The CFO role and its scope of responsibilities have expanded significantly over recent years. Historically, CFOs and finance teams have been thought of as number crunchers, with accounting and analytical thinking being among the top two valued skills for the profession.
Today, however, finance teams are no longer expected to sit quietly in a corner. Instead, they are at the forefront of the business, helping the organization move forward.
CFOs now oversee everything from traditional tasks like risk management, corporate strategy, and regulatory compliance, to newer strategic functions like business process automation, cloud computing, data visualization, and advanced analytics.
It’s no wonder the number of functional areas reporting to the CFO increased from 4.5 in 2016 to an average of 6.2 in 2018, increasing again in key areas such as investor relations, procurement and digital in 2021.
But alongside this growing list of strategic responsibilities, the more operational day-to-day tasks—such as keeping tabs on the financial close and reporting processes—still need to get done.
This focus on immediate needs can sometimes lead to a cycle of short-term problem-solving, where finance teams continuously move from one forecast cycle to the next without the opportunity to take a step back and address more strategic, long-term goals.
Slowing down to speed up
To get out of this cycle, CFOs need to practice what Tom Seegmiller, former VP of FP&A at Vena and current CFO at Texada Software, calls “maniacal prioritization.”
“We want to be people pleasers. We want to partner within the organization. We want to do right by people all the time,” says Tom. “We need to learn how to say ‘yes, and’ to the organization. Don’t say ‘no’ to something; say ‘yes, and this is where it comes in the prioritization stack’.”
To make space for all-important analysis work and long-range planning, CFOs should pause to consider whether they and their teams are focused on the work that will be most impactful to the business.
“When you’re juggling too many things at once and not completing any of them, productivity takes a hit,” says Melissa Howatson, CFO at Vena and host of The CFO Show Podcast.
“Our workload in finance is seasonal, which affects our scheduling, but understanding how these cycles work allows us to identify windows for progress.”
Tips for freeing up your finance team for more strategic work
- Schedule around the first and last weeks of the month, which are often tied up with closing, forecasting, and reporting. For instance, the third week of the month could be an opportunity to make headway on important projects.
- Create a backlog for anything that’s not an immediate priority. As your team concludes important projects, that’s when you can start addressing what’s in your backlog.
- Weigh all incoming requests against current priorities. As Tom suggests, instead of accepting every ask coming in from departments across the business, rank their priority level and place them in your backlog accordingly.
- Train your team to be a strategic business partner to other departments. There’s nothing we do in Finance that only affects the world of finance. When your finance team understands the broader business context behind the reports they create, they can more readily provide insights and make connections that unearth innovative strategies for the business.
- Use automation to eliminate inefficiencies. Many companies—even multi-billion-dollar enterprises—still rely on manual processes for financial consolidation, reporting, and forecasting. Free up important time for analysis by introducing technology that can help your finance team move faster.
Building a culture of continuous improvement
The most successful finance leaders understand that their role isn’t just about managing the numbers; it’s about using financial insights to influence the company’s strategic direction. When you focus too much on daily tasks, you risk missing the bigger picture—how finance can drive innovation, support long-term planning and contribute to competitive differentiation.
Strategic CFOs continually reassess which tasks have the most significant impact on their business, and which do not. By deprioritizing and automating routine work, you can allocate resources more strategically, allowing your finance team to focus on initiatives that align with the company’s overarching goals and giving yourself the bandwidth for high-impact strategic work.
FP&A software such as Vena allows finance teams to unlock capacity for more strategic work by streamlining critical processes like budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, and financial close management.
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