Most Significant CFO Priorities for 2023

Most Significant CFO Priorities for 2023

CFO Tech Outlook | Wednesday, November 09, 2022

CFOs, comptrollers and FP&A leaders expect to dive into digital in the upcoming year to prepare for the trend toward fully autonomous financial operations.

FREMONT, CA: Many CFOs are still investigating the applications of technological advancements and how they help their businesses and processes. Several activities anticipated to take time and be challenging to complete in 2023 appeared among the top priorities.

Budget for Speed and Relevance

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The necessity for incorporating flexibility, agility, and strategic thinking into planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes is intensifying due to the global pandemic. Budgets can progressively provide increased in-year resource flexibility to respond to change quickly and efficiently as uncertainty, volatility, and shifting business needs are anticipated to become the rule rather than the exception.

Build Digital Competencies

As firms and the finance department itself speed their embrace of digital technology in preparation for a post-pandemic recovery, developing digital skills is a requirement for finance leaders. Finding pertinent digital abilities is the first stage, especially those unique to employees' everyday operations.

Drive Enterprise Digital Growth

Act more like an activist while evaluating digital investment ideas rather than a passive reviewer. Teaching IT leaders precisely how digitalisation affects business and financial outcomes and how to prioritise funding for initiatives that change the dial on essential business indicators is the first step in achieving this.

Goals of Controllers and Heads of FP&A Align with those of CFOs

Controllers and heads of FP&A anticipate investing a lot more time in winning crucial digital ground in 2023. Given that they continue to face business upheavals and are under pressure to employ cutting-edge analytics and technologies.

The general transformation of the financial department is something else that controllers aim to promote. Many are considering delivery models like shared services and business unit centres of excellence to encourage efficiency and automation. The majority of controllers, 75 per cent, said they anticipate devoting time to enhancing their digital abilities by 2023, which raises concerns about how well teams are performing.

Building scenarios into planning and updating financial models to reflect business reality are two time-consuming but difficult tasks high on the FP&A agenda. More flexibility in plans and budgets is necessary to react to unforeseen interruptions or opportunities if planning is to be done efficiently in the face of ongoing uncertainty.

Building scenarios into planning and updating financial models to reflect business reality are two time-consuming but difficult tasks high on the FP&A agenda. More flexibility in plans and budgets is necessary to react to unforeseen interruptions or opportunities if planning is to be done efficiently in the face of ongoing uncertainty.

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