CFOs and their finance teams face increasing pressures to improve operations
Traditional financial processes that rely heavily on spreadsheets, outdated legacy systems, and manual intervention no longer meet the demands of today’s fast-paced business environment. Therefore, as we approach 2025, businesses must proactively rethink and reorganise their financial operations to improve efficiency, boost profitability, and support scalable growth. To help you achieve this, this article outlines practical strategies, from automating time-consuming manual tasks to adopting cutting-edge technologies, that you can implement right away. Moreover, these modern tools not only enable your business to keep pace with evolving industry trends but also future-proof your financial function, ensuring it continues to support your strategic goals in the long term.
What we cover
- 1. Stop using manual processes
- 2. Upgrade legacy financial software
- 3. Prioritise metrics, data and analytics
- 4. Make sure systems are in place for profitable growth of sales
- 5. Embrace AI technology
- 6. Your finance team will benefit from a new level of training
Download Your Free Report, The Secrets of Successful CFOs
1. Stop using manual processes
It may seem like the best option to stick with manual processes because they have worked before, but these are often time-consuming and error-prone. They’re also inefficient.
If you still use spreadsheets and paper-based workflows to manage your business, you are likely wasting valuable time that you could spend on more important tasks.
Look at your team’s processes and see if they could be automated.
Automating billing and financial reports is a good idea.
With the right tools you can automate all of these functions. This will reduce errors and give you more time to do strategic analysis.
This is not a trend likely to disappear.
Licia Salice-Jarisch, CFO of Avestar Capital, says: “I believe that finance will become more automated in the future. Organisations that delay automating their financial processes may find it difficult to scale and grow their business.
Finding ways to integrate new technologies that work well with existing financial systems and business analytics is important.
Cloud Financial Management Software automates repetitive tasks and allows data to flow smoothly across systems.
It not only improves your ability to generate reports and insights, but it also reduces human error.
Step by step guide: Start with a map of your current financial workflows. This will help you identify time-consuming and bottlenecked tasks. Explore automation software and tailored financial software to meet your needs.
2. Upgrade legacy financial software to improve financial processes
After all, these systems have worked for many years. As businesses change, so too do their financial requirements.
Legacy financial software struggles to meet the needs of modern businesses, including handling large volumes data, providing real-time reports, and integrating other essential tools.
Update your financial software by 2025.
The newer solutions provide real-time information, advanced reporting, and integrations to other systems (such a customer relationship management system and payroll tools), which all give you a more comprehensive picture of the financial health of your company.
Practical Step: Evaluate the software you currently use to identify any gaps or areas of improvement. Then, invest in cloud solutions that integrate well with your other tools.
3. Prioritise metrics, data and analytics
Data is the only thing that can make financial decisions as accurate as they are.
Finance teams that want to thrive in 2025 must prioritise data, metrics and analytics so they can make better decisions.
Finance teams in many organisations still operate in the dark relying either on outdated reports or incomplete information.
It doesn’t need to be like this.
You can track KPIs in real-time by integrating financial data into other business systems.
It is important to make proactive decisions.
John Stumpf said, former CEO of Wells Fargo : “Technological innovation will be the lifeblood of the banking sector for many years.”
There are many new tools available that offer advanced data visualisation features. These allow you to create dashboards that display critical financial metrics such as cash flow and operating expenses.
These insights are at your fingertips, so you can spot trends quickly, identify potential problems, and take corrective action.
Step by step guide: Set clear KPIs aligned with your business objectives and use financial software to track and visualise these metrics in real-time.
Download the free report The Secrets of Successful CFOs
4. Make sure systems are in place for profitable growth of sales
Growth is important, but it’s equally important that your financial systems are able to handle it without sacrificing profits.
Rapid sales growth often leads to increased costs, complexity and financial strain.
You need the right systems to manage and monitor this growth.
The financial forecasting is a key component.
Implementing robust forecasting models will allow you to anticipate the financial impact and make informed decisions that will ensure sustainable growth.
Modern Finance Software allows you to create dynamic financial forecasts which can be easily changed as the market conditions or your business needs change.
Step: Integrate advanced forecasting software with your existing financial system. These tools allow you to forecast the costs of growth such as new hires or supply chain adjustments.
5. AI and Technology: Embrace them
AI already plays a major role in the financial sector and it is set to increase.
It can transform the way finance teams work, from automating mundane tasks to managing core finances and providing deeper insight into financial trends.
AI can help you predict future revenue, expenses and cash flow with greater accuracy.
Machine learning algorithms are also capable of detecting unusual transactions and flagging fraud or mistakes that would otherwise be overlooked.
Stuart Tait is the CTO of tax and legal for KPMG UK. He sees generative artificial intelligence as a game-changer in the world of tax. He said: “Gen AI will be a game changer for tax research and analysis.”
Step by step guide: Begin small and introduce AI to one part of your finance department, like invoice processing or forecasting. Once your team is comfortable with AI, you can start using it in other areas.
6. Your finance team will benefit from a new level of training
Your finance team’s skills must also evolve to keep up with the new technologies.
It is essential that you and your team are familiar with the latest cloud-based financial software.
By investing in the upskilling of your finance team, you will ensure that they are equipped to meet the demands of modern businesses.
You could offer training on advanced data analytics or teach employees how to effectively use AI tools.
Step: Regularly investing in training and development, with a focus on both technical skills and soft skills.
Conclusion on how to improve financial processes
You need to implement a set of strategies in order to improve your financial processes by 2025. These strategies should work together and streamline operations, enhance the decision-making process, and promote growth.
You can build a finance department that is strategically positioned for success by moving away from manual tasks, upgrading legacy software and embracing data analytics.
It’s time to ensure your business thrives by taking the necessary steps.
If you would like to know more about how Sage software can arm your business with leading cloud technology, please get in touch by completing our contact form or calling 0345 094 3885 and one our Sage business experts would be happy to discuss your current business challenges.
