What is the role of the finance department today?

For a long time, the Finance department was perceived as a cost center, confined to its traditional missions of bookkeeping, closing and regulatory reporting. Those days are gone. Now, the Finance Department has established itself as a true strategic partner of the company, at the heart of transformation and value creation decisions.

But in concrete terms, what is the role of the Finance department today? What tasks does it have to perform? And how is it evolving in the face of the rise ofartificial intelligence, the Cloud and new regulatory requirements?

The core missions of the Finance Department

For decades, the Finance function has structured its activities around a few fundamental pillars:

• Accounting and financial reporting: produce reliable financial statements, on time and in compliance with current standards (IFRS, local standards, etc.).

• Management control: monitor budgets, analyze variances, provide performance indicators to senior management.

• Cash management: managing cash flow, optimizing working capital requirements, securing financing.

• Tax and regulatory compliance: ensuring that the company complies with its legal, tax and social obligations.

These missions remain essential prerequisites. But they are no longer sufficient to define the added value of a modern finance department.

Digital transformation of the finance function: from reporting to strategic management

Digital Transformation has profoundly reconfigured the CFO‘s scope of action. According to an SAP Concur study relayed by GPO Magazine, 93% of CFOs feel that their role today goes beyond traditional finance, and 74% are directly involved in the company’s strategic decisions.

This shift is not insignificant. It reflects a new reality: the Finance Department is now at the intersection of data, risk and the organization’s overall performance. It no longer simply photographs the past, but models the future.

In concrete terms, this means new responsibilities:

• Manage performance in real time, thanks to Business Intelligence and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) tools that enable dynamic analysis and scenario simulation.

• Support investment decisions, by deciding on technological priorities and assessing the return on investment of transformation projects.

• Ensure the governance of financial data, guaranteeing the reliability, consistency and traceability of information across all information systems.

• Working closely with the IT department, in a CFO/IT department tandem that has become essential for steering Finance IS modernization projects.

Artificial intelligence and the finance function: where do we stand in 2026?

AI is no longer a prospective subject for Finance Departments, it’s an operational reality.

According to CFO Connect’s The State of AI in Finance 2026 report, 82% of finance functions now useAI routinely in their processes, and 68% of respondents say thatautomating repetitive tasks has freed up time for strategic analysis.

Use cases are multiplying:

• Automate low value-added tasks: bank reconciliations, accounting entry, expense claim management, anomaly detection, etc.

• Increased financial forecasting: 55% of companies use AI to refine their budgets and scenario analyses, reducing margins of error by an average of 20% compared with conventional methods.

• Predictive cash flow analysis: algorithms enable you to anticipate cash requirements with unrivalled accuracy.

• Real-time financial reporting: the ability to produce immediate, indisputable financial information is becoming a standard of credibility.

There’s a simple explanation for this central positioning: who better than the CFO to assess the ROI of an AI project, control its costs and measure its impact on performance? According to OneStream, 75% of CFOs now drive their organization’s AI strategy, ahead of technical departments and even CEOs.

What are the challenges facing the CFO in 2026?

Financial data governance: a central issue for CFOs

By 2029, 527.5 zettabytes of data will be generated worldwide (Statista). The challenge is no longer the quantity of information available, but the ability to exploit it accurately and rapidly.

Yet 57% of CFOs still say they operate in an unpredictable environment, and 58% are now investing in advanced AI and analytical tools to regain control of their forecasts.

The finance department, at the heart of the company’s data flows, is on the front line in guaranteeing their quality and consistency, through rigorous governance of repositories, KPIs and management rules linking ERP, EPM and reporting tools.

Regulatory compliance: electronic invoicing, ESG and international taxation

Mandatory electronic invoicing (due to come into force in France in September 2026), ESG reporting, changing international tax standards: regulatory constraints are piling up and becoming increasingly complex.

The finance department must not only comply with these changes, but also anticipate them, so as to avoid costly emergency compliance measures.

Finance skills and talents: the human challenge of transformation

The transformation of the Finance function is also a human one. 30% of CFOs identify attracting and retaining talent as a major challenge.

Today’s finance teams need to master advanced technological tools, develop a data culture and adopt a business partner posture.

In fact, 62% of CFOs cite employee skills development as the key factor in the success of their transformation.

The Finance department at the heart of the company’s transformation

In 2026, the finance department is no longer a mere cost center or support department. It has become an engine of transformation, capable of aligning financial performance, strategic management and technological innovation.

To achieve this, we rely on high-performance information systems, robust data governance and advanced analysis tools. But above all, it relies on teams capable of bridging the gap between financial rigor and strategic vision.

It is precisely in this area of transformation that SQORUS has been supporting finance departments for over 35 years: from the definition of IS Finance strategy to the integration of EPM, ERP and BI solutions, via change management and business process optimization.

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