Why Your Finance Function Needs to Delete Before It Creates
In the world of high-growth startups and expanding SMEs, there is a natural instinct to “Add.”
We add new software. We add new product lines. And in Finance, we inevitably add new reports.
“We need a dashboard for that.”
“Can we get a weekly report on X?”
“Let’s track this metric.”
But very rarely do we stop to ask the inverse: What can we take away?
As a Fractional CFO, one of the first things I do when entering a new organisation isn’t building a complex financial model; it is auditing the “Reporting Debt.” I look for the reports that are generated every week, take four hours to compile, are emailed to six people, and are opened by exactly zero of them.
We call these “Zombie Reports.” They consume brains (and resources), but they are dead inside.
The “Stop Test” (A Client Story)
I once worked with a client—a fast-moving tech scale-up—where the finance controller was working 60-hour weeks. She was exhausted. When we looked at her workload, 30% of her time was spent compiling a massive “Weekly Commercial Pack.”
I asked the CEO: “What decision did you make last week based on that reporting pack?”
He admitted he hadn’t looked at that reporting pack in six months.
So, we performed a “Stop Test.” We simply stopped sending the report. We waited to see who would scream.
The result? Silence.
Nobody missed it. We took that wasted 30% of the Controller’s time and redirected it toward analysing margin profitability per customer — an analysis that actually added €50k to the bottom line that quarter.
The Framework for Subtraction
Before you ask your finance leader to build a new dashboard or KPI tracker, you need to go back to the drawing board. To do this effectively, we need to answer five foundational questions. If a report doesn’t help answer one of these, it goes in the bin.
- Where is the business going? (The Strategic North Star)
- Do we know how to get there? (The Operational Roadmap)
- Do we have the right information today to determine if we are moving in the right direction? (The Navigation)
- Who owns these decisions? (If a metric turns red, whose phone rings? If the answer is “everyone,” then the answer is “no one.”)
- Does this information already exist within our systems today, or do we need to augment what data we capture? (Don’t build a report on bad data).
The “So What?” Factor
To these excellent questions, I would add one more crucial filter: The “So What?” Test.
Every single line on a report must have a “So What?” attached to it.
- “Revenue is down 2%.” -> So what?
- “It means we missed our target.” -> So what?
- “It means we need to trigger a marketing spend review.” -> There is the value.
If a report is just news (“Here is what happened”) without insight (“Here is what we should do”), it is an expensive history lesson.
The Value of Lean Finance
At Saoirse Consultants, we believe that a Finance Function shouldn’t be judged by the weight of its board pack, but by the clarity of its insights.
By taking away the noise, the clutter, and the vanity metrics, we free up your most valuable resources — your people — to focus on the future, not just the past.
Let’s Audit Your Reporting
Does your finance team feel busy but not strategic? Are you drowning in data but starving for insight?
Let’s chat. It might be time to stop adding and start subtracting.
Email us at info@saoirseconsultants.com, or call us on +1 214 230 1706
