“Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance.”

Why your CFO keeps asking if that code is “Capitalizable.”

In Part 3 of our series on cross-departmental alliances, we are heading to the quiet corner of the office: Engineering and Product.

Early in my career, I viewed Engineering as a black box. Money went in, features came out (eventually).

The friction point? CapEx vs. OpEx.

I used to nag the CTO about tracking hours. “Are we building new features or fixing bugs?” They hated it. They just wanted to ship code.

But here is the reality I had to explain:

• OpEx (Maintenance/Bugs): Hits the P&L immediately. Lowers EBITDA.
• CapEx (New Dev): Goes on the Balance Sheet. Amortized over time. Keeps EBITDA healthy.

When I explained that accurate time-tracking literally increased our company valuation (and by extension, the value of their equity), the conversation changed.

My promise to them: I won’t question the tech stack if you help me categorize the labor.

Innovation is expensive. But untracked innovation is a valuation killer.

Tech Leaders: Be honest—do your engineers hate tracking their time, or have you found a way to make it painless?

#TheAccidentalCFO #SaaS #Engineering #ProductManagement #inersec