The digital economy is rewriting the rules for Finance and Accounting

The Finance and Accounting profession is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. New regulatory requirements, emerging technologies, and the accelerating pace of the digital economy are creating both pressure and opportunity for finance professionals at every level.

The question facing CFOs and their teams isn’t whether these changes are coming. They’re already here. The question is whether Finance is positioned to lead through them or simply react to them.

These insights draw on perspectives shared by Brian Sommer, a widely respected industry analyst and advisor, at Planful’s Future of Finance Tour events. His framework for understanding the digital economy’s impact on Finance remains as relevant today as when he first presented it, and in some respects even more so.

Technology collisions are creating new competitive dynamics

Individual technologies rarely cause disruption on their own. What creates real disruption and real opportunity is when multiple technologies converge simultaneously.

Sommer describes these convergences as “trinities.” The combination of cloud, mobile, and social technologies changed how businesses communicate with customers, employees, and suppliers. The combination of big data, advanced analytics, and in-memory processing is now changing how businesses understand and anticipate performance.

For Finance, these convergences matter because they rewrite the rules of competition across industries, and they create the conditions for Finance to contribute something it has rarely been positioned to offer before: competitive insights, not just financial ones.

The organizations that will benefit most are those where Finance is equipped to work with new classes of data, including social sentiment, operational sensor data, and other non-traditional sources, and translate them into business intelligence that informs strategy.

Automation is eliminating rote work and creating new roles

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is already displacing accounting roles that involve procedural, repetitive tasks. Accounts payable processing is one of the clearest examples, where large numbers of clerk positions have been replaced by automated systems that handle the same work faster, more accurately, and at lower cost.

This is a significant shift, but it’s not purely a negative one for the profession. As rote transactional work is automated, the demand for higher-order analytical skills is growing. The finance professionals who will thrive in this environment are those who can:

• Collect and synthesize data from multiple and non-traditional sources
• Apply judgment to imperfect or ambiguous data sets
• Visualize and communicate complex findings to non-finance audiences
• Connect financial and operational data to strategic decisions

The future of accounting will be shaped by how well professionals can find, analyze, and make sense of vast amounts of new information, not by how efficiently they can process transactions.

The digital economy demands real-time Finance

One of the starkest contrasts between legacy Finance operations and what the digital economy requires is the question of latency. Traditional Finance systems were built around monthly close cycles, batch processing, and periodic reporting. In an environment where business moves continuously and data is generated around the clock, that cadence is no longer adequate.

Manual processes, paper-based workflows, and fragmented systems that handle financial processing in disconnected spreadsheets are relics of an era when the pace of business allowed for them. They create blind spots, slow decision-making, and leave Finance perpetually behind the curve of the business it’s supposed to be supporting.

Modern Finance operations need systems that move at the speed of business: real-time data integration, continuous visibility into performance, and the ability to update forecasts and plans as conditions change rather than waiting for the next reporting cycle to close.

Finance systems are evolving to meet new demands

The good news is that the tools available to Finance teams have advanced significantly. Cloud-based financial planning platforms have largely replaced on-premises systems that required costly maintenance and created IT dependencies that slowed Finance down. In-memory processing has made it possible to work with large, complex data sets in ways that simply weren’t feasible a decade ago.

The direction of travel for these systems is clear: from reporting on what happened to anticipating what will happen. The integration of machine learning and advanced algorithms into financial planning tools is making continuous, automated forecasting increasingly achievable, reducing the reliance on manual worksheets and periodic planning cycles.

For Finance leaders evaluating their technology stack, the key questions are whether their current systems support real-time visibility, whether they can integrate data from across the business including ERP, HCM, and CRM systems, and whether they’re built for the analytical demands of a digital-age Finance team rather than the transactional demands of an industrial-age one.

New skills will define the next generation of Finance talent

Perhaps the most significant implication of the digital economy for Finance leaders is a talent one. The skills that defined a successful finance career in the past, deep accounting knowledge, meticulous transaction processing, and expertise in legacy systems, are necessary but no longer sufficient.

The Finance teams that will be most effective in a data-rich, digitally driven environment will increasingly include people with backgrounds in:

• Mathematics and quantitative analysis
• Statistics and data science
• Social science and behavioral analysis
• Data visualization and communication

This presents a genuine challenge for CFOs, many of whom are being asked to hire and evaluate talent profiles that are quite different from anything Finance has traditionally recruited for. Understanding what a good data scientist looks like, and how to assess their fit within a Finance function, requires CFOs to develop new hiring muscles alongside everything else they’re being asked to do.

The new game plan for Finance and Accounting professionals

The finance professionals who will thrive in the digital economy share one characteristic above all others: they are paying attention. They are aware of the changes underway in their profession, they are anticipating what those changes mean for their organizations, and they are actively developing the skills and perspectives needed to lead through them rather than simply react to them.

For Finance leaders, that means:

• Investing in modern planning and analytics tools that support real-time decision-making
• Building teams with a broader range of analytical and data skills
• Positioning Finance as a source of competitive insight, not just financial reporting
• Embracing automation as an opportunity to redirect talent toward higher-value work

Planful is built to support Finance teams making exactly this transition. By providing a single, cloud-based platform for planning, consolidation, and reporting, Planful gives finance professionals the tools to move beyond spreadsheets and manual processes and focus on the analytical and strategic work that creates real business value.

See how Planful helps Finance teams operate at the speed of the digital economy. Get a demo today. 

Key takeaways

• The convergence of cloud, analytics, and automation technologies is creating both disruption and opportunity for Finance and Accounting professionals willing to evolve their role.
• Robotic Process Automation is eliminating rote transactional work and shifting demand toward higher-order analytical skills that Finance teams need to develop now.
• The Finance organizations that will lead in the digital economy are those that invest in real-time systems, broaden their talent profiles, and position Finance as a source of competitive insight rather than just financial reporting.

FAQs

How is the digital economy changing the role of Finance and Accounting?

The digital economy is shifting Finance from a transactional, reporting-focused function to a strategic, insight-driven one. Automation is handling rote tasks like accounts payable processing, freeing Finance professionals to focus on analyzing new data sources, supporting real-time decision-making, and contributing competitive insights that go beyond traditional financial reporting.

What skills will Finance professionals need in the digital age?

In addition to core accounting knowledge, Finance professionals increasingly need skills in data analysis, statistics, visualization, and the ability to work with non-traditional data sources like social sentiment and operational data. CFOs are also being asked to build teams that include data scientists and quantitative analysts alongside traditional finance roles.

How does Planful support Finance teams in the digital economy?

Planful provides a cloud-based platform for financial planning, consolidation, and reporting that eliminates the manual processes and spreadsheet dependencies that slow Finance down. It gives teams real-time visibility into performance, supports continuous forecasting, and integrates data from across the business so Finance can focus on analysis and strategy rather than data management.