• Rob Israch, GM Europe at Tipalti


• 07.02.2022 04:00 pm
#trends #innovating

It’s fair to say the CFO’s role has changed considerably in a relatively short period of time. Latest research by Tipalti highlights that 97% of UK CFOs believe their role has become more complex over the last two years as finance leaders juggle a multitude of priorities. Below we explore what finance teams can expect to experience in 2022.

1. The CFO to work closer with the CEO 

Nearly two-fifths (39%) of CFOs have noted a larger demand to collaborate with the c-suite now than two years ago, as business leaders look to their finance colleagues to influence the strategic direction of the business.  However, organisations are still slowed down by old ways of working - a third (29%) of CFOs state they are having to deal with more manual finance operations.

By innovating financial processes through automation, finance teams can free up time for the strategic tasks that matter most to the business.

2. Fighting fraud will become harder 

Every year, defending against fraud gets increasingly challenging. As accounts payable complexities rise, finance teams will experience payments fraud at an alarming rate. 

Finance teams today are tasked with managing more diverse payment methods, increasing cross-border transactions and dynamic tax compliance and financial reporting. Yet, teams struggle to cope when operations are processed manually. The most common perpetrator of payment fraud is manual processes. They are neither efficient nor airtight enough to ensure optimum financial control. Busy finance teams, escalating complexities in AP and error prone manual processing sets the perfect scene for fraudsters to take advantage.  

To mitigate such risk, companies need to leverage people, processes and technology. This means investing in robust technologies such as automation to standardise procedures. Data entry will be minimised, end-to-end payments processing visibility will be optimised and policy compliance becomes automated. Not only does AP automation relieve workflows by minimising manual intervention, but the technology acts as a hub for enforcing strong financial controls as the number of people and systems involved in payment processing is reduced substantially.  

3. Finance leaders to drive sustainability strategies 

Business leaders are under pressure to meet green targets, and many are turning to their CFOs for solutions. In fact, CFOs ranked incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability into the business and its operations as the greatest driver of complexity in their role (27%), above even the global pandemic (22%).  

ESG ratings have become an important tool for asset managers and investors to evaluate and compare future investment prospects. Currently 28% of UK business leaders rank international growth as a top priority for the year ahead, so a less than favourable ESG rating is not an option. So far, the challenge for CFOs has been finding the time to work on sustainable initiatives. 

4. Increased attention paid to the wellbeing of the finance team 

Whilst the wellbeing of all employees will be a key focus for the c-suite this year, CFOs will need to ensure the work of the finance team is engaging and talent is not wasted on tedious and time-consuming operations. Introducing automation to take care of those manual tasks will free up time to upskill employees, while making them feel valued.  

The future office of finance 

The year ahead will certainly push finance teams to review the way they operate. The emergence of a wealth of new responsibilities for the CFO will mean finance teams must find methods to work more efficiently. By moving away from fully manual and administrative work and towards new technologies and automation capabilities, CFOs will reserve time for the tasks that matter.