Newly appointed Branch CFO Matt Peterson said automation is one of his key initiatives to help the workforce payment provider move to its next phase of growth.

The remote-first company has seen revenue grow more than 1,200% over the past three years and islooking to continue that momentumby expanding its payment infrastructure and enterprise reach, according to a Feb. 17 press release announcing Peterson's appointment.

"If you really want to help a company grow and be a lasting enterprise, the finance team has to be as agile as the company's product," Peterson said in an interview with CFO Dive. "What does that mean? It means we automate systems, automate as much manual work as possible."

From speed to scale

Peterson's career spans finance leadership roles at multiple usage-based technology companies. Before joining Branch, he served as CFO at gifting platform Snappy for three years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previously, he was senior vice president of finance at SMS marketing company Attentive, vice president of finance at Fastly, where he helped the company through its 2019 IPO, and senior M&A associate at Union Square Advisors.

He joins Branch at a time when the workforce payment platform is at a critical inflection point, moving from "speed to scale." Early-stage companies need to be nimble, he said, but as they grow and begin long-term planning, that mindset must shift to "adding more operational rigor and discipline."

As a result, one of Peterson's early priorities is "aligning the financial plan with the product roadmap," and he believes careful, strategic use of automation will play a key role. The company already has a "good foundation" in its core systems, policies and processes, but Peterson aims to help that foundation mature.

"I'm about 100 days in. I feel like our reporting is in pretty good shape," he said. "Now we're going through the process of 'we've got it in place, now we need to automate it.'"

Peterson views AI and automation as a force multiplier, not a replacement for skilled employees. For example, Branch's finance team currently has about 10 people, and Peterson believes effective use of automation can enhance the team's capabilities: helping the business scale without adding headcount.

The team has already begun building tools to handle daily journal entries and automated reconciliations. In accounting, the "holy grail" of automation, he said, is enabling the team to do more strategic planning and provide recommendations, which will lead to not only a faster close but ultimately a more rigorous one.

"Your accruals will be more accurate," he said. "You can close faster, get information to the FP&A team faster, and then you can start planning and adjusting the business as needed."

Beyond ROI

Effective use of automation and AI can also help upskill the entire finance team: freeing up time means VPs can take on more strategic tasks, cascading down to controllers and other team members, "so that junior employees can work on things they would never have been able to touch because they were so busy with manual tasks," Peterson said.

When considering implementing new automation tools, CFOs also need to keep in mind that ROI is only part of the equation.

"There's a lot of abstract software out there. It's not just about the tangible ROI; that's the table stakes," Peterson said. "The question is, does it fit my three-year roadmap? Can this software tool scale to $100 million or $1 billion in revenue without me having to replace it?"

This story has been updated to describe Branch as a remote-first company and to correct 'rules' to 'accruals' in a quote from Peterson about the use of automation.