Excel has been finance’s ride-or-die tool for decades. But today’s CFOs are shedding an identity anchored in reporting; shifting from historian to strategist. For that, Excel isn’t enough.
Salesforce just made that shift official. Recently, the tech giant announced a bold new executive role: Chief Operating and Financial Officer (COFO). By unifying the CFO and COO functions, Salesforce signals what many already know: the modern CFO is no longer just a numbers person. They’re a force behind company-wide transformation.
And that evolution is pushing the limits of traditional finance tools. We’re seeing CFOs become Chief Value Officers (CVOs, tech-enabled, insight-driven, and able to scale the finance function in a modular way when expanding globally).
That shift was front and centre at Future Tech in London, where Embat joined voices from Barclays, BDO, Pleo and others to explore how AI and integrated systems are reshaping finance and HR. The conversation made one thing clear: modern CFOs can’t just close the books anymore.
The rise of the strategic CFO
Ten years ago, the finance role was seen largely as operational: Generate financial reports, keep things tight. Today, the focus has shifted toward strategic insight: Help us understand the money.
And that evolution can’t happen without deeper visibility, particularly into cash. CFOs need to project liquidity in real time, not just for operational comfort but to fuel growth, secure funding, and navigate volatility. Static spreadsheets just can’t offer the precision or proactivity required.
CFOs are now growth architects, not just cost controllers. You’re expected to:
- Advise on capital allocation
- Respond to live metrics
- Collaborate across the business
- Forecast black swan scenarios
- Automate repetitive work
Excel isn’t fit for this. It’s not integrated. It’s not real-time. It doesn’t learn. It doesn’t scale.
Acknowledge the love
Excel is legendary. It democratised modelling, allowed endless flexibility, and helped finance teams solve everything from P&L to payroll. Excel gave us control, and now it’s holding us back, because business is fundamentally different.
Finance teams are managing multiple bank accounts across countries, navigating increasingly complex intercompany payments, and shifting from fixed budgets to rolling forecasts. Leaders are expected to respond to real-time questions with real-time answers, and traditional tools simply weren’t built for that level of agility.
Even with its strengths, Excel wasn’t built to get accurate, real-time cash positions, and the complexity of managing multiple entities across borders create friction that Excel only amplifies.
The cost vs the prize
Copy/paste errors, broken links, out-of-sync versions, version naming chaos (“final_FINAL_v12.xlsx”), security issues, lost time at close. Real-time data makes your budget a breathing document, not a stale spreadsheet.
Imagine a world without CSVs, where you never chase bank statements, you don’t download and upload files, and you don’t have to wonder if ‘that number’ is up to date.
Instead, every transaction from every account – across countries, entities, and currencies – flows into a single, unified dashboard. Bank data syncs automatically, in real time, no matter how many accounts or institutions you manage. Forecasts update themselves. Reconciliations complete overnight.
Alerts tell you what matters, before anyone else asks. This is where modern banking connectivity transforms finance. Instead of logging into portals or emailing bank reps for files, today’s best platforms offer live links to your financial institutions. That means cash positions update automatically, so forecasts become proactive.
And cash is still king, so the value of visibility can’t be overstated. Missed positions lead to missed opportunities.
In a recent rollout, a mid-sized finance team automated a handful of manual processes – expecting modest returns. Initially, the client wanted fewer clicks, but instead gained thousands of hours back. They explained that AI now alerts their team when cash flow inputs are missing – not to make decisions for them, but to prevent errors before they occur. Previously, they spent hours trying to explain last month’s performance; now, that time is devoted to shaping the next quarter.
This is what connected finance should look like.
What CFOs gain:
- Real-time visibility: Instantly see cash positions, across accounts and borders
- Scalable operations: Control complexity without scaling headcount
- Faster close cycles: No more recon by spreadsheet
- Better decisions: Powered by live data, not stale exports
- Resilience: A proactive tool to avoid “oh sh@t” moments with clear insights that prepare you for audits, investor scrutiny, and sustained growth
Finance should not only report what has happened but also drive what happens next.
It’s not just about you, it’s about your team
The pain trickles down – junior finance staff spend hours cleaning data, teams lose time reconciling accounts, chasing numbers, and checking mismatches between bank statements and ERP. Reporting packs are Frankenstein’d from 12 different Excel tabs.
Disconnected systems don’t just delay answers, they delay decisions. The struggle to access and reconcile cash data across entities, systems, and borders adds days of wasted work. Finance teams aren’t just fighting Excel, they’re fighting the limitations of outdated bank integrations and siloed ERP connections.
The future belongs to platforms that connect these dots in real time.
What changes with the right tool
With the right tool, finance teams gain a proactive partner that anticipates needs, flags issues, and forecasts cash flow. AI agents classify transactions, detect missing entries, and keep forecasts dynamic and alert-driven. Working from a shared, secure, and audited source means closing faster, spending less time on controls, and focusing more on insight – with AI enhancing decisions, not replacing them.
You don’t have to quit cold turkey
We’re not saying delete Excel forever, but the era of running your financial core in them is over. You’re leading a company, not just a ledger, and your tools need to catch up.
Forecasting revenue is hard. Forecasting cash? Even harder. But cash remains the most actionable signal a CFO has. The ability to see and steer your cash flow is what separates reacting from leading. Whether you’re planning a hire, preparing for a downturn, or entering a new market, it all starts with cash confidence.
By Theo Wasserberg, Head of UK&I at Embat
Theo Wasserberg is Head of UK&I at Embat. He leads the market strategy, customer partnerships and growth in the UK and Ireland. He has a strong background in enterprise software and spent five years at SAP, where he worked closely with ERP customers on banking and reconciliation solutions. He also led strategy for a leading ERP partner, helping CFOs navigate digital transformation across Europe. He completed his MBA at INSEAD in 2024.
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Theo Wasserberg, Head of UK&I at Embat
Theo Wasserberg is Head of UK&I at Embat. He leads the market strategy, customer partnerships and growth in the UK and Ireland. He has a strong background in enterprise software and spent five years at SAP, where he worked closely with ERP customers on banking and reconciliation solutions. He also led strategy for a leading ERP partner, helping CFOs navigate digital transformation across Europe. He completed his MBA at INSEAD in 2024.
