Is Your Finance Team Fit for the Future?
How to reassess skills and structure in a changing finance landscape
The role of finance is evolving—and fast. As AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making reshape how finance functions operate, the expectations placed on finance teams are accelerating in both speed and complexity. Yet while tools and technologies are transforming rapidly, many team structures remain frozen in time—designed for a world of spreadsheets and month-end routines, not real-time insight and strategic influence.
The question isn’t just whether you have the right people in place. It’s whether your finance team is truly built for what your business needs next.
In this article, we explore how finance leaders can reassess their team’s structure, skills, and purpose—using a framework built on strategy, capability, and future-readiness. And why now, in the midst of disruption, could be the best time to act.
Why Traditional Team Reviews Fall Short
Too often, finance team reviews happen in reaction to events: a key resignation, a new system rollout, a budget reset. But this reactive approach rarely delivers a forward-facing, resilient team.
More concerning still, many reviews focus on headcount and titles, rather than the evolving nature of finance itself. They miss the shift in expectations: real-time business partnering, sharper strategic input, and the ability to embed insight into decisions at speed.
With AI now taking on everything from forecasting to reconciliations, finance teams aren’t being asked to do more of the same—they’re being asked to operate in a fundamentally different way. The shape of the team, the mix of roles, and the skills within it all need a rethink.
A Framework for Future-Focused Finance Teams
At Cedar, we work with finance leaders across industries to help assess whether their current team is fit for what’s coming—not just what’s been. Our four-part framework looks beyond structure and into strategic capability:
- Strategic Alignment
What does the business need from finance over the next 12–24 months? Is the team geared up for M&A, ERP transformation, new market expansion, or investor engagement? Or is it stuck in a cycle of reporting and compliance? The first step is clarity—defining what finance needs to enable.
- Capability Mapping
It’s one thing to know what roles exist on your org chart. It’s another to know where your real strengths and risks lie. This part of the assessment digs into commercial acumen, data capability, automation literacy, and leadership headroom. Are you building insight—or just output?
- Team Design
Org charts are only helpful if they reflect the real flow of decisions and influence. Are your teams structured for speed? Do spans of control allow for agility? Are roles clearly defined—or duplicated across business units and functions? In a world of cost optimisation, structure matters more than ever.
- Talent Planning
The final layer looks forward. What new roles will matter most in the next year? Where will you need to develop from within vs. recruit externally? And how do you create a pipeline that reflects not just technical strength, but digital fluency, strategic curiosity, and the ability to lead through change?
The AI Overlay: Why This Matters Now
In our recent piece, AI in Finance—Where Are We Really?, we looked at how organisations like Unilever, NatWest, and BT are already embedding AI to automate decisions, improve planning, and surface real-time insight.
But here’s the catch: the technology is ahead of the talent. A Gartner study found 42% of finance leaders cite skills gaps as the top barrier to AI progress. And research from OneAdvanced shows nearly a third of organisations lack the internal capability to move forward with implementation. In other words, the bottleneck isn’t technology—it’s people.
This is why reassessing your finance team now is so critical. You’re not just building for the next reporting cycle. You’re building for a new operating model—one where humans and machines collaborate to deliver value, insight, and control in near real time.
How Cedar’s Finance Team Is Seeing the Shift
“More finance leaders are asking us for skills that blend systems, data, and strategic thinking. It’s not just about accountants anymore—it’s about analysts, influencers, and operators who can work across the business. Those roles are harder to hire for, but they’re where the real impact lies.”
— Gerry Monaghan, Cedar Finance
From Team Design to Team Development: Building a Learning Plan
Once you’ve assessed the structure and capability of your finance team, the next critical step is building a learning plan that supports where the function is headed—not just where it is now.
In the age of automation and AI, upskilling isn’t optional. It’s a strategic lever. The most effective finance teams aren’t just hiring for digital fluency—they’re developing it in-house, creating pathways for technical specialists to become broader business partners, and helping traditional finance professionals build confidence with data tools and storytelling.
At Cedar, we recommend focusing your finance learning and development plan across four priority areas:
- Digital Fluency
Ensure your team understands the core technologies reshaping finance—from cloud ERP to automation tools and basic AI models. This doesn’t mean everyone needs to code, but they do need to understand the possibilities and the language of modern finance systems.
- Analytical & Commercial Thinking
As routine reporting becomes automated, value shifts to interpretation. Invest in training that supports scenario planning, performance modelling, and commercial partnering—skills that help finance move from “scorekeeping” to “sense-making.”
- Data Storytelling
Data alone doesn’t drive decisions. The ability to translate numbers into actionable insight is fast becoming a critical skill at all levels. Consider tailored training in dashboarding, narrative building, and board-level communication.
- Change & Collaboration
As finance teams embed themselves deeper into transformation programmes, soft skills rise in importance. Equip your people with training in stakeholder management, agile ways of working, and change leadership to maximise their influence across the business.
These areas can be developed through a mix of coaching, external courses, internal secondments, and knowledge-sharing forums. The most important thing? Make learning visible. Recognise it. Prioritise it. Build it into role design and reward systems. Because the teams that are fit for the future aren’t just structured differently—they learn differently too.
From Clarity to Capability
Whether you’re preparing for growth or looking to embed cost discipline, assessing your finance team’s design and skills is no longer optional. It’s essential.
A Finance Team Skills & Structure Assessment can help you:
- Identify gaps before they become blockers
- Align structure to strategic direction
- Prioritise hires that will have the most long-term impact
- Future-proof your function in the age of AI and automation
How Cedar Can Help
At Cedar, we partner with CFOs and senior finance leaders to shape teams that are fit for the future—balancing today’s demands with tomorrow’s capability.
Our Finance Team Skills & Structure Assessment combines internal insight, external benchmarking, and forward-looking recommendations to give you a clear plan—whether you’re hiring now, reshaping structure, or preparing for transformation.
If you’re ready to rethink the shape of your team, get in touch with our finance specialists. And if you haven’t already, read our companion articles on AI in Finance and Cost Optimisation to see how people, technology, and cost discipline are reshaping the finance function.
