Controllership in the future of the finance function

April 17, 2024

A blog post by Beth Kaplan and Katie Glynn

Elevating the role of the controller

Considerations for becoming an even better business partner

It is no secret that the finance function has been going through continuous transformation for quite some time. While the transformation has had (and will continue to have) multifaceted impacts on controllership, it also creates an opportunity to deliver more strategic organizational value. A key imperative of many controllers’ organizations is to become a more strategic, collaborative business partner to key organizational stakeholders. As controllership strives to shed the traditional back-office role to become a more forward-thinking strategic partner, controllers can leverage the current environment to deliver even more organizational value and further elevate the role of controllership as a strategic business partner for the business.

As the transformation landscape continues to evolve the function, here are three considerations to help controllers step up to the plate and become even better business partners.

Get involved to offer strategic business support and elevate the controllership brand

Controllership’s ongoing transformation, coupled with the new generation of finance tools, has created an opportunity for controllers to move toward a more strategic role in the business. However, to elevate controllership’s role as a strategic business partner across the enterprise, it is imperative to proactively get involved and take a seat at the table.

How can controllership get more involved? Starting with transparent and regular communication of controllership’s role and value drivers can elevate perceptions and the strategic importance that controllers provide. Get involved by prioritizing time with other executives and cross-functional stakeholders to gain insights into specific objectives from each function or division and then figure out how to align controllership to those objectives. Perhaps most crucial, with transformation activating resources that support transactional and legacy activities, controllership can allocate time to get more involved with priority initiatives that affect strategy to better contribute to realizing a shared corporate vision and cementing a leadership spot at the table.

Leverage technology to improve performance and optimize the core function

Controllership’s value in getting through the close, paying suppliers, and other manual transactions is still the foundation of the function and essential for the role in the business. However, the plethora of new technology available for these core functions enables more efficient work to improve operational performance, data insight, productivity, and risk intelligence across the enterprise. Controllers can leverage the continuous expansion of available tools—from cloud enterprise resource planning systems to robust data processing and robotic process automation—to optimize the core of controllership, standardize for success, and produce a more value-driven finance function.

Champion innovation to deliver insightful business intelligence

Beyond the imperative for the controllership function to optimize performance and take a proactive seat at the table as a leader, elevating the role to a more strategic business partner requires enhancing the value-add of the function as it takes that vital seat. It is not enough to deliver the fundamentals—controllers must step up to the plate and deliver tangible business intelligence. This includes providing an authoritative voice and credible decision-making capabilities, highlighting and mitigating risks, and offering insights to support transformation and strategic initiatives while aligning the function to overall business objectives.

On the heels of new systems enabling controllers to spend less time on day-to-day transactional tasks is an influx of innovative technologies that can genuinely transform business processes and help create more of the necessary value opportunities with robust and accurate data tools and resources, more intelligent analytics and forecasting capabilities, and artificial intelligence force multipliers. This ability for controllership to generate more insightful business intelligence by utilizing these tools can empower better strategic decisions, increase the visibility of the function’s long-term impact on the business, and boost the overall credibility of the controllership function.

As controllership evolves through transformation and beyond, the imperative to deliver as finance leaders will be crucial to delivering success. Engaging in proactive involvement across the function, leveraging technology to optimize the function, and delivering insightful intelligence with innovative tools are keys to positioning controllership and the role of the controller with an essential seat at the table.

To explore how controllers and finance leaders can further evolve their role as strategic business partners, read our report: Stepping into the future of controllership.