The modern-day financial opportunity

Spokesperson: Ben Swails, Northern Europe Country Manager

If you’ve ever described your internal finance setup as “ancient”, you might not be that wide of the mark. That’s because accounting can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia where evidence of bookkeeping has been found. From here to the Egyptians to the Babylonians to the Romans to today, each civilisation has taken up the mantle to advance accounting by using the tools around them. So what will our story be?

Unfortunately, today business leaders are stuck in a rut when it comes to spend management; sticking to traditional methods that have become largely obsolete in today’s digital world. The limitations of these methods, such as their failure to predict future spending trends and market fluctuations, significantly hamper decision-making and our ability to foresee and adapt to economic shifts. This means we’re often treading blind, missing opportunities and committing strategic missteps. Yet the technological capabilities at our fingertips are more advanced than ever.

Why then, in an era when seemingly every other industry is using advanced technologies to move further into the future, isn’t finance doing the same?

Why our smart spending era matters

One thing that sets our smart spending era apart is that we have the opportunity to transform it from a cumbersome chore into a strategic advantage. Until now, spend management has largely been a perfunctory task. But during a time when the economy is tough, financial heroes are made.

Those companies leveraging advanced spend management techniques and software can dramatically improve their bottom line by eliminating unnecessary purchases, catching duplicate invoices, avoiding late fees and negotiating lower prices and volume discounts.

Additionally, manual processes that dominate traditional expense management are time-consuming and prone to human error. We might have moved on from abacuses, but if you’ve ever tried manually updating a shared spreadsheet, you’ll understand that things today aren’t much better.

These inefficiencies pile up and drain valuable resources that can be better utilised elsewhere. In an era where precision and oversight are critical for maintaining financial health, such outdated methods can no longer keep up with the demands of modern businesses. As companies strive to maintain a vigilant stance on their expenditures, the need for enhanced oversight and accuracy has never been greater. What’s more, we have it in us to not just transform how we manage spending; but what finance looks like.

Walking the growth-stability tightrope

Today’s businesses face a balancing act between growth and stability. Do they do enough to keep their heads above water, or do they go further and target growth? This is one area where smart spending can help.

Advanced analytical capabilities can streamline financial workflows and empower businesses to make timely, informed decisions. This proactive approach drives financial efficiency and fosters a responsive and adaptive business environment while navigating complex financial landscapes.

By liberating payment data from its silos, businesses can harness real-time insights beyond the confines of data cells and dashboards and sharpen up their strategic thinking. But only 29% of business decision-makers say they currently have strong visibility of financial health and performance. This is holding back their ability to cut unnecessary expenditure, to adopt a dynamic approach to financial management and to embrace proactive decision-making.

From gatekeeper to guide: The evolution of the CFO

We’ve talked before about the evolution of the CFO’s remit. But what about personality and working style? Research has found that 40% of non-financial managers felt that the communication skills of their CFOs fell short. This perception underscores a significant area for improvement. Smart spend management helps us to collectively step away from the notion that CFOs need to micromanage every administrative task, and gives them the opportunity to become more communicative.

CFOs can venture beyond their financially familiar territories within the organisation, actively engaging with different departments and seeing first-hand the unique challenges and needs. This proactive approach not only breaks the stereotype of the unapproachable finance leader but fosters a culture of transparency and collaboration.

Clear and empathetic communication from finance chiefs can significantly add value, helping bridge gaps between finance and other verticals of the business. This shift not only helps company morale but also positions the CFO as a key player in driving strategic growth and fostering a supportive, cohesive work culture.

Consigning traditional spend management to history

We might be feeling the pressure to make our finance era a success. But we should treat it as an opportunity, not a challenge. The old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply here. Traditional spend management might not be broken, but it’s certainly not working as well as it could. And in its current historical form, it won’t get us to the future we want to build.

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