This joint research paper from IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) and Deloitte provides insights on finance's need to evolve across three dimensions—work, workforce, and workplace—further informing considerations to enhance, optimize, and elevate finance organizations and help make Finance in a Digital World™ a reality. While this survey was conducted prior to COVID-19, the pandemic has been a catalytic event that amplifies the relevancy of these considerations.
Nearly 800 finance and accounting managers, directors, controllers, and CFOs offered their viewpoints in a global survey conducted between November 2019 and January 2020. As more and more organizations empower finance and accounting professionals to serve as strategic business partners and deliver expanded analytic insights, this report captures refocusing finance's roles and responsibilities, which involves understanding how automation is changing the nature of the work, determining who can do the work and addressing skills gaps within the workforce, and developing the workplace in which the work can be performed.