If implementing new technology is intended to streamline processes and free up time for finance professionals to focus on what’s truly important, then more technology should also mean that finance teams get more of their own time back beyond work.
“Finance teams aren’t asking for more time because they want to do less, but because too much of their time is still being consumed by work that shouldn’t take as long as it does,” says Alwyn Pretorius, General Manager at Infinitus Reporting Solutions. “Technology should remove this friction, where the benefit might be having more time to interrogate the numbers or support the business, but it might also mean finishing on time and being properly present for something outside of work.”
Time to be human
When finance professionals were asked what they would actually do with five additional hours each week, the answers revealed a broader definition of the values finance professionals hold dear. “Honestly, sleep!” says Andy Klintworth, Group Finance Manager at DN Invest, whose two-and-a-half-year-old wakes at 5am. Given more time beyond that, he would get back to the gym, see his friends more often and “do more with my daughter”.
For others, having more time would mean reclaiming some of the hours from the work that sometimes follows them home at the end of the day. “I’d spend more time playing my keyboard and focusing on music, rather than spending my after-hours still working,” says Rualda Laidlaw, Divisional Financial Manager at Astral Agriculture, whose ultimate wish is to go on holiday somewhere she can switch off her phone.
Some want to pursue their hobbies or simply have a minute to enjoy a little rest and relaxation, but a considerable number of finance professionals simply want to have the time to spend with their families. “I’d like more quality time with my husband and kids, but without the rushed feeling we tend to have when life is busy. To watch a good movie or go for a long walk,” says Lorraine de Villiers, Group Financial Manager at Acorn Agri & Food.
Time to do finance differently
There’s no denying that having more time is a luxury most people, finance or otherwise, would want to spend outside of work, but this does not mean finance professionals have run out of things they want to accomplish at work.
In fact, some of the work finance professionals would like to spend more time on is the work that could ultimately make the finance function more effective, particularly turning financial information into insight that supports better business decisions. The difficulty is finding capacity for this work when immediate reporting requirements continue to take priority.
This is where reporting and planning platforms, such as Finnivo, can play a role, by automating time-consuming elements of the reporting process so finance teams have greater capacity to analyse and interpret financial information.
“We often know a process could be improved, but the next deadline arrives before we have the opportunity to step back and redesign it properly,” says Daphne De Jager, Financial Business Analyst at C.Steinweg Bridge.
De Jager says having more time would allow her to reconnect with the analytical and investigative side of finance. “For me, finance is not only about producing the numbers, but also about understanding the story behind them: what changed, why it changed and what that means for the business. More time would allow me to move beyond compiling and reconciling information and spend more time turning it into insight,” she says.
The value of freeing up time, then, lies partly in giving finance professionals greater choice over where they direct it. On any given day, that could mean spending more time understanding what the numbers are telling the business or addressing processes that continue to consume unnecessary capacity. On another, it could simply mean leaving work on time.