How F&A Leaders Are Adapting to the Current Crisis

With little time to prepare for period end, accounting and finance teams have been thrust into a new world of distributed work and a virtual close. While the future is dominated by unknowns, F&A leaders are in a unique position to help their organizations.

In a recent webinar, BlackLine polled more than 700 audience members to learn how organizations have been affected by recent challenges and gauge how leaders are adapting to the current crisis.

The insights were so powerful that we even created an infographic with the results. Here are some key findings from the poll.

The majority (54.4%) of respondents said that communication and collaboration were a challenge as their organizations shifted to a distributed working environment and virtual close.

It’s difficult to check in with coworkers as regularly, so we’re finding that we must be intentional and proactive in our communication. BlackLine prizes the communication tools built into our cloud platform, like Notebook, @mentions, and automated task email notifications.

When discussing the impact the current crisis is having on finance transformation goals and initiatives, only 11.6% of people sited little to no impact. That metric shows just how widespread the upheaval has been, nationwide.

So, if you’re experiencing some stagnation in your transformation initiatives, know that you’re not alone.

The current environment is also shining a light on the need to shift to digital, with close to 60% of the respondent organizations moving forward with or even accelerating their finance transformation initiatives. Additionally, 52% of respondents cited an urgency to embrace technology.

And on a more optimistic note, 80.5% of respondents think that one of the positives coming out of this crisis will be more flexible working options going forward.

The future of work is unknown, but these poll results indicate that improving collaboration and communication is a clear starting place for managing the impact and minimizing the damages from the current disruption. This will help create or maintain momentum for future transformation.

Organizations that have executed on their digital strategies and continue leveraging technology to implement continuous improvements will be better positioned than their peers to respond to ongoing changes.

Check out the infographic here. You can also watch the webinar on-demand to learn more about how Finance and Accounting can rally during these uncertain times.