You’ve Just Been Acquired. Now What? A CFO’s Guide to Navigating the First 180 Days Post-Acquisition

Welcome to private equity ownership. 

Whether this is your first time working in a PE-backed environment or you’ve been through this before, the first 180 days post-acquisition are critical, fast moving and high-pressure. You’re now operating in a new world, where expectations around speed, accuracy, and value creation are dramatically different, and that assumes you don’t start acquiring soon. 

For most CFOs entering this phase, run into a few issues: Demand for better faster reporting, higher focus on budgeting, and critically cash planning. With a little bit of love Finance teams can adapt to reporting and tidy up budgeting, but where Finance teams struggle adapting the most is cash planning. 

Maybe you have a cashflow model already, maybe you don’t but it’s suddenly much more critical than its ever been. In an LBO structure, you inherit a capital stack that includes debt and equity obligations. Combine that with aggressive growth expectations, and suddenly, your ability to forecast and manage liquidity becomes the linchpin of success. Without real visibility into cash on hand, it’s impossible to support operational priorities, meet lender covenants, or fund strategic initiatives. 

This post breaks down what newly acquired CFOs need to know and do in their first 180 days especially when it comes to cash, control, and confidence.

1. Welcome to the Portfolio: What Changes—and What Doesn’t

The moment your company is acquired by a private equity firm, the operating environment shifts. You’re no longer just managing financials; you’re executing against a defined investment thesis. 

What changes: 

• Tighter timelines for decision-making and reporting 

• Greater visibility and scrutiny from investors 

• Heightened expectations around liquidity and forecast accuracy 

What doesn’t: 

• The importance of sound financial stewardship 

• Your leadership role as a strategic business partner 

• The need to balance operational execution with long-term planning 

Too many CFOs assume they need to change everything overnight. But your investors are looking for focused leadership — starting with how you manage and allocate cash.

2. Understand the Playbook: The PE Firm’s Perspective

PE firms care deeply about growth, but they care just as much—if not more—about value creation and risk mitigation. Your job is to translate your finance function into a tool for driving both. 

Key areas of how PEs drive value creation: 

• Improving Free cash flow and cash conversion cycle and working capital efficiency  

• M&A multiple arbitrage  

• Cost reduction via synergies or tactical improvements 

• Operating leverage and fixed-cost scalability 

• Quality of data and clean bookkeeping, maintaining QoE readiness from Day 1 

You don’t need to become a private equity expert overnight, but you do need to align with how they think. That starts with speaking in terms of EBITDA growth, cash generation, and capital efficiency—not just GAAP compliance. 

And it means building a financial roadmap that clearly connects short-term liquidity to long-term value.

3. First Priorities: What to Tackle in the First 90 Days

Your first 90 days are not about heroic transformation. They’re about establishing control and earning trust. That means getting your hands around reporting, cash flow, visibility, process and accountability fast. 

Immediate focus areas: 

• 13-week cash flow forecast: Your most important tool post-close. Accuracy here is critical in a levered environment. Nobody wants to trip a covenant or have a last-minute draw 

• Working capital analysis: Where is cash stuck? How fast are receivables turning? Are payables optimized? 

• ERP/data integrity: Can you rely on your system of record, or do you need to rebuild confidence in the numbers? 

• Board-ready reporting: Build a reporting structure that meets investor needs without slowing down internal ops. 

Liquidity blind spots are the most common risk area for new CFOs—and the easiest way to lose investor confidence. Make this your top priority.

4. Quick Wins: Where CFOs Can Build Credibility Fast

You don’t need to hit a home run in your first quarter. But you do need to deliver momentum. 

Examples of quick, meaningful wins: 

• Launch a disciplined collections process to reduce DSO 

• Adjust payment terms or vendor cadence to improve short-term cash positioning 

• Build a working dashboard to monitor cash, AR/AP, and forecast variance 

• Produce accurate up to date reporting 

These initiatives show that you’re in control of the company’s financial lifeblood—and they often free up real dollars that can be reinvested in growth.

5. Technology as an Accelerator

One of the best-kept secrets in successful post-acquisition transitions: the right tools multiply your impact. 

Far too many newly acquired companies delay technology investments until after integration is complete. That’s a mistake. The post-close period is when you have the most support—and the most strategic urgency—to modernize how finance works. 

Look for tools that help you: 

• Build real-time visibility into liquidity 

• Create and adjust forecasts quickly 

• Monitor working capital and KPIs in one place 

• Integrate with your ERP and Excel models 

Pegasus Insights was built for exactly this use case—to give newly acquired finance leaders a secure, clear view of their cash position, forecast accuracy, and working capital performance, right from Day 1. 

Final Takeaway 

Being acquired doesn’t just change your cap table—it changes your mandate. 

You’re now responsible for scaling a finance function that drives operational excellence and capital efficiency under pressure. Your sponsors need visibility, your team needs direction, and your stakeholders need confidence. 

If you get cash planning right, everything else follows. If you don’t, nothing else works. 

Want to see how Pegasus can help newly acquired CFOs take control of cash and unlock growth faster? Schedule a 30-minute demo and we’ll show you how.