The historical view of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as a fastidious bean counter detached from the nuances of operational divisions is as far removed from the reality of modern corporate finance as paper ledgers and mechanical calculators.
Finance transformation involves the expansion of the finance department into a strategic, forward- looking organization that becomes the central figure in an organization’s strategic initiatives by integrating new technology (APIs, databases, and data science) to provide greater management insights. CFOs maintain their role as a key member of the strategic leadership team. Finance becomes faster, more efficient with precision accuracy. By defining the transformation ahead, you can give senior leaders and your entire team a peek into the future.
The length of time it takes from the kick-off to the budgeting process to final approval reflects the efficiency of the Budget process and, as we all know, time is money. A faster Budget cycle puts less strain on human resources, systems and operating units giving them more time to focus on growing and improving the business instead of debating the measure at which their performance will be judged.
The Evolution from Hunch to Hypothesis
Excerpt from Deep Finance: Corporate Finance in the Information Age
Embracing digitization to increase efficiency and data availability is crucial to shifting the old school finance mindset. Historically, CFOs have stayed away from technological developments in operations, but letting this separation occur in the age of analytics can slow a company down more than a member of the finance team using paper ledgers or old-school calculators.
Getting timely, accurate, forecasted financial information allows a Company to make educated decisions that drive and sustain long-term value. Which is why Financial forecasting continues to be a high priority for many CFOs. In this context, Financial Forecast does not refer to a budget but a financial iteration or scenario. For example, a budget could be set once a year and take anywhere from 30 days to 6-months to finalize. A Financial Forecast may leverage the data within the budget but makes assumptions regarding future performance that is modeled over a predetermined time period and used to drive management decision making including the identification of new opportunities, mitigation of risk and the matching of revenue and expenses.
