Why CFOs Need to Vibe-Code
Discover how an AI-native CFO uses AI agents to speed up forecasting, reporting, and month-end close while building new finance skills for the AI era.
Alyona Mysko
Founder and CFO of Fuelfinance
CFO Journey: Alyona Mysko transitioned from CFO to founder, launching an AI-native FP and A solution.
AI Efficiency: AI enhances speed in finance tasks, allowing a single team member to do the work of two.
Financial Agents: Innovative finance agents save significant hours, like cutting month-end close time from 8 hours to 30 minutes.
AI Limitations: While AI aids in analysis, human oversight is crucial for final decisions in finance.
Getting Started: To implement AI in finance, install Claude and set up tailored context files and skills.
After previous CFO roles, Alyona Mysko became the founder and CFO of an AI-native FP&A solution called Fuelfinance.
We spoke with her about how she's using AI agents to manage her 40-person startup's finances. Here's what she had to say.
A CFO-turned-founder
I'm a CFO-turned-founder of Fuelfinance, an AI-native FP&A solution.
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I'm a zero user of everything we're building in Fuelfinance. As a CFO, I always dreamed of a tool that wasn’t just about faster, more accurate FP&A, but felt like having 1,000 CFOs in a room helping me make strategic decisions.
In 2019, I built our Google Sheets MVP and helped our first customer become profitable in five months — and he later became my cofounder. In 2022, we raised our seed round while in Ukraine during the full-scale war.
Today, we manage $500M+ in customers’ P&Ls via Fuel. We're a team of 40.
How AI Creates Efficiency Gains
The biggest advantage I'm seeing with AI is speed.
- One finance team member can now complete tasks that previously required two people.
- Month-end close happens the day after month-end, not 3–5 days later like before.
- We run all what-if scenarios, custom dashboards, and board reports in minutes instead of hours.
- Execs have access to what-if scenarios and financial analysis, which means they don't need to go through the finance team.
Beyond time, it has resulted in much smarter financial decisions across the team.
The biggest advantage I’m seeing with AI is speed.
Which AI Agents Are Saving Finance Teams Time
Here are a couple of examples of finance agents we've built internally, using Claude Skills:
- Month-end close: We created an agent with Claude Code. This process previously took 8-10 hours monthly; now it takes less than 30 minutes.
- 13-week cash flow forecast: We built a forecasting agent that replaces at least 2-3 hours of manual work per week.
And as I mentioned, we also connected all our financial and operational data via MCP to Claude so that execs have access.
Why AI Underperforms With Data and Decisions
That said, Claude can't do everything. It cannot perform data cleaning, data consolidation, or manage access levels. And you still get average, generic outputs when running more complex analyses on larger datasets.
It can't — or shouldn't — make decisions either.
We use AI for financial analysis, but the final check and controlling function involves both AI and human input.
And when it comes to capital allocation and budgets, all final decisions must remain human.
How to Get Started With AI
Here's how to get started using Claude for finance:
- Install Claude
- Choose your model and settings. The latest Claude Opus for complex work. The latest Claude Sonnet for everyday tasks. And in Settings, enable code execution and file creation, skills, web search, and memory.
- Create your context files: About yourself, your working rules, and your preferred formats.
- Set up your Profile Preferences (your universal instruction set).
- Set up your first project. Examples include: Monthly close, board reporting, FP&A/forecasting, fundraising, tax and compliance, competitive intel, sales analytics, marketing ROI, investor relations, and workforce planning.
- Set your writing style by clicking the "+" button at the bottom of the chat and selecting "Use style." Samples are better than descriptions here.
Then, get started with reusable instruction packages known as Skills.
You can create custom Skills. And Claude has built-in finance Skills already, like: 3-statement financial modeling, comps analysis, competitive landscape analysis, DCF modeling, due diligence data pack, earnings analysis, initiating coverage research, pitch deck creation, PPT template creator, presentation quality checker, and strip profile.
Why Claude Should Be Connected to Excel
Claude in Excel is a very powerful tool. It's different from Microsoft Copilot because:
- It reads your entire workbook, including nested formulas and multi-tab dependencies.
- It provides cell-level citations.
- It uses traceable formulas, not hard-coded values.
- It has overwrite protection.
- It connects to institutional data via MCP (S&P, FactSet, LSEG, Moody's, MSCI).
Here's what I use it for:
- Data cleaning and formatting
- Financial modeling
- Formula writing
- Analysis and visualization
And a few tips:
- Start with context. Always begin with: "This is a [type of model] for a [$X revenue] [industry] company..."
- Audit before you change. Say "Review this model" before "Change this model."
- Ask Claude to explain in plain English.
- Use Opus 4.7 for complex models (at time of writing). Switch to it in the sidebar settings. Use Sonnet 4.6 for quick formatting tasks.
Why CFOs Must Learn to Vibe Code
My advice? Burn your tokens and learn vibe-coding.
It doesn't matter if it works or not. We now spend millions of tokens monthly. Half of them don't have a high ROI, but that’s okay because we’re still learning.
What matters right now is building new skills and understanding how AI actually functions within finance workflows.
My advice? Burn your tokens and learn vibe-coding…It doesn’t matter if it works or not. We now spend millions of tokens monthly. Half of them don’t have a high ROI, but that’s okay because we’re still learning
Follow Along
You can follow along with Alyona Mysko on LinkedIn as she continues to build Fuelfinance. And check out her Claude Guide for CFOs.
More expert interviews to come on The CFO Club!
