At ExpenseOnDemand, we understand that many (in fact, most) finance teams face a hard truth:
They are desperately behind the times when it comes to spend management.
According to a report by AutoRek and published on TechRadar, 90% of businesses still use Excel (or similar) to track their financial data.
Manual data entry is notoriously hard to manage, quickly developing not just inaccuracies but also missing pieces and even attracting fraudulent activity like non-compliant business expenses – easy enough to get away with when systems aren’t built to properly monitor them.
The result can be costly. Gartner estimates poor quality financial data leaves budget holes of up to $15m per year in Enterprise-level businesses.
At ExpenseOnDemand, we also understand something else:
This problem is now yours to fix.
We often hear from prospective customers that they’ve been tasked with upgrading their cumbersome manual financial systems and delivering a financial transformation strategy that turns their 90s level spend management into something fit for the modern era.
Today we’ll take a quick look at how to get started on your journey to better financial strategy.
Many organisations claim to prioritise innovation, agility, or customer-centricity, yet their investment patterns, reporting structures, and KPIs often tell a different story.
Finance leaders need to look beyond stated ambitions and examine where capital is really being deployed, how performance is measured, and what behaviours are rewarded.
This means engaging deeply with senior stakeholders across the business to unpack what “success” truly looks like over the next three to five years. Is the organisation genuinely pursuing growth, or is it focused on margin protection?
By clarifying the true intent behind the company’s vision, finance teams can ensure their transformation efforts are aligned to outcomes that actually matter.
Even when a company’s vision is clear, the gap between aspiration and operational reality is where most finance transformations either succeed or fail. Finance leaders must take an honest, evidence-based view of the current state of affairs before defining the future.
This requires mapping strategic priorities against existing capabilities to identify where friction exists.
For example, a business that aspires to real-time decision-making may still rely on fragmented systems and manual reporting processes. Similarly, a company targeting rapid international growth may lack the financial controls or scalable processes needed to support it. By pinpointing these intersections, finance can prioritise initiatives that close the most critical gaps, delivering tangible progress while building momentum for broader financial transformation strategy.
A critical step in updating financial systems is understanding where resistance is most likely to emerge.
Not all pushback is equal.
And avoiding backsliding is equally important.
Many transformation programmes show early momentum during implementation, only to regress once the initial focus fades.
To prevent this, organisations need to deliberately remove the path of least resistance. This may include:
Technology should act as an enabler of finance transformation, not a source of additional complexity.
Many organisations fall into the trap of solving individual problems in isolation, resulting in a fragmented ecosystem of tools that don’t communicate effectively. Over time, this creates more manual work, inconsistent data, and limited visibility, undermining the very efficiencies transformation is meant to deliver.
It’s easy to see how this fragmentation happens.
Different teams adopt point solutions to address immediate needs, expense management, procurement, reporting, without a clear architectural strategy. While each system may deliver value independently, the lack of integration between them leads to duplicated data, reconciliation challenges, and delays in decision-making.
Finance teams then spend more time stitching information together than generating insight from it.
The goal should instead be to build a connected financial technology landscape, where systems are designed to work together seamlessly. For example, integrating an end-to-end spend management platform like ExpenseOnDemand with existing ERP or accounting systems allows organisations to capture spend at the source while maintaining a single source of truth for financial data.
The focus should not be on adopting more technology, but on adopting the right technology, systems that reinforce each other, scale with the business, and support the broader transformation vision.
A finance transformation without clear measurement is change without proof.
Focus on a small set of meaningful KPIs, such as reduced manual effort, faster reporting cycles, improved data accuracy, and greater visibility over spend.
It’s also a good idea to treat measurement as a feedback loop.
Use performance data to refine processes, address gaps, and continuously improve.
Transformation does not end at go-live, it begins there.
A robust reinforcement strategy is essential to embed change and drive long-term value. This should include structured follow-ups, such as regular check-ins with key teams, performance tracking against new KPIs, and continuous feedback loops to identify issues early. Training should not be a one-off event, but an ongoing programme with refresher sessions, role-specific deep dives, and onboarding support for new joiners all help sustain capability over time.
By treating reinforcement as a continuous process rather than a final step, finance leaders can ensure that transformation delivers lasting, measurable impact rather than temporary change.
A finance transformation strategy is a structured approach to improving finance processes, technology, and data to better support business decision-making. It typically involves modernising financial systems, increasing automation, and aligning financial management with wider business goals.
The most effective finance transformation strategies focus on aligning technology with business objectives, improving data quality, and streamlining finance processes. They also prioritise analytics, automation, and scalable financial systems to enable faster, more accurate decision-making.
Technology plays a central role in finance transformation by connecting financial systems, reducing manual processes, and improving data visibility. Cloud platforms, automation, and integrated solutions help finance teams move from reactive reporting to proactive financial management.
Common challenges include fragmented financial systems, poor data quality, and resistance to change across the organisation. Many businesses also struggle to identify capability gaps or align their transformation strategy with long-term goals.
High-quality data underpins successful finance transformation. Accurate, consistent data enables better financial reporting, stronger analytics, and more informed decision-making across the business.
Analytics allows finance teams to move beyond historical reporting and deliver forward-looking insights. By embedding analytics into finance processes, organisations can identify trends, manage risk, and support strategic decision-making.
Sustaining finance transformation requires ongoing optimisation of processes, continuous training, and regular performance measurement. Reinforcing best practices and addressing new gaps ensures long-term value from transformation initiatives.
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