Controllers, Here’s How to Elevate Your Finance Team’s Impact

By The Center Team on December 19, 2024

The days of controllers only checking boxes and filing reports are over. Today’s economic landscape demands more‌ — ‌and it’s opened up exciting possibilities for finance teams ready to step up. While compliance and reporting aren’t going anywhere, the real opportunity lies in streamlining operations and shaping strategic decisions that drive business forward.

Smart, integrated tools are key to aligning finance operations with broader business goals. When controllers embed payment-led expense management and integrated T&E solutions into their workflows, they create lasting improvements in efficiency, transparency, and control across their organizations. Here’s how to elevate your finance team’s impact.

1. Break free from manual processes

Let’s be honest: fragmented systems and manual workflows aren’t just frustrating—they’re holding your team back. They create data blind spots, slow down decisions, and turn compliance into a constant headache. But modern tech, especially payment-led platforms and smart corporate cards, can transform this picture entirely.

When you put a connected card at the center of your finance operations, you get:

  • Instant visibility into every transaction as it happens
  • Built-in guardrails that catch policy issues before they become problems
  • One unified system for travel, expenses, and oversight that‌ works where your team works

The result? Your team spends less time chasing receipts and more time driving real business value.

2. Move from reactive to proactive

Finance teams see everything—every purchase, every trend, every opportunity. But that visibility only matters if you can act on it. Here’s how to make that happen:

  • Connect spending to business strategy instantly: Use real-time data from your T&E platform to spot patterns and adjust course quickly. When the C-suite needs insights to navigate changing conditions, your team has answers ready.
  • Keep travelers safe and spending visible: Modern tools don’t just track expenses. They help ensure employee safety with real-time location visibility and streamlined duty-of-care processes.

3. Tackle challenges head-on

Rising costs. Regulatory mazes. Data scattered across a dozen systems. Sound familiar? Here’s the good news: the right tools can turn these headaches into opportunities.

Payment-led platforms show you exactly where money’s going, helping you spot ways to optimize spending. Unified systems create a single source of truth for all your financial data. And when policies are built into your tools, compliance becomes something that just happens‌ — ‌not something you chase.

4. Stay nimble amid economic uncertainty

If there’s one constant in business today, it’s change. The key is building a finance operation that can adapt quickly. With modern tools, you can:

  • Adjust budgets on the fly based on real-time data
  • Make sure travel spending aligns with current business priorities
  • Model different scenarios to stay ahead of whatever comes next

5. Build a culture of continuous improvement

The best finance teams never stop improving. Here’s how to build that mindset:

  • Embrace feedback loops: Use your expense data to constantly refine policies
  • Invest in training: Make sure your team knows how to get the most from your tools
  • Celebrate wins: Recognize how technology-driven changes—such as faster approvals or reduced policy violations—contribute to overall organizational success.  

Every improvement matters – from automated tasks to streamlined processes – and builds toward a bigger impact. It’s about positioning finance as a driving force for growth, not just a cost center.

Ready to elevate your finance team’s impact? 

The tools that felt optional yesterday are essential today. Payment-led expense management, integrated T&E platforms, and smart corporate cards aren’t just about making life easier (though they definitely do that). They’re about turning finance into a catalyst for business success.

Is your finance team ready to embrace the future? Modern tools can make all the difference—explore how they can simplify your processes and unlock your team’s full potential.  

Want to see how Center can help your finance team elevate its impact? Sign up for a personalized demo.


About the Author
Brian Maslen, MBA, CPA, CMA, serves as the corporate controller at Center. Based in Bellevue, Washington, Center offers an integrated corporate card and expense software solution that uses real-time data to help monitor expenses and optimize spend. As Center’s controller, Maslen is responsible for the accounting, tax, and treasury functions. He also leads product initiatives to ensure Center’s software meets the needs of finance professionals, building off his prior experience in Accounting and FP&A roles at Blackberry and Owens Corning.