Financial FOMO is Real

By The Center Team on November 21, 2019

Get the 10,000-foot view and the details. Center’s Spend Insights expands visibility into the spending across your business and the activity driving trends.

 

Sidelined By Missed Opportunity

We’ve all experienced social FOMO — that fear of missing out on the fun we’re certain everyone else is having without us. Financial FOMO is something uniquely reserved for CFOs, finance teams, and budget managers: the fear of missed opportunities to make your company’s dollars work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Like social FOMO, financial FOMO can make you feel like you’re being left on the sidelines to watch the world—or, in this case, your business’s financial health—roll by.

75% of CFOs said they’d like more time for strategy and planning: Under Pressure: Operational Challenges for Finance Teams

No one thing causes this particular fiscal state of mind. It’s the accumulation of all the things that demand your attention and prevent you from seeing both the forest and the trees.

If only you’d noticed those multiple software subscriptions. How could those dollars have been better invested in the business? Or, what if you’d captured all of those billable expenses—not just half—that should have been passed on to the client? Would that have made the difference between barely meeting and exceeding the quarterly financial expectations?

It’s when those “if onlys” and “what ifs” start to accumulate faster than your revenue that you know you have a serious case of Financial FOMO. And who wouldn’t? You don’t have the time to analyze and thoughtfully maximize spend across every line item in the GL.

CFOs lose a day a week to the wrong activities. “How Effective CFOs Spend Their Time,” Gartner 2019

When you’re in survival mode, a budget crunch can suddenly mean a choice between a travel freeze or the business’s livelihood…until you realize that the travel freeze could prevent the sales team from getting to Denver to lock down that transformative deal.

It’s time to take action.

Action with Clear Insights

“Taking action” doesn’t have to feel like just another task on a to-do list. Imagine the ability to capture a high-level view of the financials and unlock opportunity in each number, rather than squander potential obscured by miscategorized expenses and late accruals.

Finance teams spend just 24% on insights, with the balance going to efficiency and control. “2017 Financial Effectiveness Benchmark Report”, PWC

Having full visibility and intelligent insights allows your finance team to focus on the things that will really drive the business forward: identifying cost-saving measures, creating more accurate forecasts, and fostering a stronger fiscal culture.

How Center Can Help

It is possible to both take the 10,000-foot view and still see the fine details in front of you. With Center’s Spend Insights, you get better visibility of spending across the business, plus insight into what’s driving trends. While AI-powered software may not completely solve your FOMO—you are only human, after all—it will give you visibility into all of your spend to help you be smarter, more strategic and, yes, chase down those opportunities. .