender questions. They also make any later decision about licensing the company's records quick, because the CFO is one of the people who can sponsor a license, alongside the owner, the CEO or another authorized representative.
A 90-day plan with records and covenants built in
| Window | Core priorities | Records and contract items to add |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1-15 | Cash: 13-week cash flow, bank access, approval limits; meet the deal team and operating partner | Get read access to every finance system and list who holds admin rights |
| Days 16-30 | Close and reporting: close calendar, lender reporting dates, first compliance certificate | Read the credit agreement's reporting, covenant and negative covenant sections; diarize every deadline |
| Days 31-60 | Value creation plan and KPIs: tie KPI definitions to the ledger; refresh the budget | Build the systems-and-archive map across every department, not just finance |
| Days 61-75 | Team and controls: finance org, segregation of duties, audit readiness | Run the covenant check on dispositions, licensing and IP; sample customer contracts for confidentiality terms |
| Days 76-90 | Board pack: findings, systems roadmap, finance team plan | Recommend retention rules before any migration and flag archives worth preserving |
The systems-and-archive map
The map lists every system the company runs or has retired, with enough detail to make migration, retention and licensing decisions without a fresh investigation each time.
Live systems
- Every system by department: ERP or accounting, billing, CRM, HRIS and payroll, ticketing, project tools, email, Teams or Slack, shared drives, engineering tools
- For each one: business owner, admin, first year of data, renewal date and export method
Retired systems and archives
- Systems replaced in the last ten years, and where their data went
- Backups, file servers and former employees' mailboxes, with their retention settings
- Records from acquired companies that were never migrated
Rules in force
- Email and chat auto-deletion settings
- Legal holds and their scope
- Who must approve deleting or decommissioning a system
The guide to keeping activity history during CRM consolidation covers the system most often damaged in a migration, and the minimum viable data governance set turns this map into policy.
The covenant check
Before the company does anything outside the ordinary course, such as selling assets, granting an exclusive license or paying a dividend, the CFO needs to know what the financing and ownership documents allow. Read these with counsel; the table lists what to look for, not what the answer will be.
| Document | What to look for | Why it matters for a data license |
|---|---|---|
| Credit agreement | Limits on dispositions, definitions that could treat an exclusive license as a disposition, permitted baskets, IP covenants | An exclusive AI-training license may need lender consent or fit within a basket |
| Security agreement | Liens over intellectual property and general intangibles | Lenders may hold security over the records being licensed |
| Shareholders' or LLC agreement | Sponsor consent rights over material contracts | Sets the internal approval path |
| Customer and vendor contracts | Confidentiality, data-use limits, ownership of deliverables | Client-owned data cannot be licensed without consent |
| Privacy notices and employee policies | What customers and staff were told about data use | Shapes what can be included and how it is redacted |
| Prior data agreements | Any existing data-sharing or AI-training license | An existing AI-training license on the same records is a red flag |
Also check how covenant EBITDA treats non-recurring items, because a one-time license payment may or may not count depending on the definition. On recognition, FASB's ASU 2016-10 clarified how Topic 606 distinguishes a right to use intellectual property from a right to access it (Journal of Accountancy, April 2016); ask the auditors early how a data license would be recorded.
This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, auditors and lenders before acting.
Which companies a CFO can introduce
Your own company is the obvious candidate, but there you act as sponsor, together with your CEO and board, and apply directly. As a partner you can introduce others: sister portfolio companies you meet at the sponsor's CFO roundtables, former employers, and peers from CFO forums.
| Signal | What to check | Why buyers care |
|---|---|---|
| Headcount | 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), visible in payroll history | Scale produces enough connected records |
| History | Several years of documented operations in systems that still export | Long histories show change over time |
| Breadth | Records across many systems; strong companies run 10-15+ | Whole workflows, not fragments |
| Outcomes | Invoices paid or disputed, tickets closed, projects delivered against budget | Outcome labels make records useful for evaluation |
| Clean rights | Records the company created under contracts that allow licensing | Required before anything is delivered |
Every criterion, with examples, is listed on the who qualifies page.
How an introduction moves
- You register as a partner, then share your referral link with the company's CFO or CEO, or enter the company in the referral form yourself.
- SourceX checks the company's size, operating history, data breadth and rights with its sponsor.
- The company lists its systems, the years each covers and what can be exported in a data inventory, much the same ground your archive map covers.
- SourceX and the company settle one all-in price and the license terms, and nothing binds the company until it signs.
- AI labs and data buyers review; when a deal closes, data is delivered under redaction rules agreed in advance and the company receives a one-time payment.
- Your reward follows once SourceX has received its fee.
You never export, upload or describe the company's records.
What to say to the operating partner
The portfolio CEO summit session on data licensing is another place sponsors raise this across the whole portfolio.
How rewards work if you introduce other companies
Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards are paid only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. The amount comes from SourceX's fee and is never deducted from the referred company's proceeds.
If the company in question is your employer, treat yourself as its sponsor rather than a referrer, and read your employment agreement, the sponsor's policies and the program terms before accepting anything. Disclose any partner relationship to your CEO and board.
When a referral is not worth making
- Payroll history never shows 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded).
- Most of its records belong to clients, as at outsourced finance or BPO providers.
- The data is mainly patient health records or consumer personal data.
- The lenders will not consent and the credit agreement leaves no room.
- Legacy systems were decommissioned without exports.
Next step
Put the archive map and covenant check in your day-90 board pack. If a company in your network passes the company fit checker, register as a partner to make the introduction, or have your own company apply directly at sourcex.si/apply.
- Step 1Share your linkSend your personal link to a company you know.
- Step 2Company appliesThe company applies itself at /apply.
- Step 3Buyer selects and paysThe buyer selects and pays for the data and SourceX receives its fee.
- Step 4You get your rewardYour share of SourceX fees becomes payable.
Common questions
Should a new CFO raise data licensing in the first 90 days?
Usually as a finding rather than a project. The first 90 days belong to cash, reporting, controls and the lender relationship. The systems-and-archive map and covenant check are natural places to note that the company holds licensable history and what approvals a license would need, so the board can decide whether to explore it at the day-90 review.
Can the CFO sign a data license for the company?
The CFO can act as the authorized sponsor in discussions with SourceX, but signing authority depends on the company's delegation of authority and any consent rights held by the board, the sponsor or lenders. Nothing is binding until the company agrees price and terms and signs, which leaves time to collect the approvals the covenant check identified.
How does a one-time license payment affect covenant EBITDA?
It depends on the definition in the credit agreement. Some definitions exclude or adjust for non-recurring items and others are silent, and lenders may read them differently. Model the payment both ways, confirm the treatment with counsel and the lenders before signing, and present it as non-recurring in management reporting either way.
Which records are most at risk in the first year after a PE investment?
Data in retired systems, former employees' mailboxes and records from acquired companies are the usual casualties, especially during ERP or CRM migrations and email tenant clean-ups. Setting retention rules and taking full exports before any system is decommissioned protects them at little cost. The archive map tells you where each of these sits and who can approve its deletion.
Does the CFO's company owe anything extra when a partner is involved?
No. The company sees a single all-in price that already includes SourceX's fee, and it is typically paid once, within about 60 days of invoicing after a buyer selects the data. A partner reward, if any, comes from SourceX's own fee after the buyer pays, so the company's proceeds do not change with or without a referrer.
Related pages
- CRM consolidation after an acquisition: how to keep the activity history
- Data governance for PE portfolio companies: a minimum viable set of four controls
- Which US businesses are a fit for a SourceX data licensing introduction
- Portfolio company CEO summit agenda ideas, with a 30-minute data licensing session
- Check Company Fit for Data Licensing
Free resources
- NPV calculator — Net present value with a discounted cash flow table.
- Time value of money calculator — Future and present value with optional regular payments.
- Business DSCR calculator — Debt service coverage from cash flow and loan terms.
- All free tools · MCP resource center
By SourceX Partnerships Team · Published 2026-10-09 · Updated 2026-10-09
Know a US company with valuable proprietary data?
Become a referral partner from anywhere we support, get your link and introduce an owner or authorized decision-maker.
Refer a company →I own a business
Explore licensing your company's data to AI developers worldwide. Start a short assessment; no uploads needed.
Start an assessment