CFOs who wish to add greater value to the business need to find a suitable means to limit low value tasks.

Explains Jeremy Hope, research director at Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT): "Over two-thirds of financial professionals' time is spent on transaction processing and month-end routines. There are simply too many journals, too many spreadsheets, too many errors and too many disconnected systems.

'Budgeting takes too long, is too expensive and adds too little value. In addition, there are too many irrelevant measures and reports, information flow is slow and forecasting and risk management are not core competencies. The result of all these failings is increasing levels of detail and complexity."

Says David McWilliam of Cognos SA: "Business priorities need to be on changing internal processes and technologies so they're repeatable and effective, freeing CFOs and the office of finance up to add greater value to the business.

'However, meeting this challenge is difficult for organizations using manual, inadequate or multiple consolidation systems for their financials as they are unable to structure, control and automate the process for internal and external reporting, and cannot gain a single, accurate view of financial results."