CFOs in companies of all sizes are assessing how, when and where they should automate their finance functions and processes. One of our partners, Adaptive Insights, recently surveyed 160 CFOs across the globe for its most recent CFO Indicator Report, Full Steam Ahead: Finance on Board with Automation. Among other things, the survey found that 40% of them consider the biggest driver behind automation is the demand for faster, higher quality insights from executives and operational stakeholders.
The report explains and details these findings:
- CFOs are not only moving full speed ahead with automation, but also see automation as critical to putting themselves and their teams on track to becoming more strategic and agile.
- CFOs view automation as a requirement to address the rising volume and complexity of data, while delivering the insights and agility needed to seamlessly guide the business through an often-volatile economic climate.
- CFOs believe that leveraging new financial systems and software – combined with better collaboration across the business – will most impact their teams’ effectiveness.
The report brings to light some interesting statistics about where most CFOs and finance teams are in their journey to automate finance tasks. For example:
- 41% of CFOs say that their financial reporting process is either mostly or fully automated
- 35% state that their period-end variance reporting (budget vs. actual) is automated
- 25% have automated allocations
- 22% of CFOs report that they have automated workflow
- And 21% say they have automated account reconciliations
Download Adaptive Insight’s CFO Indicator Q4 2017 report, Full Steam Ahead: Finance On Board With Automation to learn the key drivers behind the movement to automate FP&A, what skills CFOs are looking for in new hires, and more.
