What It Really Takes to Make Finance Automation Drive Change

A Behind-the-Scenes Look from a Financial Systems Manager

When people talk about automation in finance, the conversation usually focuses on tools — Power BI dashboards, RPA bots, and faster reporting cycles. The assumption is simple: automate a manual process, and you’ll save time, improve accuracy, and make smarter decisions.

But in reality, it rarely works that cleanly.

After years in Corporate FP&A — building hundreds of automation solutions across Accounts Receivable, Tax, Asset Planning, Operating Expenses, and now leading an enterprise-wide financial data warehouse — I’ve seen firsthand how automation often misses the mark. Not because the tools aren’t powerful, but because we rush in without fully understanding the process, the people, or the problem.

That’s why I believe automation in finance needs a mindset shift — one I callMindful Automation.Everyone touts finance automation as essential, but few discuss the messy intake processes, unclear objectives, and change resistance that quietly derail even the best-intentioned initiatives. This article shines a light on those hidden challenges—and how to overcome them.

This is for you if you’re:

 A finance analyst trying to make your reports more meaningful than“just another view”

 A manager requesting dashboards but struggling with adoption

 An executive or business leader looking to drive automation but unsure if your ask is aligned with what the team can or should build

If you’re part of a team building, requesting, or reacting to automation, I hope this helps you pause and ask:

| Are we solving the right problem, for the right people, in the right way?

Because that’s where the real work begins — long before the first chart is ever built.

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Why Automation in Finance Needs Reframing

We see it all the time: “Can you build this in Power BI?” or “Let’s automate this report,” with no real discussion about why the report exists or whatd ecision it should support. Speed is assumed to equal value, but faster reporting doesn’t automatically lead to better insight. Without a clear purpose, automation just creates more noise—dashboards no one understands, reports no one trusts, and processes that still feel broken - just faster.

You might need to rethink your automation if:

 Reports go unused or cause more confusion than clarity

 Endless “one more filter” requests keep popping up

 Analysts feel like task-takers instead of problem-solvers

 Everyone still falls back on Excel for the “real” view

This isn’t about assigning blame. It’s about recognizing that even well-intentioned automation becomes noise without proper understanding.

Until finance teams start building with purpose and empathy, we’ll keep automating broken processes — and mistaking it for progress.

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What Is Mindful Automation — And How Do You Actually Do It?

Mindful automation is about slowing down — not to delay progress, but to ensure you’re solving the right problem, for the right people, in the right way. It’s the discipline of understanding before building. And in finance, that mindset can be the difference between a trusted business tool and just another forgotten dashboard.

Too often, automation is triggered by surface-level requests like “Can you build this in Power BI?” or “Can we pull this from Oracle weekly?” Instead of jumping into development, I now walk through a simple but powerful sequence of questions I call the Purpose Chain.

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The Purpose Chain: From Idea to Impact

1. Why is this needed? What process, problem, or decision are we trying to improve or support?

2. Who is it for? Who are the users? What decisions do they make with this? What do they actually care about?

3. What outcome are we aiming for? Are we just replacing a manual step, or are we actually making something smarter, clearer, or more useful?

4. How can we simplify it? Could this be restructured, streamlined, or made clearer before jumping to “automate”?

These four checkpoints help root every automation project in clarity and purpose — long before tools enter the picture.

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What Mindful Automation Looks Like in Practice

Here’s how I apply this approach in my role leading finance systems and reporting automation:

 Talk to the users first. Don’t assume the request is the need. Ask open-ended questions. Listen for pain points.

 Understand the full flow — top-down and bottom-up. From leadership’s goals to transactional-level data, know how the process starts and where it ends.

 Prototype early, with feedback loops. Don’t wait for perfection.Share early drafts, adjust quickly. It saves time and increases adoption.

 Think in systems, not just reports. Every dashboard sits within a broader ecosystem. What feeds into it? What flows out? Where does it break?

 Prioritize clarity over complexity. A clean, intuitive dashboard people actually use is far more valuable than one that looks impressive but confuses users.

 Stay anchored to the goal. It’s easy to get lost in visuals, filters, and data layers. Keep asking: Is this solving the original problem?

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Real Example: Accounts Payable Dashboard

One of my most effective projects started as a simple request: automate the monthly AP aging report. The ask seemed straightforward — pull data from Oracle, group invoices by vendor and due date, and build a Power BI dashboard.

But instead of jumping straight into the visual, I asked:

 Why do you need this?

 Who’s actually using it?

 What problem are you trying to solve?

That’s when the real issue came into focus. The problem wasn’t visibility — it was the lack of clarity and actionability. The Excel version was being passed around with comments, re-sorted, and manually annotated. AP was flooded with questions from procurement and finance about hold codes, missing POs, and payment delays. The report wasn’t helpful — it was stressful.

So I didn’t just automate the format — I rebuilt the experience.

What I Did Differently:

 Mapped the end-to-end communication flow, from AP invoice entry to procurement’s payment resolution

 Organized by ownership and urgency rather than just aging buckets

 Flagged hold codes, missing GRNs, and mismatches so issues surface dinstantly

 Kept the interface minimal, with filters and drill-throughs to reduce friction

 Set up a feedback loop post-launch to refine based on how the team actually used it

The Outcome:

What began as a request to cut 30 minutes of monthly reporting turned into a real-time, daily-updating dashboard—reducing manual follow-up by 40% and speeding decision-making across AP, procurement, and finance. That success led to further automation initiatives and a fully integrated AP dashboard.

Mindful automation isn’t about doing less; it’s about doing better: building with context, curiosity, and care so we transform not just the report, but how people think about the data behind it.

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Conclusion: Keep It Real

“Easier said than done” couldn’t be truer here.

Mindful automation isn’t always smooth. It’s messy. It takes patience. Sometimes you ask the right questions and still don’t get clear answers.Sometimes what you build falls flat. And that’s okay.

Here’s what’s helped me:

 Start small. You don’t have to overhaul an entire process. Begin by asking better questions. Use the Purpose Chain to stay grounded —keep it visible and revisit it when things drift.

 Speak up early. If you’re an analyst, share your observations rather than just reacting to requests.

 Pause before requesting automation. If you’re a manager or executive, make sure it truly meets the need, not just the output

 Remember: Building the solution is only half the work. Trust, adoption, and change take just as much intention.

“If we want better outcomes, we have to start with better questions— and lead with more empathy, not just efficiency. You don’t need tobe perfect.You just need to care about what you’re building — and who you’re building it for.”