How to Do More Strategic Work

How to Do Strategic Work in Any Finance Role

Every finance role contains strategic opportunities.

Here's how to find them in your specific function:

Accounts Payable

Value Drivers in AP:

• Vendor relationship management

• Cash flow timing

• Spending pattern analysis

• Procurement optimization

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Payment cycle time, invoices processed per day, error rates

• Leading Indicators: Vendor pricing trends, early payment discount opportunities, spending by category changes

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• Which vendors represent 80% of our spend?

• What spending patterns suggest potential waste or duplication?

• How could payment timing be optimized to balance discounts and cash preservation?

• What spending trends should leadership know about?

Quick Strategic Win: Analyze your top 10 vendors by spend. For each, identify one opportunity for better terms, consolidated purchasing, or process improvements. Present these insights with estimated dollar impacts.

Accounts Receivable

Value Drivers in AR:

• Customer relationship signals

• Cash flow forecasting

• Credit risk management

• Sales effectiveness insights

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), bad debt percentage, collection effectiveness

• Leading Indicators: Changes in payment patterns by customer segment, dispute frequency, partial payment trends

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• Which customer segments pay most promptly/slowly?

• What payment behavior changes might signal satisfaction issues?

• How do payment terms affect different customer types?

• What collection patterns reveal about our sales process?

Quick Strategic Win: Group customers by payment behavior (early, on-time, consistently late). Look for patterns in industry, size, or product usage. Share insights with sales about customer segments that might need attention.

Payroll

Value Drivers in Payroll:

• Workforce cost analysis

• Departmental performance indicators

• Compensation effectiveness

• Resource allocation insights

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Labor cost percentage, payroll processing time, error rates

• Leading Indicators: Overtime trends by department, contractor usage patterns, new hire compensation levels

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• Which departments show unusual overtime or turnover patterns?

• How do compensation changes correlate with performance?

• What labor cost trends should leadership prepare for?

• Where might resource reallocation create better outcomes?

Quick Strategic Win: Create a simple visual showing overtime trends by department for the past year. Identify the highest overtime departments and calculate the cost equivalent in full-time positions.

Treasury

Value Drivers in Treasury:

• Capital allocation optimization

• Risk management

• Banking relationship value

• Funding strategy

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Cash conversion cycle, interest expense, banking fees

• Leading Indicators: Liquidity forecasts, interest rate trend impacts, currency movement effects

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• How can we optimize our capital structure for current conditions?

• Where are we over or under-insured against financial risks?

• Which banking services deliver the most/least value?

• What funding alternatives should we consider for growth initiatives?

Quick Strategic Win: Analyze your banking fee structure against services used. Identify one service with poor ROI and propose an alternative or negotiation strategy.

Controllers

Value Drivers in Accounting:

• Business performance indicators

• Risk identification

• Process efficiency

• Decision support data

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Close cycle time, audit findings, compliance metrics

• Leading Indicators: Process exception rates, control effectiveness measures, reconciliation patterns

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• What story do our financial trends tell about business performance?

• Which metrics show concerning patterns that warrant investigation?

• What process inefficiencies create risk or waste resources?

• What financial data would help managers make better decisions?

Quick Strategic Win: Identify one financial metric that's trending in an unexpected direction. Investigate causes and prepare a brief analysis with potential business implications.

Staff/GL Accountants

Value Drivers in GL Accounting:

• Financial data quality and integrity

• Process efficiency and standardization

• Cross-functional impact insights

• Compliance and control optimization

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Close timeline adherence, audit adjustments, number of manual entries

• Leading Indicators: Journal entry error rates, recurring adjustment patterns, account reconciliation exceptions, control test failures

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• Which manual processes consume the most time and create the most risk?

• What patterns in journal entries or account reconciliations might signal business issues?

• How could we streamline the close process to provide insights faster?

• Which accounts show unusual or unexpected activity patterns?

Quick Strategic Win: Analyze your recurring journal entries to identify the top 3-5 manual entries that could be automated or systematized. Calculate time savings and error reduction potential, then propose a simple template or automation solution.

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Value Drivers in FP&A:

• Forward-looking insights

• Resource allocation recommendations

• Strategic initiative evaluation

• Scenario planning

Key Metrics to Track:

• Lagging Indicators: Budget variance, forecast accuracy, reporting cycle time

• Leading Indicators: Sales pipeline conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, new product adoption metrics

Strategic Questions to Ask:

• What leading indicators predict future performance challenges?

• How should resources be reallocated based on performance data?

• Which strategic initiatives deliver the most/least value?

• What scenarios should the business prepare for?

Quick Strategic Win: Create a simple dashboard that shows performance against plan alongside one leading indicator for each major business unit.

Tax & Compliance

Value Drivers:

• Risk mitigation through proactive compliance

• Tax savings via credit and deduction strategies

• Influence over strategic decisions like entity structure and jurisdiction

Key Metrics to Monitor:

• Leading Indicators: Upcoming regulatory changes, audit risk indicators, utilization of tax credits

• Lagging Indicators: Effective tax rate, penalties incurred, number of late filings

Easy Wins:

• Review prior-year tax filings for unused credits or deductions; identify one area to explore with external advisors.

• Cross-check sales tax reporting across states for nexus issues based on revenue or headcount growth.

Let’s Recap with Cheatsheets!

How to do more strategic work when you are short on time and resources

Now for the critical question: How do you actually do strategic work when you're already maxed out? Here are practical approaches that require minimal time and resources:

1. Start with the 5% Method

You don't need vast amounts of time to be strategic. Start with just 5% of your week—that's 2 hours out of a 40-hour week, or just 24 minutes a day.

How to Implement the 5% Method:

• Block 20-30 minutes on your calendar 2-3 times weekly

• Label it "Strategic Analysis" to protect it from interruptions

• Use this time solely for pattern recognition and asking "why?"

• Focus on one specific dataset or process each session

When to Use This: This method works best when you have control over at least some of your calendar and need regular, small windows for strategic thinking rather than occasional large blocks. It's particularly effective for roles with predictable workflows.

Example (AP): An AP specialist blocks Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30-9:00 AM to review vendor payment data before the day's transactions begin, identifying potential consolidation opportunities.

Example (FP&A): An FP&A analyst blocks 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning to review one business unit's performance against leading indicators, building a rolling analysis that informs the monthly executive update.

2. Make Your Regular Processes Strategic

Transform Existing Work:

• Monthly close: Add 15 minutes to identify one surprising trend

• Regular reports: Include a "Business Implications" section

• Team meetings: Add a 5-minute "Patterns We're Seeing" discussion

• Error corrections: Track root causes to identify systemic issues

When to Use This: This approach is perfect when your calendar is already full of required activities and finding new time blocks seems impossible. Instead of adding new tasks, you're enhancing existing ones with strategic elements.

Example (Payroll): A payroll manager adds a simple "Overtime Trends" visual to their regular payroll reports, requiring just 10 extra minutes but providing strategic workforce insights.

Example (FP&A): An FP&A analyst adds a "Variance Root Cause" section to the standard monthly reporting package, transforming what was a mechanical variance report into a story about business performance drivers.

3. Use the "One Layer Deeper" Technique

When reviewing any financial data, ask one question that goes beyond the surface.

Surface vs. Deeper Questions:

• Surface: Did we meet budget?
  

• Deeper: Which assumptions in our budget proved most/least accurate, and why?
  

• Surface: What's our DSO this month?
  

• Deeper: Which customer segments show the biggest changes in payment behavior?
  

• Surface: Are expenses within plan?
  

• Deeper: Which expense categories show different patterns than historical trends?
  

When to Use This: This technique is especially valuable in meetings when reports are being reviewed or when you're preparing responses to basic financial questions. Instead of just answering the direct question, you add one layer of analysis that provides strategic context.

Example (AR): An AR specialist notices increasing DSO and looks one layer deeper to discover it's concentrated in a specific product line, potentially indicating product issues.

Example (FP&A): When asked about marketing expense variance, an FP&A analyst explains not just that spending is 5% over budget but that digital channel spending is 20% over while traditional channels are 15% under, suggesting a significant strategy shift that wasn't reflected in the original plan.

4. Leverage Technology for Time Creation

Use basic tech tools to create space for strategic work.

No-Budget Time Creators:

• Create email rules to batch non-urgent communications

• Use free versions of automation tools for repetitive tasks

• Set up Excel macros for routine analyses

• Create templates for recurring communications

When to Use This: This approach is ideal when much of your time is consumed by repetitive, predictable tasks that could be streamlined with basic automation. It's particularly effective for roles with high email volume or regular report generation.

Example (Controller): A controller creates email rules that batch vendor inquiries into a single folder reviewed twice daily, rather than interrupting workflow throughout the day.

Example (FP&A): An FP&A analyst creates Excel macros that automatically format and consolidate departmental budget submissions, reducing a 3-hour monthly process to 30 minutes and using the saved time for budget trend analysis.

5. Use the "Strategic Tripwire" Method

Set up simple alerts that trigger strategic thinking without constant monitoring.

How to Create Strategic Tripwires:

• Identify 2-3 key metrics that matter most to your function

• Set thresholds for significant deviations (+/- 10%)

• Create simple tracking in existing tools (conditional formatting in Excel works fine)

• When a tripwire is triggered, allocate 15-30 minutes to investigate

When to Use This: This approach works particularly well for metrics that shouldn't require daily attention but could signal important changes when they move significantly. It's perfect for busy periods when you can't constantly monitor everything but don't want to miss critical signals.

Example (AP): A treasury analyst sets up a simple dashboard with conditional formatting that highlights when any bank account exceeds or falls below predetermined thresholds, prompting investigation.

Example (FP&A): An FP&A analyst creates a weekly "variance tripwire" that automatically flags any department whose spending exceeds 15% of forecast or falls 20% below, allowing quick investigation into unusual patterns without daily monitoring.

6. Master the 5-Minute Strategic Communication

Learn to deliver strategic insights efficiently to maximize impact with minimal time investment.

The 5-Minute Strategic Communication Formula:

1. One-sentence observation: "I've noticed something interesting in our [data/process]."

2. Business impact: "This matters because it affects [business outcome]."

3. Possible causes: "It might be happening because of [1-2 potential reasons]."

4. Recommendation: "We should consider [simple next step]."

When to Use This: This approach works in virtually any setting—an email update, a brief hallway conversation with an executive, a comment in a meeting, or a chat over coffee. It's particularly effective when you have limited time to make an impression or when you want to plant a strategic seed without a formal presentation.

Example (AP): "I've noticed our shipping costs have increased 15% for western region customers. This matters because it's eroding our margins by approximately 2%. It might be happening because of carrier changes or order size trends. We should analyze western region orders by size and carrier to identify the specific cause."

Example (FP&A): "I've noticed our customer acquisition cost has increased 30% this quarter while conversion rates are declining. This matters because our unit economics are approaching break-even. It might be happening because of recent changes to our marketing mix or increased competitor activity. We should pause spending increases until we can identify which channels are underperforming."

7. Create a Strategic Partnership

Find one operational partner who benefits from your financial insights.

How to Build a Strategic Partnership:

• Identify someone in operations who's struggling with a challenge

• Offer one specific financial insight that helps them monthly

• Request information that helps you understand their area better

• Schedule a 15-minute monthly coffee (virtual works fine)

When to Use This: This approach is ideal when you want to deepen your business knowledge and increase your strategic impact without formal cross-functional meetings. It works especially well when you've noticed data in your role that could help another department succeed.

Example (AP): An AP specialist partners with a procurement manager, sharing vendor payment performance data in exchange for insights on upcoming purchase plans.

Example (FP&A): An FP&A analyst creates a simple monthly report for the product team showing customer acquisition costs by product line, helping them identify which features are resonating with customers while gaining insights into product roadmap plans.

8. Negotiate for Time and Resources

Even with limited resources, there are effective ways to advocate for what you need to do more strategic work.

How to Successfully Negotiate for Strategic Time:

1. Start with ROI: Before asking for resources, identify the specific business impact of your strategic work.
   

   • "The vendor analysis I did in my spare time saved us $45,000. With just 2 hours weekly dedicated to this, I believe I could find another $100,000 in savings."

2. Begin with Time, Not Money: Time is often easier to secure than budget.
   

   • "I'm not asking for an additional budget—just permission to block 2 hours every Wednesday morning for strategic analysis."

3. Propose a Trial Period: Reduce the perceived risk of saying yes.
   

   • "Could we try this for just one month? If I can't demonstrate value by then, we can return to the current approach."

4. Offer a Trade-Off: Show you're thinking about overall productivity.
   

   • "I could shift report X to biweekly instead of weekly, which would free up 3 hours monthly for analyzing vendor spending patterns."

5. Connect to Leadership Priorities: Frame in terms of what management cares about.
   

   • "I know cost reduction is a top priority this quarter. Dedicating 5% of my time to strategic vendor analysis directly supports that goal."

When to Use This: This approach works best after you've already demonstrated some strategic value in small ways and can point to specific results. Time your request during planning periods rather than crisis periods, and come prepared with clear examples of what you could achieve with additional resources.

Example (Payroll): "The overtime analysis I created identified $60,000 in potential savings in the warehouse department. If I could have access to the workforce management system and 3 hours weekly for deeper analysis, I believe we could find similar opportunities across all departments."

Example (FP&A): "The customer cohort analysis I did last month identified that our January customers have 40% higher lifetime value. With just 4 hours per week dedicated to customer analytics, I could help the marketing team significantly improve their targeting to focus on similar high-value segments."

Start Small, but Start Today

Strategic work doesn't require a transformation of your job description or hours of additional time. It requires a shift in mindset and small, consistent actions that connect financial activities to business outcomes.

Even just 5% of your time focused on strategic thinking can differentiate you from peers and position you for growth. The finance professionals who advance aren't always those with the most technical skills. They're those who make the effort to connect their work to the bigger picture.

I know this was a lot to take in, so here are 3 things what I recommend

📌 Bookmark this guide and come back to it as you apply each piece.

🔗Share it with someone else to keep the conversation going.

✅ Pick just one action for this month, like asking her one deeper question when you notice something interesting in your data.

And if you want to go deeper, I walk through all of this inside The Finance Executive Accelerator (Formerly known as The Office of The CFO Bootcamp), including a powerful session led by former U.S. Army Officer and Pentagon Finance executive, Stephen McLain on  “The CFO Mindset and Skill Set”

Before you go,