CFO Surgery: Getting to the ‘Blue Sky’ of Agency Growth

For many agencies, the period beyond the next few weeks of visibility can feel more like guesswork than planning. In this session, James Brazier shares how Billion Dollar Boy has approached that challenge, from building stronger financial foundations to improving visibility across spend and revenue, and thinking more deliberately about the role of AI in finance.

The discussion explores why forecasting remains difficult in project-based agency businesses, what visibility finance leaders actually need to make better decisions, and why fragmented systems make both planning and automation harder than they need to be. It also looks at how finance teams can move beyond simply recording the past and start building the data foundations needed to support faster, smarter decisions.

James Brazier, Finance Director at Billion Dollar Boy, a Spendesk customer, joins Ollie Bryden, VP Marketing at Spendesk, to share how his team has evolved its finance function over time. From managing spend with better control and transparency to experimenting with AI and building connected workflows, James gives a practical view of what modern agency finance teams should be prioritising.

• Why forecasting is still difficult for agency finance teams, especially in project-based businesses

• The difference between visibility over spend and visibility over revenue

• Why fragmented workflows and disconnected systems make planning and automation harder

• How AI can support finance teams more practically, by improving speed, visibility, and decision-making

• What finance leaders should look for when reviewing their finance tech stack

• How Billion Dollar Boy is thinking about connected systems, live data, and future-proofing its finance function