Finance teams know better than most that time is a limited resource, whether it’s month-end to deal with or budgets and forecasts that need to be submitted. Regardless, management still expects accurate information timeously, and this can make implementing new finance technology difficult to prioritise, even when the existing reporting process is consuming more time than it should.

If implementing new technology is intended to streamline processes and free up time for finance professionals to focus on what’s truly important, then more technology should also mean that finance teams get more of their own time back beyond work.

Growth is usually measured in familiar ways, such as rising revenue, expanding operations, new markets and successful acquisitions. These milestones are rightly celebrated as signs of a healthy business.

South African businesses have become accustomed to operating in uncertain conditions. Economic volatility, infrastructure constraints, changing customer expectations, regulatory shifts and rapid technological advances have created an environment where disruption is no longer an occasional event but a constant feature of the business landscape.

Finance teams in South Africa are operating in an environment where reporting expectations are tightening while organisational structures continue to grow in complexity. Multi-entity reporting and consolidation, once a standard month-end finance task, is increasingly shaping how quickly organisations can close books and interpret performance to better support decision-making.

In many organisations, the monthly reporting cycle still follows a familiar pattern, with finance teams closing the books, extracting data from multiple systems, reconciling discrepancies and consolidating figures across entities. Reports are then checked, adjusted and eventually compiled into a board pack.

After a measured few years, mergers and acquisitions activity has regained momentum in South Africa. The country in fact led the continent in deal value in 2025, accounting for roughly 35% of Africa’s total M&A value, while inbound deal value rose by over 40% and outbound activity increased by nearly 85% year on year.

Finance teams are under increasing pressure to report with greater accuracy and respond to shifting regulatory and operational demands. Automation is often positioned as the answer, but in practice the difference lies in how reporting is designed, implemented and supported once the system is live.

For many organisations, financial planning still centres on a single approved view of the year ahead. The budget is finalised, locked in and used as the primary reference point for performance tracking.

Finance leaders may be feeling the pressure to adopt AI into their reporting and planning environments, and it’s understandable. CFOs are driven by board expectations, and many are of the opinion that staying ahead means adopting technology. At the same time, vendors are promoting it as the latest must-have, and these contribute to the wider narrative that its use in reporting is now unavoidable. 

Yet, in most organisations, the basic work of gathering reliable data from multiple sources and producing a consolidated group view that stands up to scrutiny remains the core priority, and until that foundation is secure, AI cannot add meaningful value.