Finance and controllership in 2025

October 20, 2021

A blog post by David Cutbill, principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP

In 2018, as digital disruption prompted new realities in finance, Deloitte made eight predictions about finance trends with 2025 as the horizon. The pandemic accelerated those disruptions that informed our original implications about the near future. With the rapid transformation coupled with recent market conditions and unprecedented challenges that modified our initial assumptions, it looked like the right time to revisit those predictions to see where those trends stood today. Halfway to 2025, and everything has changed. We explore our updated predictions and how they evolved in Finance 2025 revisited and, in this article, the implications for Controllership and the workforce of the future.

The headwinds and tailwinds affecting our original assumptions for the future

Advancements in technology and digital disruption were a driving force behind the Finance 2025 predictions. A few years later, the pandemic has triggered extraordinary transformation across the finance function. The pandemic forced finance professionals to rethink longstanding views about the way Controllership and Finance operate. In 2019, closing the books in a fully remote environment was likely never considered a possibility. Now, it is the norm. In 2019, digital controllership at many organizations was just beginning to gain footing, with a lot of experimentation and mixed results. Now we see a series of technology solutions that can work together to drive desired business outcomes with the support of a strong data foundation. The pandemic prompted new ways of working that simplify processes and empower strategic thinking across finance. Now, with the insights gleaned from this time of rapid transformation and uncertainty, our updated predictions can serve to enlighten controllers and finance professionals with a clearer picture of the future and possibilities for controllership.

Looking at predictions through a controllership lens

Here we further look at the eight predictions in our Finance 2025 revisited report and extrapolate what each prediction may mean for Controllership and how those implications may direct transformation and inform strategy and operating models.

To take a deep dive into our predictions for the future and the broader implications shaping transformation in Finance and Controllership, read our full report on Finance 2025 revisited.

Now, with a clearer picture of what the future of Controllership may look like, explore why it is the perfect time to refresh the function and give Controllership a reboot.

¹Forbes, “The Data Analytics Profession And Employment Is Exploding—Three Trends That Matter,” June 11, 2021.