KPIs Every VP of Finance Must Track

The VP of Finance is the executive who must reconcile growth with sustainability, which means owning both the profitability metrics and the efficiency metrics that determine how long the company can fund its plan. Recurring revenue (ARR, MRR) frames the top line, but the VP's core focus is what happens beneath it: gross margin and operating margin reveal how much of each revenue dollar survives the cost of delivery and the cost of running the business, while EBITDA provides the standardized profitability view boards and investors compare against. Free cash flow and burn rate translate the P&L into the reality that matters most to a growing company: how much runway remains and whether the business is trending toward self-funding. On the growth-efficiency side, CAC payback period and LTV/CAC ratio tell the VP whether revenue is being acquired profitably, and expansion revenue and NRR show whether the existing base compounds without constant reinvestment. Revenue per employee captures organizational efficiency as headcount scales. The discipline of the VP of Finance is refusing to celebrate growth in isolation: the job is to show whether that growth is being bought at a price the business can sustain, and to give the leadership team the forward visibility to adjust before a cash or margin problem becomes a crisis.