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The untold challenges of the finance team and solutions

Once upon a time, the primary role of finance teams was to close the books, match data, and reconcile reports. Today, as businesses evolve, CFOs and finance teams are increasingly recognized for their greater value beyond merely being custodians of financial data.

26 February, 2024

· 6 minutes

Topics

Blogs Manage risk Understand payments Optimize payments Financial products Data and insights Revenue protect Data Connect Financial services

CFOs of large corporations now act as co-pilots, leveraging an end-to-end view of the organization to drive strategic decision-making. Although this shift in mindset is crucial for business success, it often stretches finance teams too thin as they strive to keep up with the regular demands of closing the books with precision and accuracy, while also providing updated analytics and reports.

In this blog, we step into the shoes of the finance executive decision maker. While it's a huge role to fill, there are innovative solutions to tackle challenges, such as:

Finance team efficiency
Chargeback management
Financial reporting

If you've ever driven on Sheikh Zayed Road, you know that taking one wrong exit can lead to at least a ten-minute delay. Modern ways require modern solutions. We've transitioned from maps to GPS, handwritten letters to emails, and manual reconciliation to automation. In today's era, where business operations are vast and complex, the stakes are even higher. A mistake in reconciliation today will cost more than just a ten-minute delay. It can lead to direct financial losses and time-consuming investigations. And even if reconciliation is consistently accurate, it continues to eat up valuable time from the team, diverting their focus from contributing greater value—providing analytical insights to guide the company's next steps.

Reduce reconciliation time by up to 50%

Automation is not a new trend globally; automated reconciliation tools have been integrated into various sectors. The continuous progress in this field underscores the significant time savings and enhanced precision it offers. Automation can reduce reconciliation time by up to 50%. While this percentage may vary depending on the company's size, the increase in efficiency, speed, and accuracy remains a constant advantage.

If you're interested and want to discuss more about automation and how it can be implemented for your team, contact us.

The finance team is the first line of defense against chargebacks. Once a chargeback has been initiated, a rapid and quick response is of the essence. The team has to stay agile and act fast. The impact of chargebacks goes beyond the immediate financial risks; it can:

Increase operational costs: each chargeback leads to an administrative cost to the company, not just in terms of the transaction amount that may be refunded but also in the resources needed to dispute the chargeback.
Damage relationships with card networks and issuers: companies with high chargeback rates may be deemed high-risk by card networks, and issuers, leading to higher fees or even termination of service.
Lead to additional penalties: companies might get penalized by network cards and banks if the chargeback ratio is high.

Adyen’s built-in risk can reduce chargebacks by 95%

Chargeback Rule of Thumb: Preventing chargebacks is more important than defending against them.

Consider this fast-growing business for athletes Athlinks, where they managed to reduce chargebacks by 95% thanks to implementing a robust risk management tool. Advanced risk management tools leverage machine learning algorithms to analyze transaction patterns and identify potentially fraudulent activity in real-time. Chargeback management is done right when fraud is stopped right before it happens, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of chargebacks related to fraudulent transactions.

They say good things are worth waiting for, this doesn't apply to outdated financial reporting. Traditionally, businesses might wait 15 to 30 days for a report summarizing the previous month's activities. This delay can hinder the ability to make informed decisions, impacting overall business performance.

Reduce reporting time from a week to an hour

Our real-time reporting and unified dashboards offer a unique solution in the region, combining clear dashboards with all the important data in one place and real-time data updates. This significantly lightens the finance team's workload, allowing them to redirect their energy towards analyzing data and focusing on other crucial tasks.

Embracing agility

The role of finance professionals is evolving beyond transactional activities to include interpreting data and providing insights. Similarly, financial customer service teams are moving away from purely administrative tasks towards activities that add more value. The key to success in this dynamic environment is agility—embracing change, adopting innovative solutions, and focusing on strategic decision-making to propel businesses forward.