In today’s business world, the modern CFO and Financial Director are expected to deliver more than standard financial reporting and focus on strategy and technology decisions that drive business performance.

According to the ‘Digital transformation beyond financial management’ report by Sage, over 90% of senior decision-makers stated that their position had changed considerably over the last few years, with approximately 60% saying they are responsible for digital transformation.

Anish Kapoor, the CEO of AccessPay explains that modern finance leaders need to focus on data and analytics and what influence it will have on business performance. Standard reporting on progress isn’t sufficient anymore for successful businesses. Financial leaders need to be more proactive and measure how certain variables will influence business performance.

Financial leaders are exploring new techniques to make their financial duties more efficient for their business. This isn’t only from an economic perspective, but enabling more time for employees to focus on other important and strategic duties to drive digital transformation.

CFOs and Financial Directors are focusing on using innovative automated technology to reduce the time spent on manual, time-consuming tasks that have traditionally taken up a lot of time within a business. A recent report in the Sunday Times highlighted that one in three CEOs have concerns whether their CFOs are equipped and prepared for the potential challenges lying ahead. Kapoor believes that new technology such as automation is not expanding as quickly within the finance department. Kapoor highlights that every business is facing mounting pressure to generate more from a lower cost base and that the finance industry is falling behind in terms of adopting new technologies to improve productivity.

There are a number of new technologies available to finance leaders to enhance efficiency. Kapoor explains that businesses are utilising a number of the most effective technology solutions available out there in order to drive overall business efficiency and productivity.