Do you know how your Office of Finance compares to others? A recent report from Ventana Research looks at change in the Office of Finance and provides benchmarks against which senior finance executives can compare their departments against their peers.

Ventana has researched the performance of the finance organization for 15 years. The report provides a comprehensive look at how the Office of Finance is transforming, the importance of Finance IT, key insights for the Office of Finance, and 10 best practice recommendations.

Benchmark data

Ventana shares plenty of interesting benchmark data in this report, including:

• 76% of finance leaders surveyed cite analytics as critical for improving their performance
• The share of companies that have a Finance IT group has increased to 59% from 45% in 2014
• More than one in five said their process for creating finance analytics works very well
• 32% said they use analytics to improve performance, compared to 14% in 2014
• 46% of senior executives report full availability of finance analytics
• 72% report reviewing their close process either monthly or quarterly
• Companies that close their books within six days after the end of the quarter are more likely to provide executives with timely information
• 66% report their budgets remain relevant through the period
• 52% review their actual to budgets within six days; 19% do it within three business days