What comes next? It’s the question every finance leader is considering.
Where will the next margin point come from?
Which investments continue to deliver value?
How can finance guide the business when conditions are constantly changing?
The goal for 2026 is to creating the readiness to respond, even in shifting circumstances.
Smaller businesses want even more speed and simplicity. Larger enterprises want more alignment and scale. Both what every business is aiming for is more clarity, resilience, and growth.
Here’s where leading finance teams are focusing their efforts for 2026.
1. Cost discipline that creates room to grow
Finance leaders are tightening the purse strings, with the most effective teams reviewing what delivers value and how much.
For smaller businesses, trimming duplicate contracts and enhancing expense controls are quick wins, along with maintaining a close eye on supplier performance. For larger companies, the work is heavier, but the payoff is greater.
Simplifying systems, aligning processes and bringing consistency across regions or departments can unlock resources.
This is cost discipline as strategy: a way to fund what matters next – technology, people, and growth.
Spend management tip: Consolidate spend data across cards, invoices, and subscriptions. Seeing every outlay in one place reveals quick savings and supports smarter budget planning.
2. Technology that proves its worth
AI, automation and analytics are now considered fundamental. The real challenge with these is proving what they deliver.
For leaner teams, automation saves time where it hurts most – around reconciliation, reporting and approvals. In more complex cases, finance leaders are tracking the ROI of digital tools with the same rigour they apply to capital spend. Some are creating dedicated finance-technology teams to measure impact and manage risk, while others are embedding accountability across every project.
While technology is an enabler, the story here is about outcomes.
The teams leading this space measure success in terms of hours saved, errors avoided, and decisions made, all of which contribute to business growth.
Spend management tip: Treat every new tool like an investment. Track the time saved and cost avoided. Make sure to retire software that no longer delivers measurable value.
3. Teams that can think and adapt
The skills conversation is shifting. Finance expertise still matters, but it’s not enough. Leaders want teams that can interpret data and communicate information.
- Upskilling is quick and hands-on: focused sessions, project-based learning, and tools that make data easy to explore.
- Blended structures that pair accountants with analysts, and finance with data science, to close the gap between insight and action.
The common thread is curiosity. The finance functions making progress are full of people who keep asking why as often as how much.
Spend management tip: Use real-time spend data as a learning tool. Encourage teams to analyse trends, spot anomalies, and turn spending patterns into actionable insights.
4. Finance as a true business partner
It’s a familiar phrase, but finance leaders are now making it real.
However, CFOs are taking a bigger role in shaping direction, steering decisions on investment, risk and performance, bringing structure to the pace of the business.
For smaller companies, that means putting finance at the centre of planning conversations. And for larger enterprises, it’s about breaking silos and aligning finance with operations, HR, and technology so everyone moves in the same direction.
Spend management tip: Share spend insights across departments. When every function understands how resources are allocated, collaboration improves. That’s when finance becomes a true partner in growth.
What to focus on immediately:
1. Understand where your money goes
Start by mapping out your main areas of spend — people, software, suppliers, and everyday expenses. This helps you see what’s essential, what’s duplicated, and where small savings could add up.
2. Measure the impact of your tools
If you’ve invested in automation or software, track the return on your investment. Look for signs of value such as time saved, fewer errors, or faster reporting. Just knowing what works (and what doesn’t) makes your next decision easier.
3. Keep iterating
Finance teams that grow don’t overhaul everything at once. They keep learning in small, steady ways — trying new tools, sharing insights, and building confidence through everyday practice.
Why Soldo
Soldo brings visibility, control, and confidence together in one platform, designed for teams that need to move fast without losing control.
You can:
- Automate expense management: Issue smart company cards, capture receipts automatically, and sync data to your accounting software for instant reconciliation.
- Enforce cost discipline: Set budgets and spending limits by team, project, or card to prevent overspend before it happens.
- Gain real-time visibility: Track company-wide spending as it happens, with clear insights that make decision-making faster and more accurate.
- Simplify reporting and controls: Replace manual spreadsheets with automated reporting, policy enforcement, and audit-ready records.
- Empower your teams: Give every employee the tools to pay for what they need responsibly, while finance keeps full oversight.
Modern finance leaders don’t just plan – they measure. Our Spend Health Assessment Tool helps you evaluate how well your team performs across cost discipline, agility, and efficiency. In just a few minutes, you’ll get a personalised report with actionable insights.
