The deal has closed. The leverage is on the balance sheet. The sponsor is watching. And most finance leaders, even experienced ones, underestimate what the next 90 days will require of them.

The first article in this series covered what needs to happen before close. This one is about what happens after. Specifically, it explains why the 90 days immediately after close define sponsor relationships, capture or lose value, and set the foundation for exit success.

Accordion's 2025 State of the PE Sponsor-CFO Relationship survey found that 97% of sponsors expect their portfolio company finance team to maintain an "always exit-ready" posture. Only 20% of CFOs say they operate that way. That gap is not primarily a capability problem. It is a timing and orientation problem. The finance leaders who close that gap do it in the first 90 days post-close, when the habits, structures and relationships that will govern the entire hold period are being formed.

Here is what those first 90 days should look like.

Build the Relationship with Your PE Sponsor Before You Need It

Most finance teams wait for the sponsor to drive the relationship. That is the wrong posture. In a PE-backed environment, the finance function is the sponsor's primary window into business performance, and the quality of the relationship between finance and the sponsor shapes how much latitude the team gets to operate and how quickly problems get resolved.

The first 90 days post-close are when that relationship is formed, for better or worse. Sponsors are watching not just what the finance team produces but also how it communicates, how quickly it escalates issues and whether it understands the investment thesis as well as the sponsor does.

The relationship also extends beyond the CFO. Controllers, FP&A leads and treasury managers who interact with the sponsor's operating partner should understand the sponsor's expectations and decision-making rhythm from Day One.

• Request a structured onboarding conversation with the sponsor's operating partner. Align on first-quarter success metrics, reporting expectations and their biggest concern about the finance function.
• Agree on reporting format and cadence before the first deliverable is due. Discovering sponsor preferences after delivering in the wrong format costs credibility you cannot afford to spend early.
• Map finance team touchpoints to sponsor counterparts intentionally. The FP&A lead, controller and treasury manager may all interact with the sponsor side. Make those relationships deliberate, not accidental.
• Establish a standing weekly finance update to the sponsor. Three to five bullets on cash position, key variances and upcoming risks build trust faster than any formal board presentation.

The Clock Starts at Close

The conventional advice for executives joining a new organization is to spend the first 90 days listening before acting. That advice does not apply in a PE-backed environment. The clock starts at close. From the first week, sponsors look for signals that the finance team understands the value thesis and can operate at PE pace.

What sponsors need to see in the first 30 days is a clear-eyed assessment of risks and opportunities in the finance function. What they need to see in the first quarter are tangible early wins, typically in working capital or reporting efficiency. They demonstrate that the finance function is moving at the speed the PE model demands, and that matters more in the first 90 days than almost anything else.

• Deliver a written summary of your initial finance function assessment within the first 30 days. Cover cash position, reporting gaps, team capacity and covenant headroom. Do not wait to be asked.
• Identify and execute at least one quick win in the first quarter. Reducing the close cycle, resolving a receivables backlog or fixing a reporting gap signals immediately that the finance team operates at PE pace.
• Surface risks early and proactively, even uncomfortable ones. Sponsors forgive problems they hear about early. They rarely forgive problems they discover themselves.

Rebuild the KPI Architecture Around the Value Creation Plan

Most portfolio companies arrive at close with a KPI framework that was built over time for a different ownership model. It tracks the things the previous management cared about, in the format that worked for the previous board. Neither is likely to be what the PE sponsor needs.

The job of the finance team post-close is to rebuild the measurement architecture around the specific levers in the investment thesis, whether that is margin expansion, growth, add-on platform or something else, as described in the previous article.

Research into PE-backed finance performance consistently shows that portfolio companies with strategically oriented finance teams that establish focused, thesis-driven KPI frameworks are significantly more likely to meet annual plan targets. The architecture matters. Fifteen to 20 tightly defined metrics that directly link operating activity to value creation are far more effective than 50 legacy indicators inherited from a prior ownership structure. Fewer metrics, more meaning.

• Create new KPIs that will connect directly to at least one of the value creation levers stated in the investment thesis.
• Position the finance team as a strategic partner rather than an order taker by inviting the PE sponsor’s input to an already drafted KPI framework.
• Build review metrics where KPIs are assessed for continued relevance and adjusted if the value creation thesis evolves.

Run the Diagnostic Before You Build the Transformation Plan

One of the most common and costly mistakes finance leaders make post-close is launching transformation initiatives before they have a complete picture of the current state. Diligence reports are written from the outside in. An inside-out perspective on the business often reveals issues overlooked during diligence.

A focused 30-day diagnostic by the finance team examining liquidity position and cash flow visibility, data integrity and reporting reliability, and working capital quick wins gives you the foundation to build a credible transformation plan. Without it, the plan is built on assumptions. With it, the plan is built on evidence, and the difference is visible to the sponsor.

The diagnostic phase is also where you find the unrealized synergies from prior acquisitions. Serial acquirers in PE portfolios are often too busy pursuing the next deal to fully integrate the last. Those incomplete integrations represent recoverable EBITDA, and the finance team that surfaces them early earns immediate credibility with both the sponsor and the operating partner.

Fix the Reporting Infrastructure Without Waiting for the ERP

The instinct of many finance leaders post-close is to identify the ERP as the root cause of every reporting problem and to propose a replacement; many PE firms will seize on this as a platform for financial control in a period of growth. That instinct is understandable. But a full ERP migration typically takes 12 to 24 months and consumes management bandwidth the business cannot afford during the early value-creation period.

The more effective approach in the first 90 days is an overlay strategy. This means the current ERP system remains in use, while the finance team builds a structured, consistent way to extract, organize and present data from the ERP in a format that meets PE reporting standards. Finance teams without this infrastructure can easily spend 80% of their capacity on manual data consolidation, leaving only 20% for the strategic analysis the sponsor is paying for. The overlay reverses that ratio without the disruption of a full system replacement.

• Choose one tool and commit to it. Power BI, Tableau or even a well-governed Excel model all work. The tool matters less than the discipline of using one consistently.
• Identify five to ten metrics that will appear in every board pack and build your overlay around those first.
• Run a targeted data quality audit on the specific fields in the ERP that feed your key metrics before building.
• Ownership of the overlay model should be assigned to select individuals in the finance team who are responsible for updating it.

The ERP conversation belongs in the 90-day plan. The reporting fix belongs in the first 30.

Embed AI in Finance Workflows Early Because Buyers Are Already Looking

AI in finance is quickly becoming one of the most consequential and value-driven realities in today’s world. According to Accordion's 2025 exit readiness survey, 85% of buyers now factor AI-enabled finance capabilities into their valuation assessments. Finance leaders who embed AI in planning, forecasting and reporting are two times more likely to achieve smoother exits and higher perceived valuations at the point of sale.

AI adoption in PE-backed finance functions is not one thing. It ranges from using ChatGPT to draft board pack narratives to deploying machine-learning models for cash flow forecasting.

The goal in the first 90 days is not to transform the finance function with AI. It is to embed two or three specific, high-value use cases that demonstrate AI fluency to the sponsor and begin building the data discipline that more sophisticated AI requires later.

• Audit your data readiness before selecting any AI tool. Identify which data sets are clean enough to feed AI today and where remediation is needed first.
• Start with language AI for high-effort, low-data tasks. Using AI to draft board pack narratives, variance commentary and investor updates delivers immediate time savings and builds team AI literacy with minimal risk.
• Pilot one predictive use case using historical data before going live. Cash flow forecasting, receivables prioritization and anomaly detection are the highest-value starting points for most PE-backed finance teams.
• Make AI use visible to the sponsor. Note in board presentations where AI has contributed. The buyer signal only works if sponsors and future acquirers can see it.
• Establish three simple governance rules from Day One. Always disclose AI contributions, always apply human review to AI-generated financial outputs, and never input confidential data into public AI tools without checking the data retention policy.

Start small, start early and make it visible to the sponsor.

Adopt an Exit-Ready Posture from Day 1, Not Month 18

The deepest structural problem in PE-backed finance leadership is a timing mismatch. Accordion's 2025 survey found that 81% of sponsors want exit preparation to begin 12 to 24 months before a potential sale, but 54% of finance teams shift into exit mode only when a sale window appears. That compressed sprint, the survey found, can reduce valuation by one to three turns of exit multiple.

The finance teams that achieve clean, high-value exits treat every reporting cycle, every audit and every data decision as if a buyer's diligence team might review it within 90 days. That posture, applied consistently from Day One, is what separates a premium multiple from a discounted one.

• Maintain quality-of-earnings-ready documentation throughout the hold period, not just at exit. Keep revenue recognition policies documented, EBITDA adjustments well-supported and financial statements reconciled on an ongoing basis. Reconstructing this under sale pressure produces errors that cost multiples.
• Build and maintain a running record of value creation initiatives and EBITDA improvements from Day One. This becomes the financial foundation of the equity story at exit and is far more credible when it has been tracked throughout the hold period.
• Stress-test your financial projections against a downside scenario quarterly. Buyers will model a downside case during diligence. Finance teams that have already done this work and can speak credibly to downside assumptions project confidence and reduce buyer risk perception.
• Audit prior acquisitions for unrealized synergies. Incomplete integrations represent recoverable EBITDA. Surfacing and delivering on those synergies in the first 90 days creates exit value that requires no new capital.

The Shift That Precedes All of It

The research is consistent: The core gap is not tactical skill but orientation. Finance leaders tend toward risk avoidance and stability, while sponsors prioritize aggressive growth and transformation.

This gap in risk tolerance is not fixed by a better model or a more efficient close process. It is fixed by a deliberate shift in how finance leaders understand their role. In a PE environment, the finance function is not primarily a financial steward. It is a value creation architect. Every reporting decision, every system investment, every hire and every board presentation should be evaluated against a single question: Does this accelerate our path to a successful exit?

Finance leaders who make that shift in the first 90 days post-close are the ones still in the seat when the exit happens. The research suggests three out of four are not.

The 90-day window is not a grace period. It is the period in which the relationship is either built or broken.

This is the second of two articles on the 90-day windows that determine PE acquisition outcomes. The first article, "The 90 Days Before a PE Deal Closes: What Finance Teams Must Do Before Day 1," covers the pre-close preparation that most finance teams overlook.

Adedolamu Shogelola is the Founder of Dolash Advisory Partners, a corporate finance advisory practice focused on supporting SMBs that are navigating institutional capital. He is a former Senior Associate in the Strategy and Transactions practice at Deloitte Nigeria and holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Emory University's Goizueta Business School. Connect with him on LinkedIn or view his business website.