Companies' finance departments need to rethink their role to ensure they keep up with the changing face of business, according to a new study.
The research by PwC and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants found a lack of future-planning in most companies' finance departments.
There were also issues around inadequate technology and a lack of investment.
"Traditionally we've seen that finance departments tend to be reactive - they're focused on historical data, said Ruth McNamee, director of finance transformation at PwC Ireland.
"Going forward they need to be pre-emptive - they need to be forward-looking," she said.
"More and more they're being looked to for leadership - they need to lead through disruption, they need to guide the tough decisions, and they need to ensure that businesses stay in business," she added.
Ms McNamee said key to that was the need to balance the short-term, urgent needs of a business with its long-term requirements.
That included bringing more value to the role of a finance department - specifically through upskilling and the addition of entirely new types of skills.
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"In order to move up that curve they need to invest in skills and they need to invest in technology," Ms McNamee said.
"The key skills that finance functions see a deficit in in the next three to five years are in the areas of data mining, it's in the area of technical and digital tools, and interestingly it's also in the area of communication skills and story-telling.
"It's pointing towards those softer skills within the function, as well as the technical skills," he stated.
However the require change is also about the company's themselves - and how they consider their finance departments in the context of their wider business.
"It's becoming increasingly important but the concern of our CFOs right now is that the broader organisations don't realise the value that finance can bring," Ms McNamee said.
"They need to get ahead of that curve because when we see technology changing in the next few years - we've seen the introduction of GenAI - they need to move up the curve and be pre-emptive, and they have to help in supporting organisations to take pre-emptive actions against risks and issues in the future."
The PwC survey shows that finance departments around the world are lagging on adapting to this change.
Just 29% of respondents said their organisation had a fully-developed vision for their finance departments over the next three to five years.
In Ireland, it was just 22% - though this was based on only a small number of respondents.
Globally, 30% of CFOs said their current technologies do not meet their organisations' needs, while 38% said there was a lack of understanding of the areas where finance could add value to a business.
