Ensure insights from the coalface are heard.

Kevin Phillips considers how making financial planning accessible to overwhelmed non-financial managers isn't just good practice – it's essential for survival in today's chaotic business environment.

Picture this: your operations manager notices a critical supply chain issue three weeks before it appears in any financial report. Your marketing team identifies a customer behaviour shift that could reshape your revenue projections. Your workshop supervisor notices equipment efficiency patterns that could save thousands.

But none of these insights make it into your forecasts and budgets. Why? Because the people who spot changes first can't navigate your financial processes and systems.

To survive today's business environment, companies need to be adaptable and flexible in their accounting practices. As I suggested in my May article, organisations must implement systems flexible enough to respond quickly when circumstances change by using robust financial planning tools that can handle unprecedented uncertainty.

Many companies are starting to understand that faster technology and automation are an important first step, but these are not the entire picture. Stopping here can be counterproductive if you overlook a fundamental challenge – making financial information accessible to the people at the coalface of your organisation.

A perennial barrier, now supercharged

Communication between finance and the rest of the company is a perennial bone of contention. But the reality is that non-financial managers get put off by financial jargon, accountant-speak, and impenetrable spreadsheets. This stands to reason, as they aren't accountants. So they struggle to interpret complex metrics and can't see how financial data connects to their day-to-day deliverables. Dense tables of numbers and TLA-heavy reports create barriers and communication gaps between finance teams and operational managers.

The result? Valuable insights from the coalface never make it into financial planning, and the best insights go unheard. This has always been a problem. But now it's more urgent than ever.

Digital noise, always-on culture, and instant response expectations have compounded the gap. The managers who were already intimidated by finance processes are now drowning in information overload and struggling with shrinking attention spans. Research reveals that workers are bombarded with workplace notifications every 11 minutes and spend over 3 hours daily on mobile devices, with 77% reporting increased stress from the digital tools they use at work.

This means that the people who should be feeding critical intelligence into your financial planning – those closest to customers, suppliers, and operational reality – are more overwhelmed than ever.

Beyond training and spreadsheets

The traditional response to this challenge has been more training courses and better spreadsheets. But what if that's missing the point entirely?

Despite surging UK demand for "Finance for Non-Financial Managers" training, teaching people to think like accountants isn't the answer. The real breakthrough requires flipping the script: instead of teaching non-financial managers to understand finance, agile companies need to make financial information understandable to non-financial managers.

What works for distracted minds

In an information-overloaded world, context and storytelling are paramount. Here are three approaches that cut through the noise:

Visual communication: Contextual dashboards break through the complexity barrier. Charts and trends are more intuitive than dense numerical reports, especially for people whose attention spans are measured in seconds rather than minutes. The adage “a picture speaks a thousand words” springs to mind.

Self-service and customisation: Tools that let managers slice and dice data to explore information relevant to their roles build confidence without pressure. But, and this is important, only allow key data elements to be available. Too much flexibility removes the benefits of quick exploration. The key is curation – only show what matters to the specific manager, presented in ways they can immediately grasp and act upon. Build in just-in-time education and prompting to help them progress.

Translate the language: Present financial information in ways that resonate with non-financial managers. One client shared how leadership at a tertiary education institution struggled to understand why international travel was over budget. The spreadsheet made perfect sense to the finance team – all the numbers were there. But the message didn’t land until the client reframed the figures using a more relatable, visual approach. Instead of pounds and pennies, they used images of students to show how each student’s fee was allocated. Suddenly, it was obvious: once the essential costs were covered, there simply were not enough “students” left for overseas travel. The visual story made the financial reality impossible to miss.

It should be starting to become clear that data collection, preparation, and visualisation are only the first part of the job. You also need to analyse the data, and most importantly, build in audience-relevant storytelling and deliver actionable insights.

Stakeholders  need to understand the "why" and "so what," not just the numbers. So the question isn't whether your dashboards report numbers faster or with perfect precision – it's whether they solve business problems for people who don't think like accountants.

The two-way payoff

Beyond gathering better insights, inclusive financial processes deliver operational benefits. Picture this scenario: a sudden market shift requires immediate cost adjustments. In traditional setups, finance creates the plan, executives approve it, and middle management spends weeks cascading the message down while explaining context and navigating resistance. But teams who understand their departmental budgets can act straight away – cutting discretionary spending, reallocating resources, or identifying savings opportunities without waiting for detailed instructions.

The result? Faster execution, fewer implementation delays, genuine ownership of outcomes, and an organisation that pulls together.

The ultimate adaptability test

But this isn't just about operational efficiency – it's about competitive survival. In today's chaotic business environment, adaptability comes down to two critical capabilities: spotting challenges and opportunities fast, and responding to them effectively. You can only achieve both with an already engaged organisation.

When crisis hits or opportunity emerges, companies that pivot successfully are those where the groundwork is laid. Your forecasting and budgeting process either includes the people who identify changes first, or it doesn't. In an era where speed of response determines survival, that choice might be the most important strategic decision you make.

As published AccountingWeb - July 2025