As companies increase investments in advanced analytics, CFOs are well positioned to provide precise forecasts and actionable insights to support quick and accurate decision making. However, dispersed organizational data and outdated, non-standardized reporting processes mean finance teams often fail to provide clear, decision-ready insights that businesses need to drive growth.
When finance functions fail to fully deliver on their potential, it’s often due to their inability to divert focus away from areas that are not boosting value—reconciling reports and closing the books, for example. By overinvesting their time and energy in those areas, CFOs have little left to devote to more important activities, based on the company’s chosen strategic priorities, such as supporting performance management, business planning or M&A.
CFOs are often faced with two conflicting objectives: save money and have more efficient finance departments while helping the business make more fact-based and effective decisions. But CFOs can change course by making clear choices to become more efficient in routine activities, generating savings that can be plowed into carefully selected higher-value endeavors. Better-quality, less-costly accounting and transaction processing can pave the way for your company’s finance department to have the time and resources necessary to influence decisions and identify value creation opportunities. When members of the finance department are spending less time generating and reading reports, they are able to spend more time advising the business.
Our trusted research, expert advice and robust benchmarks help CFOs and their corporate finance teams transform financial planning and analysis capabilities and support strategic decisions that grow the business. Contact our team to learn more about how we can help you evolve your finance function.