The startup world doesn’t pause for summer holidays, but your energy probably did.

September always feels like a reset. The kids are back at school, inboxes are overflowing, and you’re staring down a pipeline of deadlines, board packs, and budgeting season.

If you’re a finance leader in a fast-growth business, this is your chance to get back on the front foot. A September reset isn’t about hustling harder, rather it’s about recalibrating. Working smarter. Rebuilding momentum after a messy few months.

Here are five practical strategies to reset your leadership, refocus your priorities, and lead with impact as Q4 approaches.

1. Rebuild Your Weekly Finance Rhythm

Summer always messes with routine. People are away, reporting deadlines slip, decisions get delayed. Now’s the time to rebuild your weekly finance rhythm.

That means:

• Re-establishing your Monday priorities check-in and Friday wrap-up
• Setting fixed time blocks for reporting, approvals, and founder check-ins
• Creating clarity with your team or bookkeeper about expectations for the next 4–6 weeks

This rhythm isn’t about rigid control. It’s about reducing decision fatigue.

Even if you’re a team of one, treat your calendar like your team. Protect time for deep work. Schedule recurring reviews for AR, AP, cashflow, and margin analysis. Block out time to prep for leadership meetings. You’ll thank yourself later.

2. Refresh Your Reporting Deck (and Focus on Insights)

If you’ve been copy-pasting the same management report since spring, September is a great time to refresh your reporting deck. Not just formatting.  I’m talking insights.

Here’s what to look for:

• Remove vanity metrics nobody reads
• Highlight 2–3 commercial insights with clear commentary
• Add a cash runway tracker through to March
• Include one forward-looking scenario or trend each month

Founders don’t need a finance textbook. They need clarity & insights. Use September to clean up your templates and upgrade your commentary, especially if budgeting is around the corner.

Bonus: If your numbers are still stuck in Excel, September is the perfect time to start trialling a reporting tool like Fathom or Spotlight.  (latest Tech stack here.  New one coming shortly.)

3. Run a “Financial Housekeeping Sprint”

Before budgeting kicks off, carve out one week in September to run a financial housekeeping sprint. This is your chance to clear the decks and eliminate the mental clutter:

• Tidy your chart of accounts
• Clean up unpaid invoices and overdue bills
• Chase missing receipts or bank feeds
• Review standing approvals and access permissions
• Reconcile intercompany balances if you’ve got multiple entities

Set a 5-day sprint goal. Pick 3 things to clean up and just get them done. It’ll reduce errors, improve audit-readiness, and make your year-end close 10 times easier.

4. Reconnect with Stakeholders

You’ve probably had minimal facetime with founders, function heads, or investors over the past two months. Use your September reset to reconnect and rebuild alignment.

Try these:

• Book a 30-minute founder check-in to review your top three commercial concerns
• Revisit department spend YTD vs budget with functional leads
• Drop a short update email to your investors (if you have that kind of relationship) even if you’re not fundraising

Finance isn’t just about numbers, it’s about relationships. And if you want people to back your initiatives or respect your analysis, you need regular, high-trust conversations. September is the time to re-establish those.

5. Set 1 Bold Goal for Q4

You’re going to be pulled in 100 directions between now and year-end: cash, tax, forecasting, board prep, fundraising, you name it. But you still need one big leadership goal.

Pick something that stretches you. Something that sharpens your strategic edge or improves your leadership visibility.

Examples:

• Present at your next board meeting
• Lead your first founder workshop on revenue or margin drivers
• Run a budgeting process that actually gets team buy-in
• Automate 50% of your month-end process
• Build a cashflow dashboard your CEO actually uses

Use this September reset to lead with intention and make one move that elevates your role from finance manager to finance leader.

The September reset isn’t about a productivity sprint. It’s about realigning with what matters, cleaning up the financial chaos that crept in over summer, and leading with sharper insight and stronger influence.

And if you’re overwhelmed in a finance team of one? These five moves will buy you back time, focus your attention, and build confidence, not just in your numbers, but in your leadership.

YOUTUBE

Want to become a confident, strategic finance leader in a startup within the next 12 months? 

Here’s your plan:

1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for weekly practical tips and real talk about startup finance leadership.
2. Read my book Financial Leadership Fundamentals to get clear on what’s expected of you and how to show up as a leader.
3. Join the Financial Leadership Fundamentals course to fast-track your growth with structure, support, and strategy that works in the real world.