By: Claire Thompson
For years, finance transformation has been framed as a technology problem. Companies have invested in automation, AI, and dashboards. Yet despite growing spend on financial systems, many organizations are discovering that finance teams are still drowning in manual work.
A new national survey suggests the issue isn’t a lack of ambition—or even a lack of tools—but a failure to modernize the processes that technology is meant to support.
According to the 2025 Yooz Survey: Leaders vs. Ledger, executive confidence in finance has climbed sharply over the past year. Leaders increasingly view finance as a strategic partner in planning, forecasting, and growth. Executives now rate finance effectiveness at 83%, up significantly year over year.
On the surface, that looks like real progress. Underneath, however, the day-to-day reality inside finance departments tells a more complicated story.
Strategy is Aligned, Capacity is Not
The survey reveals broad agreement between leadership and staff on where finance should be headed. Nearly half of executives say finance’s primary role is now business planning and analysis, not transaction processing. Finance teams themselves largely agree.
The problem is execution. While leaders increasingly expect finance teams to spend the majority of their time on strategic work, only a small fraction of staff report being able to operate at that level. Many still spend most of their day on manual, repetitive tasks, such as entering data, tracking down documents, and navigating approval bottlenecks.
Manual data entry remains one of the most commonly cited barriers to strategic work, and it’s becoming more prevalent, not less. A majority of both leaders and staff say manual processes significantly limit finance’s impact.
Even document handling has become a significant drain. Nearly seven in ten executives acknowledge that their teams spend at least four hours a week simply searching for documents and approvals. That’s time that could be spent on risk analysis, forecasting, or supporting business decisions.
When New Technology Meets Old Processes
The disconnect becomes sharper when looking at how different groups experience technology.
From the executive suite, recent investments are paying off. Leaders report rising satisfaction with automation and greater confidence that technology supports strategic goals. Dashboards are clearer. Reports are faster. Visibility has improved.
Finance staff, however, interact with systems at the transactional level, and that’s where cracks appear. Satisfaction with automation among staff has declined, and confidence that technology supports their work has also fallen. Poor system integration and manual workarounds remain common.
Artificial intelligence follows the same pattern. While most leaders see AI as a critical enabler of efficiency and insight, more than a quarter of finance staff report not using AI at all or remaining skeptical of its value. AI can be valuable, but for many teams, it hasn’t consistently reduced manual workloads yet.
The underlying issue is structural. Many organizations have layered modern tools onto outdated workflows, effectively automating inefficiency rather than eliminating it.
Why Automation Alone Falls Short
The survey points to a critical misstep in many finance transformations. Technology is deployed without first rethinking how work should flow.
When legacy approval chains, fragmented document storage, and redundant data entry remain intact, even sophisticated platforms deliver only incremental gains. Teams may move faster, but still go in circles.
Notably, both executives and finance staff agree on what would help most. Process improvement ranks ahead of hiring more people, outsourcing work, or adding additional tools. Automation is seen as essential, but only when paired with workflow redesign that removes unnecessary steps and manual touchpoints at the source.
That alignment is rare in organizational change efforts, creating an opening for leadership.
The CEO’s Stake in Finance Modernization
For CEOs, the implications extend beyond the finance function. In addition to slowing down reporting cycles, manual work weakens controls, increases fraud risk, and reduces the organization’s ability to respond to change.
Some finance leaders are beginning to reframe modernization around what Yooz describes as Lean Financial OperationsTM, an approach that prioritizes eliminating waste at the process level before applying automation. The goal is not simply faster processing, but freeing capacity for higher-value work.
With this framework, many CFOs have successfully elevated finance’s role, but operational friction continues to hold teams back. The opportunity now lies in aligning strategy, process, and technology rather than treating software as a standalone fix.
Modern Finance is Built, Not Bought
Modernization is not something organizations can purchase off the shelf. Technology remains a critical enabler, but it cannot compensate for broken workflows. Finance teams need systems designed to reduce manual intervention, streamline document handling, and simplify approvals so automation actually replaces work instead of reshaping it.
For CEOs looking to unlock more strategic value from finance, the path forward starts with a simple shift in mindset. Operational excellence is no longer a back-office concern. It is the foundation on which strategic finance—and, ultimately, smarter leadership decisions—are built.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Survey references are for context; verify sources and consult a qualified professional before acting. No outcomes are guaranteed, and mentions of brands or frameworks do not imply endorsement.
