Nine in 10 participants cite lean finance teams as a primary pain point; research highlights strategic solutions for rapid growth
Paro, a leading finance and accounting AI-powered marketplace that helps companies embrace digital transformation to build for the future, released findings from a qualitative market research study with key finance decision makers. Conducted in collaboration with Bixa, an award-winning market research studio, the research study was designed to uncover current challenges, sentiments and unmet needs of finance departments within mid-market businesses.
According to the findings, 9 in 10 participants describe their finance teams as “lean” and overextended, likely due to tight budgets, increased competition and rapidly changing market dynamics. This creates high risk of costly errors and missed deadlines, especially around accounts receivable (A/R), insufficient time to focus on strategic initiatives, and inability to scale teams and skills to align with rapid company growth.
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“These findings underscore the critical challenges companies face in managing their finances with limited resources and talent,” said Anita Samojednik, CEO of Paro. “The complexities of today’s financial landscape highlight the urgent need for – and frankly the lack of – specialized strategic finance solutions. By leveraging uniquely skilled finance resources and advanced technologies, companies can address immediate pain points and also build a foundation for sustainable long-term growth and resilience.”
Specific staffing challenges, like increasingly complex IRS audits, lead finance executives to search for short-term “bandaids” to cope, such as hasty temporary hires or outsourcing. The research found 7 in 10 participants expect to need extra help at the end of the year to close company books, prepare for taxes and sort out employee benefits.
What finance decision makers really crave, however, are long-term strategic solutions that provide stability and expertise. According to the study, 7 in 10 participants indicated that when they hire externally, they seek experts that can add strategic financial guidance.
These staffing issues, combined with other financial, growth and operational triggers, put immense pressure on already-stretched finance teams. Many companies are considering AI as one potential solution to staffing struggles. Respondents see AI as a tool to tackle more tactical work, like organizing data, completing repetitive tasks, and identifying potential issues, which would allow financial teams to handle more complex and strategic activities. Despite the obvious benefits, many participants believe that AI isn’t ready to fully implement into their business just yet.
Paro offers a scalable, fractional staffing model that helps businesses serve niche client needs and overcome capacity challenges. Its patent-pending AI-matching technology identifies and matches businesses with the precise financial expertise needed 20 times faster than traditional recruitment. Paro provides U.S.-based experts spanning accounting and bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, strategic finance and fractional CFO services, so that companies can increase their team’s bandwidth, fill specialized skill gaps and expand their service offerings.
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