The Midnight Panic: Why do CFOs lose sleep?

The CFO was perplexed. Three wishes were made. Three wishes were granted. Yet somehow, the entire finance function was collapsing.
The CFO glanced at his Tax Head, Gee Estina, drew a deep breath, and tightened his tie. “Show him in,” he said, forcing a calmness he did not feel.
The door creaked open, and in walked Mr. Adit Tor—tall, sharp-eyed, and carrying a folder so thick it looked like it held the secrets of the universe. He placed it on the table with a dramatic thud.

“Shall we begin the audit?” Tor said, flipping open the file. The CFO gulped. “Of course,” he replied, his voice only slightly betraying his nerves.

Mr. Tor wasted no time. “I’ve reviewed your GST filings, and there are discrepancies. Lots of them.” He tapped a page. “Incorrect ITC claims. Mismatched invoices. And this one—vendor filing delays that somehow didn’t trigger any notices?” He raised an eyebrow. “Suspicious, don’t you think?”

The CFO felt a drop of sweat roll down his head. “I—uh, we have a new system. It’s supposed to prevent errors.”

Mr. Tor smirked. “Yes. And it did that by hiding them.”

Silence.

The CFO knew he was cornered. There was no magical explanation, no clever workaround. This time, there was only one way out.

The cost of non-compliance? A heavy penalty!

“How much is this going to cost us?” he asked, bracing himself. Mr. Tor pushed the file forward with an issued notice, and the number at the bottom made him wince. Enough to ruin his quarterly budget. However, he was given 7 days to reply to this notice with facts and figures.

“This won’t happen again”, said the CFO.

Mr. Tor smiled. “I’m sure it won’t,” he said, standing up. “Because next time Mr.Tor, I’ll be back with even sharper eyes.”

And just like that, he was gone. The CFO slumped in his chair, rubbing his temples. His foolproof system had let him down. Again.

He looked around, ensuring the office was empty, then snuck into his room, shut the door, and whispered the words he swore he’d never say again:

“Genie, I need another wish.”

The room stayed silent.

He repeated. "Genie, I need one more wish!" Only the hum of the air conditioner answered. The GST audit notice that had arrived that afternoon had a deadline that was terrifyingly close. His earlier optimism—that some last-minute miracle would save him—was fading fast.

Panic set in. He grabbed his phone and called his Tax Head, Gee Estina, who was now in the next room with the team. " We have a problem. A big one.”
Their compliance process was a mess—manual reconciliations, scattered records, and no centralised system to flag critical notices. Gee Estina opened her email on her laptop, and started calling out some gaps. She sat next to the CFO, who couldn't stop sweating. And then, his eyes fell on an email pop up:

The CFO took the mouse from Gee Estina and clicked it.

The email introduced Clear Finance Cloud, a compliance platform that promised automated tracking, AI-powered reconciliations, and real-time alerts. But before the CFO could process the solution, he had to face reality.

The CFO walked into his office, the weight of yesterday’s penalty still fresh in his mind. Before he could even settle in, Gee Estina announced, “Clear’s sales team is here—they’re set up in the conference room.”
‍
The moment it clicked
1. Live data, right there: They pulled up the CFO’s own compliance history, visualising gaps in minutes—no IT help needed.
2. “What-If” scenarios: The team demonstrated how tweaking one field auto-updated every linked report. A junior analyst gasped. “Wait, that would’ve caught last quarter’s mismatch?”
3. Penalty prevention mode: Clear’s AI flagged a live risk in the CFO’s current filings—a misfiled invoice that could’ve triggered another notice.

The room fell silent. No genie, no magic—just a dashboard showing every transaction, every mismatch, every deadline. This wasn’t just software. It was a shield.

Gee Estina, his Tax Head, peered at the dashboard over the CFO's shoulder. "Seems all your wishes came true," she said with a grin as the data was updated. The CFO gave a relieved sigh. "No more wish-making for me. Next audit season, we'll be the ones sleeping soundly.
As the team packed up, the CFO didn’t just shake their hands—he asked, “How fast can we onboard?”

To be continued…