Finance operations
Is good enough enough?
Some things are fundamental to a well-run business and a solid finance operation is one of them. It’s the pump behind the flow of financial information that feeds every activity in your organization. Getting it right means you’ll have more time to focus on making better business decisions. Getting it wrong means you’re in for a world of worry.
The case for investing
The kind of value derived from investing in finance operations depends on where a finance shop is along the maturity curve. Those lacking core fundamentals could see important improvements in financial misstatement mitigation and data integrity. Those who already have the fundamentals covered can focus on improving decision support capabilities and driving sustainable cost savings.
Unfortunately, issues in finance operations rarely hit the C-suite agenda until one of several things happens. A CFO wakes up worried about the risk of a reporting misstatement. A company discovers its finance cost structure is badly out of line. Or business leaders lack confidence in their financial information and conclude that they don’t have the support they need to make smart, fast decisions. Otherwise, leadership tends to stick with what has been working, even if it means sacrificing the speed and accuracy they’d really like to have. Yet when something goes wrong, companies will move mountains to clean up their data, upgrade processes and build a clear line of sight back into and through their financial information.
For those with solid fundamentals in place, a key to improved performance lies in deconstructing processes into individual building blocks – policies, technology, talent, data – and then rebuilding them for more effective operations. While some finance teams have the time and talent and understanding to take on that challenge in-house, many do not.
No matter where you’re starting from, it’s important to have the end goal in mind, whether focusing on quality and reliability of your financial information or efficiency gains and build a plan with the right skills and resources behind it to succeed.
How We Can Help
Deloitte is widely recognized for its strengths in finance operations – and with good reason. We have access to that rare combination of talent and experience needed to work across accounting, finance, tax and technology with a full-court view – to help organizations in their efforts to properly manage the details without losing sight of the big picture. To help business leaders get what they need. To help effectively manage risk so you can sleep better – or reduce costs so you can look better. But achieving lasting results from process improvements in finance isn’t easy. It requires a unique blend of innovative thinking and disciplined follow-through. That’s our strong suit and in the industry our capabilities are unparalleled. We have access to:
- Financial business process knowledge and experience
- Market leading audit and accounting capabilities
- Performance management and financial ERP depth
- Tax compliance, technology and process knowledge
- Financial valuation, actuarial and other specialized capabilities
- Time-tested methodologies and accelerators to help effect lasting change
Bottom-line Benefits
Effective finance operations can help an organization in its efforts to:
- Improve information quality and data integrity for more reliable and accurate financial information
- Implement streamlined and more efficient and effective processes that are scalable and dynamic
- Have more time for decision-support activities such as financial analysis and strategic planning
- Build stronger business cases throughout the organization
- Have better visibility and support for the finance function’s initiatives
- Reduce cost and time spent on compliance activities