Upping your game: Realigning the four faces of finance provides a four-part strategy where you’ll learn how your finance function can be realigned to create greater value for the organization.

1. Upping your game:
Realigning the four faces of finance

2. Today, unexpected
change is normal.
In today’s globally interconnected world, dramatic and
unexpected changes are the new normal, such as:
• A sudden drop in the price of oil
• The fall in value of the loonie
Today,unexpectedchangeisnormal.

3. You can’t control the
unexpected. But you can
control your response.
Youcan’tcontroltheunexpected.
Butyoucancontrolyourresponse.
Organizations need to anticipate and quickly develop
different financial and marketplace scenarios that
portray the impact of changes on them and then
determine their strategic and operational response to
capture opportunities and/or minimize risk.

4. Increasingly, CFOs are expected
to take a leading role in assessing
the impact of changes.
Increasingly,CFOsareexpectedtotakealeading
roleinassessingtheimpactofchanges.
Most CFOs – 85% – say they should be partners with
their C-suite colleagues, helping assess the impact of
changes and formulating the organization’s response.
But just 17% say they have time to devote to
strategic activities.

5. So where do CFOs spend
their time instead?

6. Strategists – helping shape and define their
organization’s strategic direction and translating
that into operational plans.
Catalysts – driving behaviour across the
organization to execute the firm’s financial and
strategic objectives.
Operators – balancing capabilities, costs, service
levels and talent to ensure the finance function
fulfills its core responsibilities.
Stewards – protecting and preserving the
organization’s critical assets and accurately
reporting to stakeholders.
SowheredoCFOsspendtheirtimeinstead?
CFOs have four key roles:

7. CFOs don’t have time for strategy because
they are bogged down with operator/steward
responsibilities, often a result of an inefficient
and labour-intensive financial close process and
extended reporting process.
Manyfinancefunctions
areoutofbalance.
Many finance functions
are out of balance.

8. Why are operator/steward tasks
such a drain on the finance
function?
?
In many cases, it’s because the finance team is …
Stuck in the past
A survey1
of 300 attendees at Deloitte’s Finance Trends conferences
in late 2014 found that over 50% of respondents say their finance
teams have no automated capabilities and 75% rely solely on
spreadsheets to prepare budgets.
Stuck on the reporting treadmill
Capturing data and generating reports takes almost all of the
finance team’s time. When one period’s reports are complete, the
team must immediately begin work on the next period’s reports.
Whyareoperator/stewardtasks
suchadrainonthefinancefunction?
?
1
In October and November 2014, 300 people attended Deloitte’s Finance Trends conferences held in Halifax, Quebec City,
Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. At those sessions, attendees were surveyed about their organizations
and finance functions.

9. So what’s the solution?
Upping their game: Realigning the finance function
With different approaches to people, processes, data
and technology, CFOs can up their game by automating
and integrating control-based operator/steward tasks to
free up time for higher-value catalyst/strategist activities.
Build a more mature finance function
Using the Deloitte Finance Function Maturity Model,
CFOs can identify their current capabilities and
determine what needs to be done to upgrade them.
Sowhat’sthesolution?

10. World-class systems
Cloud technologies give finance world-class
automation capabilities with better functionality
at significantly less cost than traditional systems.
Streamlined reporting and improved analysis
With integrated systems, finance teams can
quickly gather information, freeing up time
for analysis and creating focused reports that
provide insights into the business.
Sowhat’sthesolution?
So what’s the solution?

11. The “reporting asks” being made
of CFOs are increasing in volume
and complexity.
Can your finance team afford to be left behind?
Now is the time to develop a finance function
vision and plan to enable your finance team to
up its game.
The“reportingasks”beingmadeofCFOs
areincreasinginvolumeandcomplexity.

12. www.deloitte.ca
© Deloitte LLP and affiliated entities.
Designed and produced by the Deloitte Design Studio, Canada. 15-2719H
Contacts
Read the full report
Upping your game:
Realigning the four faces of finance
National PrairiesBritish Columbia Ontario Quebec
Mark Wayland
Partner, Advisory
416-601-6074
mawayland@deloitte.ca
Kari Lockhart
Partner, Advisory
604-640-4910
klockhart@deloitte.ca
Marc Joiner
Partner, Advisory
403-503-1346
mjoiner@deloitte.ca
Michael Goodfellow
Partner, Advisory
416-643-8027
mgoodfellow@deloitte.ca
Martin Castonguay
Partner, Advisory
514-393-5014
mcastonguay@deloitte.ca
Jason Treloar
Senior Manager, Advisory
204-944-3580
jtreloar@deloitte.ca
Bruce Chin
Partner, Advisory
416-643-8949
brchin@deloitte.ca