As CFOs take on more roles and responsibilities, their ability to delegate tasks is increasingly important and comes down to the talent level of their finance teams. Though historically most CFOs aren’t CPAs, the need for strong accounting talent at the leadership level is growing in prevalence.
According to new data from financial technology company Brex, the rise of the chief accounting officer position has increased dramatically in the past year. Eighty-six percent of the finance leaders they surveyed said they currently have a chief accounting officer on staff, with half of those saying the position was filled within the past year.
The need to delegate
While CFOs say this is not a new phenomenon in financial leadership, the constantly evolving role of the CFO in navigating the business through change is pulling them further away from accounting-related tasks. About 95% of respondents said the finance leader’s role has now expanded beyond traditional finance. For CFOs, especially those in the mid-market sector, properly delegating tasks to make themselves available for growing strategic responsibilities is an increasing challenge.
Areas of responsibility pulling CFOs away from traditional finance include AI adoption and strategy (66%), data analytics and business intelligence (58%) and sales and go-to-market strategies (52%).
Though CFOs are still controlling most investment decisions, delegation and collaboration are playing a part in many organizations. Over half (55%) said they give their team significant control of the company’s investment decisions. Surveyors suggest this is an indication that the future of finance is “built on trust, transparency and clear guardrails.”
When evaluating upskilling goals, a large majority (94%) said this is a priority for their teams. Second only to process improvement training was instructing the finance team to work effectively with AI tools.
AI’s next chapter
As the hype around AI’s role in finance continues, surveyors highlighted some of the challenges AI is bringing. Three-quarters (75%) of those surveyed said they feel pressure to demonstrate AI ROI, but most (97%) say they have been able to report positive returns from their AI investments.
Currently, half of finance leaders are seeing improved accuracy in forecasting and reporting, 46% say their decision-making processes have gotten faster and 43% say they have better visibility into cash flow data.
Surveyors called AI a “force multiplier for speed,” noting it is “no longer a differentiator [but] a requirement for survival.” They noted that slow speeds trap working capital, hurt vendor relationships and expose companies to currency risks. When asked about priorities for global growth, the number one priority was optimizing the speed of global transactions.
Embedded finance’s risk-reward
A bit more than half (55%) of finance teams say embedding payment systems into their platforms is a top operational priority. However, leaders are split when it comes to the size of their tech stack, which could grow if tools like embedded finance are implemented at scale. An equal number of respondents (53%) said they want specialized benefits for faster operations, but also want consolidation to eliminate complexity in their tech stacks.
Though surveyors suggest embedded finance can speed up business operations, these tools have had mixed responses at both the consumer and corporate levels. Embedded finance offerings like buy-now-pay-later services have faced challenges from regulators and critics of its implementation in corporate transactions say it only distributes existing financial services through new channels rather than solving core challenges.
CFOs who implement embedded finance may take on not only an increased tech stack but new challenges as well.
If they use vendor services, they are dependent on that company’s stability, performance and compliance. Though much of the compliance management risk falls onto the vendor, finance leaders should keep in mind the reputational risk their organizations bear when putting customer data in the hands of a third party, causing potential blind spots around reconciliation, revenue or monthly closes.
