CFOs must stop perfecting the budget and start shaping the future

Businesses need faster financial planning cycles

by · TechRadar

Opinion By Sacha Herrmann published 4 May 2026

(Image credit: Shutterstock / LALAKA)

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Working in finance is a numbers game. And numbers are often synonymous with accuracy. But it’s well understood that accuracy, when it comes to preparing for the future, is near impossible.

But that can be a hard pill to swallow for people who live in the numbers, leaving many chasing perfection in every aspect of the job.

Sacha Herrmann

CFO at Soldo.

The outcome is more often than not counterproductive. Rather than focusing on value-driven work, finance teams can get easily drawn into a time-consuming cycle of reflecting on and justifying historical data, which creates little more than a false sense of control.

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In fact, data shows us that 50% of finance leaders take more than six business days to close their books.

In a volatile economic environment, businesses need faster financial planning cycles to be more agile in the face of uncertainty. For that, the finance function needs a mindset shift.

Striving for right, not perfect

Finance teams’ focus on perfectionism likely stems from constraints imposed by legacy systems. Hours spent trawling through Excel deliver very little strategic value, yet are often justified by these systems and internal expectations of finance teams.

However, this backwards-looking approach often raises questions around accuracy. Data from previous quarters, filtered through legacy systems with built-in delays, is rarely fit for purpose when you’re dealing with economic volatility and inflation and trying to make timely, well-informed decisions on business spend.

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