Automate to Become More Strategic: What CFOs Think

Top Priorities of CFOs

• Automation/35%
• Data Analysis/30%
• Scalability/20%
• Driving Revenue Growth/12%
  (CFOLC Poll)

Finance Office of the Future

• Profitability/cash flow
• Finding and funding new sources of value
• Managing risk
• Delivering insights to the C-suite
• How to grow the business
• Drive business-wide operational transformation
• CFO, not CIO leading digital transformation initiatives

CFOs–Beyond Accounting Responsibility

• Improving timely business performance and visibility
• Conducting business analysis
• Forecasting
• Investment decision making
• Fundraising strategies
• Productivity, scale and agility improvements
• Enhancing financial cash and cost controls
• Supporting globalization and M&A initiatives
• Empower finance staff

CFO Level of Automation

• Fully automated/0%
• Largely automated/12%
• Partially automated/71%
• Not automated/11%

(CFOLC Poll)

Expectations for Finance

• Performance visibility
• Business analysis
• Forecasting
• Financial controls
• Productivity improvement

Applying AP Automated Data

• Forecasting, budgeting, planning/64%
• Cash flow analysis/61%
• Fraud compliance management/58%
• Invoice exception handling/55%
• Improving AP-Procurement collaboration/48%
• Enhancing supplier management/30%

Current Tedious Processes Limit Data Access/Examples

• PO Matching
• Duplicate payments
• Supplier onboarding
• Manual invoice keying
• Employee turnover

Stat: 84% of AP staff time wasted om repetitive tasks

         16% have value add time activities

Outcomes of Poor Visibility

• Backlog of invoices
• Late payment penalties
• Missed discounts
• Supplier inquiries
• Supply chain disruptions
• Inaccurate cash forecasting

Finance Time Per Day Spent on Strategic Initiative vs. Transaction Processing

• 0 to 24%/66%
• 25 to 49%/24%
• 50 to 74%/6%
• 75to 100%/3%

(CFOLC Poll)

What CFOs Achieve Through Automation

• Eliminated 40% manual process time/55%
• Improved customer experience/47%
• Improved supplier experience/40%
• Reduced compliance risk/37%
• Improved visibility and reporting/34%
• Improved finance team morale/29%
• Moved team to more strategic roles/17%

(Vendor Survey)

CFO Planned Strategic Activities When Automated

• Switch employees from manual to high value work/62%
• Transfer employees to new functions if position eliminated/77%
• Retrain workers in new skills/50%

(Vendor Survey)