The Future of Finance: Better, Faster, Less Expensive and More Tax Intelligent

As eye-opening as a recent study by Deloitte on how corporate finance functions will operate in 2025 is, this enticing look into the future is firmly rooted in current developments, including several that have direct impacts on tax teams.

“In business, robots are working alongside human beings to build cars, deliver packages, design computers, and make electricity,” according to the Finance 2025 research report. “Blockchain is tracking supplies of diamonds and monitoring construction equipment. And smart machines are taking up residence in hospital, shipping containers, drug stores and more. What does this have to do with the future of finance? Everything.” 

The report issues eight predictions on corporate finance’s short-term evolution, and I’ve seen a growing number of finance groups already laying the groundwork needed to develop these types of “futuristic” capabilities. Migrating to a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system represents a foundational enabler of a finance of the future capability. 

One of the report’s predictions indicates that finance will “double down” on delivering business insights and related service to internal customers. That’s taking place within leading-edge finance functions, which can devote more time and analytic effort generating those insights by automating finance operations. Another prediction asserts that financial reporting also will become increasingly real-time. Real-time reporting also requires real-time tax data management activities, which is why it is important for tax teams to not only understand finance transformation but to participate in it. 

Getting more involved in ERP-related planning and execution is a great way for tax to participate in finance transformation. “Finance is entering a golden age of technology,” the Deloitte report notes. “As cloud becomes the norm for ERP, finance applications and microservices will proliferate. You’ll be able to drastically reduce the complexity and cost of technology, without sacrificing functionality.”

What does this have to do with the future of tax? Quite a bit. It’s crucial for current and future ERP systems to include robust tax functionality. Tax teams can help ensure that this integration is conducted as easily and inexpensively as possible by understanding what integration options are available and which one delivers the most value in the shortest amount of time.