How can we find more time savings during the workday for our finance and accounting teams who constantly juggle task and project deadlines? They are overworked, but why? Leaders must prioritize and deconflict tasks, talk with other leaders across the organization, and maximize the tools available. Further, we must analyze the team’s structure and skill set.
I agree that this is easier said than done. I know because I have dealt with this problem for years. Your team is small and stretched thin with requirements and at the same time, you get new tasks every day.
It is challenging for finance and accounting teams because the number of team members are often too few and the composition tends to be wrong. Additionally, the division of work is often poorly organized and usually results in contract workers to be hired to handle the additional capacity.
It is an everyday challenge in the finance and accounting fields to create value added work because of being overwhelmed by more requests for information by executives, owners and government compliance requirements. Financial analysts and accountants have little extra time to conduct thorough critical analysis and ensure transactions are properly recorded.
Your business cycle determines how the work is completed each month. Monthly and quarterly close and reporting processes can overwhelm the timeline. Right now, you are saying, “How can I really find more time?”
Four ways to create more time savings for your team:
- Prioritize and deconflict tasks. Every day, we must prioritize the work load of the team. What are the most critical tasks? Place requirements on your calendar and backwards plan so that the most important tasks are completed on time. Ensure your team members are updating their progress with you and can easily ask for help without being criticized when needed.
- Communicate with other leaders. Coordinate with other leaders around the organization so they understand the workload of your team. They must address their requests in how they align to the business and the relative priority. Tell these other leaders to minimize meeting times and even call for fewer meetings. The more time your team spends in wasted meetings, the less time that is available to get the work done.
- Maximize the information systems. You must fully investigate the capabilities of your financial and decision information systems so that routine analysis products can be pre-programmed and requested with just a push of a button. No more wasting time on changing database parameters every time you want to run a routine query. Automate as much as possible. Talk to your IT team to tell them what you need.
- Team structure analysis. Is your team properly staffed and skilled to match the current and future workload? Perform the analysis and talk to your leadership about relevant recommendations. Hiring, of course, requires a significant investment in resources, which may not be readily available.
It is an every day challenge to lead finance and accounting teams. With less time available, your team members are going to miss something in the analysis. It may be a critical assumption or a factor affecting profitability of a new business offering. As leaders, we need to work on creating more ways to find time in the day, so we can create value added work for the business.
How will you create more time savings for your team members?
Six Steps for Building and Developing Accounting and Finance Team Collaboration
Please comment or email me at comment@stephenmclain.com.
Copyright 2018 – Stephen McLain
