What are the signs that the CEO is doing the CFO's job?

The CEO is doing the CFO's job when: financial reports are produced late or not consistently; investor or board questions about the numbers go directly to the CEO and stay there; pricing, hiring, and growth decisions are made without a modelled finance view; cash flow is only fully understood by one person; and the CEO cannot step away from the business for more than a few days without the finance function stalling. None of these are catastrophic on their own. Collectively, they represent a structural problem — the finance function has outgrown its setup, and the CEO's time is being consumed by work that should sit elsewhere.