The document discusses how the finance function needs to be reimagined and transformed to meet future business needs. Traditional finance is not well-equipped to provide strategic insights that leadership requires. The future of finance will see operational tasks moved to centralized shared services with standardized processes and mobile/cloud technologies. Analytics will be leveraged to provide data-driven insights. Specialized finance roles will be embedded in business units. Finance will need new skills in consulting, analytics, and business knowledge. CFOs must develop a vision and blueprint to evolve their finance team by rethinking processes, organization, talent, and technologies.

1. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020

2. CFOs are under increasing pressure to provide
strategic insights that enable leadership and boards
to make better, more informed decisions.
But the traditional finance function
isn’t well-equipped to deliver this.
Companies need to rethink and reimagine their Finance
function if it’s to deliver what businesses need in the years to
come. What will the future of Finance look like?
RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020

3. Many forces
have the
potential to
transform
Finance
Analytics
Other
forces
Talent
Cloud
computing
Mobile
Business
process
management
FINANCE
RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020

4. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
How we see
the future
of Finance
How
Finance delivers
value
W
hat enables Finan
ce
FINANCE
STRATEGY
BUSINESS
FINANCE
ORGANIZATION
& PEOPLE
PROCESS &
POLICY
INFORMATION
& SYSTEMS
OPERATIONAL
FINANCE
SPECIALIZED
FINANCE

5. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Rise of the
finance factory
• Transactional finances moved to
centralized shared services “factories”
• Cloud-based apps and mobile devices are used
to perform transactions, while highly
standardized, simplified, workflow-enabled
business processes handle the rest
OPERATIONAL FINANCE

6. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
OPERATIONAL FINANCE(cont'd)
• Continuous close process, thanks to visual close
management tools, integrated sub-ledgers, journal
workflows, reconciliation tools and automated
consolidation, FX, allocation and intercompany transfers
• Finance teams simulate pre-close results to support
continuous MD&A development
• Automated controls, intelligent process monitoring keep
watch over performance and minimize rework

7. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Analytics drives better
insights, forecasts, decisions
• Investments in data governance, management and analytics
prove their value: Finance routinely delivers data-driven
insights that improve business decision-making
BUSINESS FINANCE

8. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
BUSINESS FINANCE(cont'd)
• Integrated planning models and
sophisticated analytics tools enable
rapid scenario planning, cost modelling,
risk simulation
• Finance can quickly model impact
of changes in key business inputs
(e.g., commodity prices, energy costs)
to determine business impact.

9. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Firms invest in
building their own
technical experts
• Tax, risk, treasury and other specialized
finance processes housed in virtual centres
of excellence – though the specialists
themselves are embedded in the business
SPECIALIZED FINANCE

10. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
• Specialists’ performance measured by the value
they help the business create – or the risks they
help contain or avoid
• Companies invest in training and developing
their finance specialists, ensuring they have the
training, technical development and job
rotations needed to learn the business inside
and out.
SPECIALIZED FINANCE(cont'd)

11. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
SPECIALIZED FINANCE(cont'd)
“Czars” take
centre stage
As companies build up their specialized
finance resources, new roles emerge:
• The cash czar brings an unmatched understanding of
how cash flows into, through and out of the business.
Responsible for planning, forecasting and managing cash,
working capital and liquidity, the cash czars make the tough
decisions when needed.

12. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
• The risk czar must understand the many risks that could
force the company to rethink its strategy. The czar keeps
a keen eye on currency, FX, competitive, demographic,
environmental, regulatory risks and quickly determines
their impact on the business.
• The chief economist – often the CFO themselves – scans
the landscape to monitor macroeconomic events and
interpret what they could mean to the company.
SPECIALIZED FINANCE(cont'd)

13. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Finance seeks
new skill-sets
• Finance’s talent needs have changed. Knowing the business
matters as much as knowing accounting rules – if not more.
• New roles become increasingly important, as Finance brings
in business process consultants, business analysts and
specialized technical experts.
ORGANIZATION AND PEOPLE

14. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
• Scarce talent means firms focus on training and
developing the people they need in-house.
Rotations through the business units become
the norm in building a new generation of
Finance leaders.
• Soft skills become more and more important.
Companies prize those with outstanding
consulting, negotiation and influencing skills –
as well as those who can turn data-driven
insights into actionable advice.
ORGANIZATION AND PEOPLE(cont'd)

15. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Embracing mobile
and the cloud
• Integrated ERP systems will still be the backbone of
companies’ financial systems – but mobile devices and cloud
computing will transform everything else.
• Cloud-based apps provide companies with highly scalable,
rapidly deployable and continually updated services.
INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS

16. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS(cont'd)
• Ubiquitous mobile devices seamlessly integrate with
finance systems through simplified, single-purpose,
self-serve apps for common transactions. Automated
workflows streamline approvals and other processes.
• Highly graphic visualization tools become a common way
of interacting with finance data, rendering the humble
spreadsheet obsolete.
• Managers and decision-makers receive alerts on project
statuses and budget variances automatically.

17. cont'd
RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Continual,
automated vigilance
• Investments in workflows, process automation and analytics
greatly enhances companies’ ability to monitor controls,
manage risk and improve governance overall.
• Policies and procedures are managed centrally, with new
regulations, controls, and technical conventions pushed out
quickly and easily via the cloud.
PROCESS AND POLICIES

18. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
• In finance factories, companies deploy new process
management and process analytics to monitor process
automation, service levels, activity, event durations,
manual touch rates and first-time-right benchmarks.
• Governance, risk and controls solutions now feature
intelligent monitoring tools and compliance alerts. These
solutions continuously monitor controls and provide
proactive detection and reporting of exceptions, defects
and compliance or policy breaches.
PROCESS AND POLICIES(cont'd)PROCESS AND POLICIES(cont'd)

19. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
CFOs need to move quickly
to jumpstart evolution
of their finance team

20. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
Start with a vision. Where do you want
Finance to be in the next 3-5 years? What
do you want Finance to deliver? How do
you want Finance to work with the rest of
the business? What are the gaps between
the current and future state?
NEXT STEPS
1

21. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
NEXT STEPS
Break it down. Take that vision and
consider what it means in terms of
operational finance, business finance,
strategic finance, organization and people,
information and systems, and policies and
processes. Here too, look at the current
state and consider what needs to happen
to reach the future state.
2

22. RETHINKING THE ROLE AND DESIGN
OF THE FINANCE FUNCTIONFINANCE2020
NEXT STEPS
Create a blueprint. Now, identify the
investments you’ll need to make to bring
about the future state. Think about the
policies and processes that need to change.
The organizational structures that need to be
created or taken apart. Consider your talent
mix to ensure you have the right people –
and the development programs to help them
fulfill Finance’s new role.
3

23. Deloitte, one of Canada's leading professional services firms, provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services.
Deloitte LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, is the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its
network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for
a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.
© Deloitte LLP and affiliated entities.