Finance presentation skills are one of the most underrated but essential skills in a startup CFO’s career. You might be brilliant with spreadsheets and analysis, but if you can’t communicate those insights clearly to a room full of non-finance people such as founders, board members, sales and ops leads, then it’s going to fall flat.

And worse, it won’t influence decisions.

In startups and scale-ups, finance isn’t just a back-office function. You're expected to be a commercial partner. That means translating financial data into something the rest of the business understands, relates to, and uses. That’s where finance presentation skills really matter.

Below are some key tactics I’ve used (and taught others to use) to improve finance communication in fast-growth environments.

Start With the Story, Not the Spreadsheet

When preparing any financial presentation such as a board pack, leadership meeting, or an all hands, you need to lead with the story. Not the Excel dump. Not the waterfall chart. Not the EBITDA bridge.

Ask yourself: what do I want them to take away from this?  Perhaps even, what is the one thing that I want them to remember?  (can go up to 3, but most people only retain 1)

What’s the story this month? Have margins dropped? Is revenue growing but cash not moving? Have we hit a milestone, or are we off-course?

Finance presentation skills doesn't mean you need to dumb things down instead you need to sharpen your message so the business understands what’s going on and what to do next.

Use Headlines, Not Labels

A common mistake is titling a slide “P&L Overview” or “Revenue Summary.”

That tells me nothing.

Instead, say:
🔹 “Revenue up 12%—but margins down due to partner discounting”
🔹 “Cash runway now 13 months—time to trigger fundraising prep”

Make the title your key message. Then use the chart or table to back it up.

This approach immediately tells the room what they’re looking at, and what it means. And it helps your slides stand alone if they’re forwarded later.

You could even write your story in 5 bullet forms and then that is your 5 slide headers.  This is a pitch deck strategy that I use with leadership or all hands meeting slides as well.

Don’t Assume They’re Looking at the Numbers the Same Way You Are

You’ve been deep in the detail. You understand how that SaaS churn rate interacts with net revenue retention and how deferred income flows through the model.

Your leadership team? Probably doesn’t.

Your job is to bridge the gap between finance and operations. That’s where finance presentation skills go from ‘okay’ to ‘strategic’.

If you’re presenting to a leadership team, use simple visuals: bar charts, trends over time, and colour coding. Highlight risks in red, opportunities in green. Make the ask or takeaway crystal clear.

If you’re speaking to the board, lean slightly more into commentary: “Based on current trajectory, we will need to raise by December to avoid breaching runway targets.”

Choose the Right Format for the Audience

• Board meetings: Keep it strategic and concise. Include historical performance, high-level KPIs, and commentary. You can include the full pack as an appendix, but in the meeting, focus on the 2–3 slides that really matter.

• Founder & Leadership team updates: Founders want signals. What are the risks? What decisions do they need to make? Be commercial.

• All Hands and Team-wide presentations: Link financial performance to business impact. For example, “We saved £30K this month, which we’ve reinvested into marketing—here’s what that means for our CAC.”

Practise Saying It Out Loud

Even if it’s just to your dog.

So many finance people (my past self included) build beautiful decks, then waffle through the delivery. Or, worse, read the slides word-for-word. Don’t do that.

Use your slides to support your message rather than be the message.

Practise your opening and closing lines. Know your transitions. Make it feel like a conversation, not a performance.

End With the Action

Always finish with what the business needs to do based on the information.

Are we able to hire?

Do we need to reduce burn?

Is it time to start the next fundraise?

Leave them with a decision.

Finance presentation skills aren’t just for board meetings or investors. They’re for every conversation where you represent finance to the rest of the business.

And as a finance leader in a start-up or scale-up, your ability to communicate financial data is just as important as your ability to produce it.

If you’re stepping up into a leadership role and want to improve how you show up in meetings, how you present financials, and how you position yourself as a strategic partner, our Financial Leadership Fundamentals course covers this in depth. From board packs to commercial storytelling, it’s all there.

Want to be a confident and skilled Finance leader in 12 months?  Then follow these steps:

• Sign up to our next free workshop.

• Access the FLF Book that gives you an overview of the FLF Framework. 

• Work with me in the Financial Leadership Foundations course  for indepth training to become a confident & skilled finance professional in 12 months.  Includes regular Q&A sessions, networking with other finance professionals & the Advanced Management Accounts course.