Sometimes the world of finance can feel purpose-built for exasperation.
Financial decision-makers play a pivotal role in organisational success and this role is only becoming more demanding. As businesses navigate increasingly complex and unpredictable challenges, finance leaders are stepping further into strategic territory. According to recent research from Pleo, 65% of CFOs say they are making more high-level decisions than they were a year ago, while almost a quarter (23%) attribute this shift to rising business complexity.
Yet for something so critical, the processes that underpin finance remain stubbornly frustrating. Compliance, audits, reporting, budgeting and expense management all create friction for teams expected to drive change, but who find their time consumed by administration.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at year-end. However, with the right tools and mindset, year-end can move from a source of dread to a potential launchpad for the year ahead, freeing finance teams up to focus on strategy rather than spreadsheets.
Why finance teams are at breaking point at year-end
The year-end run-in can be a pivotal time for any business, acting as both a period of review for the year just passed as well as the ideal time to plan for the coming 12 months. For those in the finance function, it can act as both a financial health check and a safeguard against regulatory and tax risk.
Yet many of the critical processes that are invoked during the year-end period remain rooted in the past.
From trawling through reams of financial data to preparing paperwork for compliance, the year-end period can extract a heavy administrative toll. While the insights derived from this data matter, manual processing sidelines finance teams at precisely the moment strategic thinking is required.
Instead of contributing at the top table, teams find themselves filling spreadsheet cells and foresight gives way to hindsight.
Limited visibility and data silos
It can be a struggle for organisations to bring together all the information required for year-end because it sits across multiple systems. Without a single source of truth, data is pooled in silos, increasing the risk of miscommunication, last-minute revisions and costly errors.
Beyond the operational impact, this lack of visibility also undermines accountability. The cumulative effect is predictable: finance teams pushed to the brink during one of the most demanding points in the year, just as they should be preparing to support strategic planning for the year ahead.
To support sustainable growth, organisations need to rethink how finance teams operate during the year-end period and shift both their focus and processes towards the future.
Turning year-end into a strategic advantage
So how can organisations restore purpose to year-end and ensure it delivers more than administrative output?
Automation is an obvious starting point. When processes are highly manual, the right tools can reclaim significant time while reducing the risk of human error. Finance teams retain oversight and approval control, but no longer need to collate and reconcile information by hand. Crucially, data becomes visible via a single, reliable source of truth.
This partnership between people and technology has defined the evolution of the finance function over the past decade. It is also the approach taken by Pleo, which aims to help finance teams manage and track spend with minimal friction, supporting confident decision-making and measurable business value.
Smart capture
For instance, few tasks undermine productivity like chasing receipts. As finance teams become increasingly time-poor, manual expense collection feels out of step with modern working practices.
Pleo’s smart capture allows employees to photograph receipts via their smartphone, triggering automated approval and reimbursement workflows. The result is cleaner data, faster processing and improved visibility for finance teams, while employees benefit from simpler, faster expense claims.
Accounting on auto-pilot
Reducing complexity and improving visibility is also pivotal at year-end when finance teams are trying to collate financial data spread across multiple accounts and systems. While specialist tools can add value individually, poor integration often leads to duplicated work and inconsistency.
With Pleo, expenses sync directly into accounting platforms such as Xero, Fortnox, Datev and NetSuite. From approvals through to expense matching, routine tasks are automated, enabling teams to close the books faster and redirect their efforts towards higher-value work.
Multiple entities, one view
Reconciling spend across countries and subsidiaries can also add a further layer of complexity at year-end. While scaling internationally is a positive milestone, it often introduces local administrative challenges.
Pleo’s multi-entity functionality allows finance teams to manage multiple entities through a single account. This delivers consolidated data across currencies, simpler operations and clearer cash flow visibility.
Processes that take hours, not days
Automation is also playing an important role in improving visibility and efficiency for finance teams, challenging long-held assumptions that year-end need be a time of intense manual tasks.
With Pleo’s automated budget tracking and reporting across multiple data sources, finance teams can generate year-end insights quickly and accurately. Reconciliation and reporting take hours rather than days, unlocking strategic focus at a critical moment.
For these approaches to work, all financial information must sit in one place. Business finance is increasingly fragmented, spanning corporate cards and associated spend, multiple bank accounts and various tools. Bringing all this together allows automation to work end-to-end, rather than creating new silos.
Making time for foresight
The benefits of automating year-end extend well beyond efficiency gains, freeing up time to be reinvested in forward-looking activity. This can empower finance teams to focus on smarter investment decisions, growth planning and deeper collaboration with the wider business.
Evidence suggests the impact of automation is tangible. Research from Pleo suggests that 88% of financial decision-makers using spend management tools feel confident making decisions during an economic downturn. Meanwhile, 68% report greater confidence in their organisation’s growth prospects over the next one to two years.
With better data and clearer visibility, finance leaders move away from guesswork and towards a role as value creators and strategic partners.
Entering the new financial year with confidence
Reducing year-end stress is partly a technical challenge, one of administration, accuracy and automation. But it is also a cultural shift, helping to build accountability and transparency across organisations.
When finance teams have the tools and time to focus on the future, the entire business benefits. Peace of mind at year-end becomes peace of mind throughout the year.
Download Pleo’s ‘The power of better business decisions’ report
Sometimes the world of finance can feel purpose-built for exasperation.
Financial decision-makers play a pivotal role in organisational success and this role is only becoming more demanding. As businesses navigate increasingly complex and unpredictable challenges, finance leaders are stepping further into strategic territory. According to recent research from Pleo, 65% of CFOs say they are making more high-level decisions than they were a year ago, while almost a quarter (23%) attribute this shift to rising business complexity.
Yet for something so critical, the processes that underpin finance remain stubbornly frustrating. Compliance, audits, reporting, budgeting and expense management all create friction for teams expected to drive change, but who find their time consumed by administration.
