On the surface, finance and IT teams seem like a mismatch; 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 implementing new platforms or systems?
But the two functions are more alike than it seems.
Both finance and IT have a similar focus: To make their organization 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.
Financial software implementations are an area where finance and IT teams especially collide: both teams need to work together to select the right system, ensure it works correctly, and stay within budget. They’ll also need to make sure the system keeps sensitive data safe and under the appropriate access controls.
As such, the benefits of cross-pollination between the two teams are becoming increasingly obvious to more and more business leaders. More than 75% of CFOs say they’re already increasing the amount of collaboration between their finance and IT teams, according to industry survey data.
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.
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.
With that in mind, here’s our framework for impactful Finance-IT projects, focusing on several key areas:
Start with shared goals
Map the data journey together
Design with users in mind
Plan for scale and security
Create ongoing communication rhythms
Let’s look at each step in more detail.
IT and finance teams have many shared goals that they can achieve together, including:
Compliance: Both the finance and IT teams work within constraints and standards. While finance teams deal with audits and regulatory agencies, IT teams are more concerned with adhering to cybersecurity standards or policies.
Efficiency: Finance teams are looking to streamline their processes, speed up their ability to produce forecasts and analyses, and optimize profitability for the company. IT teams are also looking to automate workflows and make the company as a whole more efficient.
Risk management: Both teams are also in the business of risk management for their organization. Finance and IT teams should work together to ensure the secure handling of sensitive financial data, by both systems and people.
Quality of data: Both finance and IT professionals need to ensure their data is of high quality. For finance teams, that means accurate input data and, downstream, forecasts and reports sourced from that data. For IT teams, this means the data is secure and protected, and the integrity of internal systems is assured.
When kicking off a finance transformation project, these are all factors that you’ll want to frame your decisions through.
Next, your finance and IT teams should work together to create a clear roadmap of how financial data moves through your company.
Start by cataloging your data sources—everything from your ERP and CRM systems to those critical Excel files that never seem to make it into formal systems. Finance knows which data matters for their reporting and analysis needs, while IT understands the technical connections between systems. That means that a tight collaboration between the two is critical.
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.
“The hallmark of a healthy partnership is when Finance leans on IT for support, and IT isn’t pushing its way into supporting Finance.”
Brandon Sharp, Chief Information Officer, Brookfield Residential
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.
Prioritize familiar tools and workflows. Rather than forcing users to learn entirely new systems, leverage tools they already know, like Microsoft Excel, by selecting technology platforms that work natively 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-centric approach ensures your systems actually get adopted and deliver value across the organization
Building financial systems that can grow with your business while maintaining security also requires careful collaboration between finance and IT teams.
Consider future potential use cases, and map out a phased plan that generates short-term value while moving toward long-term goals.
Build systems that can accommodate new data sources, changing business processes, or evolving regulatory requirements without major overhauls. Finance can anticipate future reporting needs and business changes, while IT creates the technical foundation to support that growth seamlessly.
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.
This proactive approach ensures your financial systems can scale with your organization while maintaining the security and compliance standards that protect your business and 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.
Finally, communication is key when finance and IT collaborate. Schedule check-ins or meetings at a regular cadence to make sure everyone remains on the same page.
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.
“Having more voices in the room, and casting a wide net and building a broad-based team creates a level of engagement. That really helps feed the energy into transformation,” Brandon says. “Bringing in a lot of voices really enhances debate, helps you solve problems, and identify solutions more quickly, and come to really good answers.”
At Brookfield Residential, Brandon tasked his teams with implementing Vena, partly to increase the frequency of the company’s data reporting. The combined efforts of the two teams allowed Brookfield to complete the reporting process in minutes, rather than hours.
“Relying on the experts to do the magic with the technology,” Brandon says, “that partnership between finance, operations, and IT is critical”. Brandon says that Brookfield wouldn’t have been able to hit its reporting goals without the two teams working in concert.
“Without operational partners to go execute on high-quality data, it becomes very challenging to create the magic when finance is trying to do it in a vacuum. 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.
Another example of a company forging close partnerships with Finance and IT is Asana.
Johan Dowdy, Global Head of IT and IT Security at Asana, says that his open relationship with Asana’s CFO powers the company forward. “At the heart of it is collaboration and trust, and these things are not instantaneous or necessarily organic,” he shared on an episode of The CFO Show.
Johan says that IT teams have shifted to become “an innovator or business partner that’s collaborating with the CFO to move things forward” in many companies. “It’s built on trust and communication, regular meetings, getting to know people personally, not doing things in the dark, and being transparent about how and why we’re doing things.”
“Having more voices in the room, and casting a wide net and building a broad-based team creates a level of engagement. That really helps feed the energy into transformation. Bringing in a lot of voices really enhances debate, helps you solve problems, and identify solutions more quickly, and come to really good answers.”
Brandon Sharp, Chief Information Officer, Brookfield Residential
If you're looking for an FP&A platform that will meet both your finance and IT team’s needs, Vena serves as the ideal bridge between technical and business requirements.
Vena reduces friction between teams by leveraging familiar tools. With its Excel-native interface, finance teams can work in the environment they know best while IT benefits from robust backend infrastructure. The platform's self-serve capabilities empower finance to build models and generate reports independently, freeing IT resources for strategic initiatives rather than constant support requests.
For IT teams, Vena maximizes existing your technology investments through seamless Microsoft 365 integration. The platform is built on Microsoft Azure, with a variety of integration methods including pre-built connectors through Microsoft Fabric.
Security and governance remain central to the Vena platform. Teams can configure granular role-based permissions and monitor comprehensive audit trails.
Perhaps most importantly, Vena's complete planning approach means one platform can scale from basic budgeting to advanced workforce planning, cash flow management, financial close and beyond. As your business grows, both Finance and IT benefit from adding new use cases without requiring separate implementations.
Ready to bridge your IT and finance teams? Get in touch to discover how Vena can transform your collaborative planning process.
Listen to Brandon Sharp’s full insights on the CFO Show.
Listen NowSam Becker is a writer and journalist focusing on business and finance, based near New York City. He is a native of the Pacific Northwest, and a graduate of Washington State University, and has written for CNBC, Fast Company, BBC, Fortune, and others. He also works with numerous brands in the financial space to sharpen their editorial reach, including Stash, Acorns, Goldman Sachs, SoFi, Vena, and more.
