What does a group of people who spend their days sifting through Excel spreadsheets and producing quarterly forecasts have in common with those who are working out code or putting new platforms or systems into place? On the surface, finance and IT teams appear to be at odds. But the two functions are more alike than it seems.
The goal of both finance and IT is the same: to make their company smarter, faster, and more profitable. They’re both tasked with being stewards of the business, too: one focuses on profitability, and the other on infrastructure and security.
The finance and IT departments often come into conflict when implementing financial software because they must collaborate to select the appropriate system, guarantee its correct operation, and stay within budget. They’ll also need to make sure the system keeps sensitive data safe and under the appropriate access controls.
As a result, more and more business leaders are realizing the advantages of cross-pollination between the two teams. According to industry survey results, over 75% of CFOs say they are already increasing collaboration between their finance and IT teams. But establishing a strategic relationship between finance and IT teams requires planning and, most importantly, trust.
“The hallmark of a healthy partnership is when Finance leans on IT for support, and IT isn’t pushing its way into supporting Finance,” said Brandon Sharp, CIO of Brookfield Residential, on an episode of the CFO Show.
In this blog, we’ll walk through a practical framework for building partnerships between Finance and IT, and making them work in practice.
Building Out a Finance-IT Project Framework
We’ve learned a lot about what drives successful Finance-IT partnerships when working with customers to implement Vena. Unpacking some of the scenarios we most commonly see might help pave the way for your own business.
That could include situations where both teams need to evaluate new organization-wide tech investments, adopt new FP&A or accounting software, or implement certain automation measures.
In light of this, our framework for successful Finance-IT projects focuses on the following key areas: Start with common objectives.
Map the data journey together
Create with the user in mind. Plan for scale and security
Establish regular communication patterns. Let’s look at each step in more detail.
1. Start with Shared Goals
IT and finance teams have many shared goals that they can achieve together, including:
Compliance: The finance and IT teams adhere to established guidelines and constraints. IT teams are more concerned with adhering to cybersecurity standards or policies than finance teams are with audits and regulatory agencies. Efficiency: Finance teams want to make their processes easier to follow, make it easier to make forecasts and analyses faster, and make the company more profitable. IT teams are also looking to automate workflows and make the company as a whole more efficient.
Risk management: For their respective organizations, both teams are involved in risk management as well. Finance and IT teams should work together to ensure the secure handling of sensitive financial data, by both systems and people.
Data quality: IT and finance professionals alike must ensure that their data are of high quality. This entails accurate input data as well as forecasts and reports derived from that data in the future for finance teams. This means that the data is safe and protected, and the internal systems’ integrity is guaranteed for IT teams. When kicking off a finance transformation project, these are all factors that you’ll want to frame your decisions through.
2. Map the Data Journey Together
Next, your finance and IT teams should work together to create a clear roadmap of how financial data moves through your company.
The first step is to list all of your data sources, including your ERP and CRM systems as well as those crucial Excel files that never seem to be integrated into formal systems. Finance knows which data matters for their reporting and analysis needs, while IT understands the technical connections between systems. This indicates that close cooperation between the two is essential. For IT, “having that tight partnership and collaboration with the finance team really enables the organization to drive key initiatives and key strategies forward much more quickly,” Brandon says.
Next, map your destinations. Where does this data need to end up? Monthly board reports? Regulatory filings? Real-time dashboards for executives? IT can help you understand processing times and system limitations, while finance can prioritize the most critical flows.
Document the handoffs between systems and teams. When does data move from automatic feeds to manual updates? Who’s responsible for validation at each stage? Many data quality issues emerge here, so clarity now prevents headaches later.
Finally, plan for growth and changes. Your data needs will evolve as the business grows or regulations change. Building flexibility into your data flows from the start—rather than retrofitting later—saves both teams significant time and frustration.
3. Design with Users in Mind
When finance and IT teams collaborate on system design, keeping end users at the center ensures better adoption and outcomes across the organization.
Start by mapping different user personas. Identify who will actually use your financial systems—analysts, managers, executives, and non-finance stakeholders—along with their varying technical skill levels. A senior analyst might thrive with advanced features, while a department head just needs simple budget reports.
Make familiar workflows and tools a priority. Utilize tools that users are already familiar with, such as Microsoft Excel, rather than forcing them to learn entirely new systems by selecting technology platforms that are compatible with those systems. This reduces training time and resistance to change.
Plan phased rollouts with user feedback loops. Begin with power users who can provide detailed feedback, then expand to broader user groups. This approach helps you catch usability issues early and build confidence before company-wide deployment.
This user-centered strategy ensures that your systems are actually implemented and contribute to the organization’s success.
4. Prepare for Security and Scale
The finance and IT departments need to work closely together to create financial systems that can adapt to the needs of your company while still maintaining their security. Consider future potential use cases, and map out a phased plan that generates short-term value while moving toward long-term goals.
Create systems that can adapt to changing business procedures, new data sources, and regulatory requirements without requiring major changes. While IT creates the technical foundation necessary to seamlessly support that growth, finance is able to anticipate future reporting requirements and business changes. Next, establish role-based access controls. Define who can view, edit, or approve financial data at different levels, with Finance determining business needs and IT implementing technical controls. This ensures sensitive financial information stays protected while giving users appropriate access to do their jobs effectively.
Finally, set up thresholds so that team members inputting data into certain templates (budgeting templates, for example) can’t increase certain variables past certain amounts, unless they are permitted to do so.
By taking a proactive approach, you can be sure that your financial systems will be able to grow with your company while still adhering to the security and compliance standards that safeguard your company and its stakeholders. Additionally, the most successful finance transformation projects happen when finance teams can eventually own the platform, meaning they don’t need to continuously rely on IT’s expertise. Working closely with IT to implement, train, and establish a strong data foundation can help the finance team build confidence and take ownership of the solution.
5. Establish regular communication patterns
Lastly, collaboration between finance and IT relies heavily on communication. To ensure that everyone remains on the same page, schedule check-ins or meetings at regular intervals. Ongoing communication and meetings are particularly essential during a software implementation, as the two teams need to work closely to ensure everything goes smoothly. To make sure they’re in constant contact, teams can use collaboration platforms (Jira or Confluence) or create shared dashboards (within Vena or other platforms) to ensure all stakeholders can quickly access all available data and information.
More communication, and bringing in more voices from team members, can pay dividends, Brandon says.
“Creating a broad-based team, casting a wide net, and having more voices in the room increase engagement. That really helps feed the energy into transformation,” Brandon says. “Bringing in a lot of voices really improves the debate, helps you solve problems, finds solutions faster, and gives really good answers.”
Real Examples of Finance-IT Partnerships
At Brookfield Residential, Brandon tasked his teams with implementing Vena, partly to increase the frequency of the company’s data reporting. Brookfield was able to complete the reporting process in minutes rather than hours thanks to the combined efforts of the two teams. Brandon asserts, “That partnership between finance, operations, and IT is critical.” He says, “Relying on the experts to do the magic with the technology is critical.” According to Brandon, Brookfield could not have achieved its reporting objectives without the cooperation of the two teams. “When finance tries to do it alone, it becomes very difficult to create the magic if operational partners are not there to go execute on high-quality data. That partnership with IT is really important and strategic,” he says. In that case, collaborative tools, such as Vena, proved to be a crucial bridge between the two teams.
