Has the role of the finance team changed for good? | Blog | The Access Group
The role of the finance team has been evolving for some time. Driven by modern thinking, at C-level and within the finance team itself, and with an influx of accounting technology available, many professionals have seen their focus and their responsibilities shift during the last few years. For those who hadn't begun to shift, the pandemic has accelerated similar change.
According to the results of our financial pain points survey that we sent to more than 1,000 CFOs, VPs and managers working in finance in the UK, 65 per cent of those who responded believe the pandemic has already led to a permanent switch in their day-to-day responsibilities. It doesn’t come as a surprise - as finance teams have had a lot to contend with in the last year. Extra responsibilities like helping the business to restructure, adapting to changing legislation and assisting the business in the lead up and the aftermath of Brexit, has meant a new focus for many. But what has this change brought to the day-to-day activities for Finance?
Core responsibilities
Managing workload has always been a tricky task for most finance professionals especially when it comes to month and year end. When you add to this the difficult tasks that have come the finance teams’ way since the start of the pandemic - it’s made prioritising and managing workloads even tougher.
Supporting the business leaders to make difficult calls on furloughing staff, cutting and managing costs, adapting to new remote working conditions and having to try to help make up financial shortfalls or manage surges in revenue are just some of the tasks that finance teams have faced since the pandemic began. There's probably many more that are specific to your business and sector whether that’s recruitment, hospitality or manufacturing - markets have all had their individual challenges.
The importance of looking forwards and influencing strategy has taken the driving seat. It has never been so integral, as business leaders need to know the shape of recovery and where the business is heading, in the short-term and the long.
Managing cash flow and spend has also become even more key for finance teams due to this shift in focus. With many of those responding to our survey saying ‘money is tight’ or ‘cash is king’ - we know how important cash flow becomes during challenging financial times, but it could be a permanent move to a more cash sensitive culture encouraged throughout businesses by the finance team. Are we more likely to see finance teams speak across departments about costs, budgets and influencing things like upselling more often? Time will tell.
The impact of change
A change in working conditions has also had its impact on finance teams. Team numbers have been hit - with furloughs, redundancies and members of the team having to self-isolate or take time off work due to Covid-19. This has led to some teams facing staffing or skills shortages - just over 27 per cent of those who responded to our survey said this is going to be their biggest new challenge in 2021. With added responsibilities and new tasks, comes with it the challenge to ensure time continues to be afforded to training and upskilling.
Technology has already played its part in evolving the role of finance teams but it's likely the pandemic will have accelerated its influence too. Many respondents expect to adopt some form of accounting tech to support their roles this year. With almost 25 per cent of respondents naming cloud accounting software, 22.8 percent prioritising payments software and just over 15 per cent looking to accounting automation. Technology will only support finance teams in moving away from the often time-consuming day-to-day jobs that have been slowing down change.
New thinking is given a push
It might feel like a really tough challenge right now, but there are a lot of positives that come with the change we are seeing in the finance role. Many of the things the pandemic has accelerated, we as a profession have been talking about for years and looked to bring in to make our roles easier and more impactful on business strategy in the long-term. Some were already doing it and, as you can see from the results of our survey, some are beginning to. It’s modern thinking that’s been given the push it needed - to encourage positive change in the finance team.
For more, read our full report 'Financial Healthcheck: Alleviating Your Pain Points in 2021'
