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Accounting
By Paul Ursich, CPA, Wiss On Jan 22, 2026
Finance leaders are facing a fundamental shift: The playbook that worked five years ago no longer applies. Between sweeping tax changes like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, shifting state sales tax nexus rules, increased tariffs and the rapid rise of AI-driven finance tools, CFOs are redefining how they lead.
Many finance leaders describe a familiar frustration: They’re buried in monthly close processes that take two weeks when they should take three days. They’re building forecasts in spreadsheets that are outdated the moment they’re finalized. They’re answering the same operational questions from department heads because there’s no real-time visibility into financial performance. This isn’t just an efficiency problem. It’s a strategic disadvantage.
The question isn’t whether your finance function needs to evolve. It’s whether you’ll transform proactively or be forced to react when it’s already too late.
What High-Performing CFOs Are Doing Differently
The most effective finance leaders have stopped treating their role as purely operational. They’ve repositioned themselves as strategic partners to the CEO and built finance teams that support that mission. Here’s what that transformation looks like in practice.
They’re automating everything that doesn’t require judgment. Smart CFOs are using AI-powered platforms to automate reconciliations, invoice processing, and routine reporting. This isn’t about replacing people. It’s about redirecting their time toward analysis, forecasting, and advisory work that actually moves the business forward.
They’re building real-time financial visibility. The days of waiting until month’s end to understand business performance are over. Leading CFOs have implemented cloud-based financial systems that provide real-time dashboards accessible to leadership teams and department heads.
This changes the conversation entirely. Instead of explaining what happened three weeks ago, CFOs can facilitate forward-looking discussions about resource allocation, pricing strategy, and investment priorities.
They’re structuring finance as a flexible asset. High-performing CFOs are supplementing internal teams with specialized expertise, fractional CFO support for strategic projects, outsourced accounting for transactional processing or advisory partners for complex scenarios like M&A preparation or system implementations.
This approach creates capacity without the overhead of full-time hires.
They’re proactively managing tax and regulatory complexity. The CFOs staying ahead aren’t waiting for year-end to think about tax implications. They’re running scenario models throughout the year, evaluating entity structure decisions and working closely with tax advisors to optimize their position.
This proactive approach turns tax strategy from a reactive compliance burden into a value-creation opportunity.
They’re translating financial data into business strategy. Perhaps the most important shift; leading CFOs have become expert storytellers. They don’t just present numbers – they contextualize performance, identify trends before they become problems, and recommend actions backed by financial modeling.
This means preparing board materials that highlight key insights rather than overwhelming people with data. It means having regular strategic conversations with business unit leaders about their financial performance and growth opportunities.
It means being the person in the room who can quickly model the financial impact of a new initiative or strategic pivot.
Making the Shift: Where to Start
If you’re a CFO or finance director recognizing that your function needs to evolve, the good news is you don’t need to transform everything overnight. Begin by identifying your biggest bottlenecks. Is it the close process? Cash flow visibility? Forecasting accuracy? Pick one area and invest in improving it. Quick wins build momentum and demonstrate the value of modernizing your finance function.
Next, assess where your team is spending time. If senior finance professionals are processing invoices or chasing down expense reports, that’s a clear signal that automation or outsourcing could free up capacity for higher-value work.
Finally, think about your finance function as a strategic capability, not just an operational necessity. What would it mean for your business if: you could close the books in three days instead of 10; had real-time profitability visibility by product line or customer segment or could model the financial impact of any business decision in minutes rather than days?
The CFOs succeeding in 2026 won’t be the ones with the biggest teams or the most resources.
They’ll be the ones who recognize that the finance function needs to fundamentally change and take deliberate steps to make it happen.
About the Author: Paul Ursich, CPA is partner-in-charge of advisory services at Wiss. He can be reached at [email protected].
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