
Find the best financial close automation solutions to speed up your month-end close, improve accuracy, and simplify your accounting workflow.
Your finance team is sitting on a goldmine of data, but are they able to use it? Too often, skilled professionals spend their time chasing down numbers and manually reconciling accounts instead of providing the strategic insights your business needs to grow. The traditional, backward-looking close process keeps them stuck in the past. By implementing financial close automation, you can fundamentally change this dynamic. This technology streamlines the entire record-to-report cycle, ensuring data is accurate and available in real-time. It’s the key to transforming your finance department from a historical scorekeeper into a forward-looking strategic partner, one that provides the visibility needed to make smarter, faster decisions.
If you've ever felt the month-end crunch, you know it can be a frantic race against the clock. Financial close automation is all about using technology to bring some much-needed calm and order to that chaos. Think of it as swapping out your endless spreadsheets and manual checklists for a smarter, more streamlined system. At its core, financial close automation uses software to digitize and speed up the traditional process of closing the books at the end of a financial period. This includes the heavy lifting of reconciling accounts, posting journal entries, and generating the final financial statements that leadership relies on.
Instead of your team spending late nights manually ticking and tying numbers, automation software handles the repetitive, rule-based tasks for them. This is a huge shift, freeing up your finance professionals to focus on more strategic work, like analyzing the data and providing insights that can actually move the business forward. It’s not about replacing people; it’s about empowering them with better tools so they can do their best work without the burnout that often comes with the close. By automating these critical steps, you create a more efficient, accurate, and predictable close process every single time, turning a dreaded deadline into a smooth, manageable workflow.
The traditional month-end close is a familiar routine for most finance teams. It’s that critical period where everyone works to check and finalize account balances before the books are officially closed. This involves a mountain of manual tasks, from recording every last transaction to painstakingly reviewing high-risk accounts to ensure all the financial data is correct. For many businesses, this process is a tangle of spreadsheets, emails, and manual data entry, making it incredibly time-consuming and prone to human error. It’s a high-pressure environment where one misplaced decimal can throw everything off, leading to long hours and a lot of stress.
Automation completely changes the game. Instead of getting bogged down in manual tasks, you can automate your financial close to save time and significantly reduce errors. By streamlining tedious jobs like data entry and account reconciliation, automation software helps your team complete the close cycle much faster. This means you get accurate financial reports sooner, allowing you to make timely, data-driven decisions. It transforms the close from a stressful, backward-looking exercise into a smooth, forward-looking process that adds real value to your business operations and overall strategy.
So, what does this automation look like in practice? It’s all powered by financial close software. This type of software acts as a central hub, pulling in financial data from all your different systems—like your ERP, CRM, and bank accounts—into one organized place. By creating a single source of truth, these financial close software tools help eliminate the inconsistencies and errors that often come from working with disconnected data. The system handles the reconciliations, matches transactions, and flags exceptions automatically, giving everyone on the team access to reliable, up-to-date financial information.
Choosing the right financial close software can feel like a huge decision, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. The best solution for your business is the one that fits your unique needs and grows with you. Instead of getting distracted by flashy features, focus on the core functionalities that will truly make a difference for your finance team. A great platform won't just speed up your month-end close; it will transform it into a source of strategic insight.
Think of it as hiring a new, incredibly efficient team member. You want one that communicates well with your existing crew (your software), automates the tedious parts of the job, and gives you clear, accurate reports. As you evaluate your options, look for a tool that simplifies complexity, not one that adds another layer of it. The goal is to find a partner that helps you close the books faster, more accurately, and with a lot less stress.
The last thing you need is another piece of software that operates on an island. The most effective financial close solutions act as a central hub, seamlessly connecting with the tools you already use every day. Your software should have robust, pre-built integrations with your ERP, CRM, and accounting systems. This eliminates the need for manual data exports and imports, which are not only time-consuming but also prime opportunities for errors to creep in. When your systems can talk to each other, you create a single source of truth, ensuring everyone is working with the same, up-to-date information.
The whole point of this software is automation, so this is a big one. Look for a platform that can take the most repetitive, manual tasks off your team's plate. This includes things like data entry, account reconciliations, and journal entry creation. By automating the financial close, you not only accelerate the entire cycle but also significantly reduce the risk of human error. This frees up your finance professionals to spend less time chasing numbers and more time on high-value analysis and strategic planning that can actually move the business forward.
Why wait until the end of the month to find out where you stand? Modern financial close software provides real-time visibility into your financial data. Instead of a frantic scramble during the last few days of the period, your team can manage and reconcile transactions as they happen. This "continuous close" approach means you can spot and address issues immediately, rather than discovering them when deadlines are looming. Having access to a live view of your company's financial health allows for more agile decision-making and a much smoother, more predictable close process.
Closing the books is one thing, but understanding what the numbers mean is another. A top-tier solution goes beyond basic reporting to offer powerful analytics and business intelligence. Look for features like customizable dashboards, variance analysis, and the ability to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to your business. The right software helps you see the story behind the data, identifying trends and opportunities you might have otherwise missed. These insights are what turn your finance department from a cost center into a strategic driver of growth.
In finance, security and compliance are non-negotiable. Your financial close software must have enterprise-grade security features to protect your sensitive data. It should also be designed to help you maintain compliance with accounting standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15. Look for features like detailed audit trails, role-based user permissions, and internal controls that enforce your company's policies. The right platform makes audits less of a headache by keeping all your documentation and approvals organized and easily accessible in one secure location.
Small mistakes made at the beginning of the month can easily snowball into major headaches during the final days of the close. The best financial close software includes proactive error detection features that help you maintain accuracy from day one. Automated reconciliation rules can instantly flag transactions that don't match, allowing your team to investigate and resolve discrepancies right away. This builds a foundation of clean, reliable data throughout the month, ensuring the final numbers are accurate and defensible without last-minute fire drills.
The month-end close is a team sport, but it often feels disjointed, with information scattered across spreadsheets and email chains. A great financial close platform brings everyone together in a single, collaborative workspace. Look for tools that include workflow management, task assignments, and real-time status updates. When everyone can see who is responsible for what and how the process is progressing, it eliminates confusion and improves accountability. Centralized communication and documentation ensure the entire team works more smoothly and efficiently toward the shared goal of a fast, accurate close.
Choosing the right software is a big decision, and the best fit depends on your company’s size, complexity, and existing tech stack. Here’s a look at ten popular solutions that can help you streamline your financial close process.
HubiFi is designed to give finance teams a practical way to automate the financial close, improving both accuracy and efficiency. It’s particularly strong for high-volume businesses that need to manage complex revenue recognition under standards like ASC 606. By integrating disparate data sources, HubiFi provides real-time analytics and dynamic segmentation, helping you close the books faster and make more strategic decisions. The platform’s seamless integrations with popular accounting software, ERPs, and CRMs make it a flexible choice for teams looking to build a more connected financial ecosystem.
BlackLine offers a robust suite of tools built to streamline and automate key financial close activities. It’s well-regarded for its capabilities in handling account reconciliations, journal entries, and variance analysis. Many finance teams use BlackLine to manage high-volume reconciliations and enforce internal controls across the organization. Its platform helps centralize tasks that are often fragmented, giving you a clearer picture of your financial close status at any given moment and ensuring that processes are standardized.
FloQast is a popular choice for mid-sized companies looking to organize their month-end close. The platform acts as a centralized checklist, helping teams collaborate more effectively and providing managers with visibility into the close status. It’s designed to work with your existing ERP and Excel files, which can make adoption easier for teams not looking to completely overhaul their current processes. FloQast is particularly helpful for centralizing reviews and automatically alerting you to any imbalances that need attention.
Workiva is a strong contender for medium to large companies, especially those in regulated industries. While it offers financial close capabilities, its main strength lies in connected reporting and compliance. The platform helps ensure that financial statements, SEC filings, and other regulatory documents are accurate and consistent. If your close process is heavily tied to producing polished, compliant reports for external stakeholders, Workiva provides the tools to link your data directly to your final documents, reducing the risk of manual errors.
Trintech provides a comprehensive financial close automation solution aimed at streamlining the entire record-to-report cycle. Its platform focuses on automating balance sheet reconciliations, journal entries, and compliance processes. Trintech is often used by large enterprises to manage risk and ensure that their financial data is accurate and auditable. By automating these core accounting tasks, it helps free up finance professionals to focus more on analysis rather than manual data processing.
For businesses already operating within the Oracle ecosystem, its financial close solutions are a natural fit. Tools like Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing Oracle ERPs. These solutions help organizations manage the complexities of financial consolidation, reporting, and analysis. They are built to handle the needs of large, global enterprises with multiple subsidiaries, offering powerful features for currency translation, intercompany eliminations, and detailed financial reporting.
Similar to Oracle, SAP offers financial close automation tools that are deeply integrated with its S/4HANA ERP system. SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing helps organizations manage their close process more effectively by automating tasks and providing a centralized command center for monitoring progress. It’s a powerful option for large companies that rely on SAP for their core business processes, as it allows them to keep their financial close activities within a single, unified platform.
OneStream is a powerful corporate performance management (CPM) platform used by large companies that need to manage a significant amount of financial data. It unifies financial consolidation, planning, reporting, and analytics in a single application. OneStream is known for its extensibility, allowing businesses to add more capabilities from its marketplace as their needs evolve. Its use of AI and machine learning helps automate complex processes and provide deeper insights into financial performance.
Sage Intacct is a cloud-based financial management solution that can significantly shorten the time it takes to close the books. Many users report cutting their close time from weeks down to just a few days. The platform automates key processes like revenue recognition, consolidations, and reporting. It’s a popular choice for growing small and mid-sized businesses that need a scalable solution to handle increasing transaction volumes and more complex accounting requirements.
NetSuite provides a comprehensive, cloud-based financial management solution as part of its broader suite of business management tools. Its platform includes automation features for the financial close process, such as advanced revenue management and multi-currency consolidation. Because it’s an all-in-one solution that covers everything from ERP to CRM, NetSuite is a good option for companies looking to manage their entire business on a single platform, with financial close being one integrated part of that system.
Even the most buttoned-up finance teams run into snags during the financial close. These challenges often feel like an unavoidable part of the job, but they don't have to be. Recognizing these common roadblocks is the first step toward building a smoother, faster, and more accurate close process. Let's look at the typical hurdles and, more importantly, how to clear them for good.
If your team is still buried in spreadsheets, you know how much time manual data entry consumes. Copying and pasting information between systems isn't just slow; it's a recipe for human error. A single misplaced decimal can throw off entire reports, sending your team on a frustrating hunt for the mistake that derails the entire schedule.
The Fix: The most direct solution is to automate financial close tasks. By letting software handle data entry, consolidation, and reconciliation, you free up your team to focus on analysis and strategy. This not only speeds up the close but also dramatically improves the accuracy of your financial reporting.
Does everyone on your team perform the same task in a slightly different way? When processes aren't standardized, the close becomes inconsistent and difficult to manage. It’s hard to review work, train new hires, or find efficiencies when there’s no single, agreed-upon method for completing tasks. This lack of structure often leads to duplicated efforts and confusion when it matters most.
The Fix: Establish clear, documented procedures for every step of the close process. Create checklists and templates to guide the team. Automation platforms are great for this, as they can enforce standardized workflows and ensure everyone follows the same steps every time, creating a reliable and repeatable process.
The finance team doesn't operate in a vacuum. You rely on data from sales, operations, and other departments to close the books. When communication breaks down, you end up chasing people for information at the last minute. This creates bottlenecks and delays the entire process, adding unnecessary stress to an already tight deadline.
The Fix: Use a centralized platform where all departments can access and share information. When your financial software integrates with your CRM and other business systems, data flows automatically. This creates a single source of truth, reduces the need for back-and-forth emails, and ensures everyone is working with the most up-to-date information.
Keeping up with accounting standards like ASC 606 is a major challenge, especially when you’re relying on manual processes. The rules are complex, and the risk of non-compliance is high, potentially leading to failed audits, fines, and damage to your company's reputation. Manually applying these rules across thousands of transactions is both difficult and risky.
The Fix: Leverage automation software designed with compliance in mind. These tools have built-in controls and logic to ensure revenue is recognized correctly according to current standards. This reduces the risk of errors and provides a clear audit trail, making it much easier to prove compliance and pass audits with confidence.
Manually reconciling accounts is one of the most tedious parts of the financial close. Sifting through thousands of transactions to find a small discrepancy can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. It’s a time-consuming process that is highly susceptible to human error, which can undermine the integrity of your financial statements.
The Fix: Automated reconciliation tools can match transactions in seconds, instantly identifying discrepancies that need attention. Instead of spending days ticking and tying numbers, your team can focus their expertise on investigating and resolving the exceptions. This saves an incredible amount of time and leads to more accurate financial data.
Many teams stick with inefficient manual processes because they believe implementing a new system will be too complicated and disruptive. The fear of a long, painful transition can be a major barrier to adopting automation, even when the team knows their current process is broken and holding them back.
The Fix: Modern financial automation is not as complex to implement as you might think. Start by identifying your biggest pain points and look for a solution that solves them directly. Many providers offer guided onboarding and support to ensure a smooth transition. You can often schedule a demo to see exactly how the software would work for your business before you commit.
Let's be honest: people don't always love change. Your team might be comfortable with their spreadsheets and worry that automation will make their jobs obsolete. Without buy-in from the people who will actually use the new tools, even the best software implementation can fail before it even gets started.
The Fix: Frame automation as a way to empower your team, not replace them. Communicate clearly how the new system will eliminate tedious work and allow them to focus on more strategic, high-value activities. Provide thorough training and highlight the personal benefits, like less overtime during month-end. When your team sees automation as a tool for growth, they'll be more likely to embrace it.
Switching from a manual financial close to an automated one is more than just a tech upgrade—it's a fundamental shift in how your finance team operates and how your business makes decisions. Moving away from cumbersome spreadsheets and repetitive tasks frees your team to focus on strategic analysis that actually drives the business forward. The benefits ripple out from the finance department to the entire organization, impacting everything from daily operations to long-term growth. By automating the close, you’re not just closing the books faster; you’re building a more resilient, efficient, and intelligent financial foundation. Let's look at the concrete advantages you can expect when you make the switch.
Let’s be honest: manual month-end closes consume an enormous amount of time. Your team spends countless hours tracking down data, entering numbers into spreadsheets, and manually reconciling accounts. Automating these routine tasks dramatically cuts down on that time. Instead of days or weeks, your close cycle can shrink significantly. This efficiency isn't just about getting reports out faster. It translates directly into cost savings by reducing overtime and allowing your skilled finance professionals to focus on high-value activities like forecasting and analysis instead of tedious data entry.
When humans are responsible for manually entering and manipulating large volumes of data, errors are inevitable. A misplaced decimal or a broken formula can throw off your entire financial picture. Financial close automation minimizes the risk of human error, leading to more accurate and reliable reporting. Standardized workflows and automated reconciliations ensure that processes are followed consistently every single time. This gives financial leaders better control and a clear view of the entire process, which helps build trust in the numbers you present to stakeholders, investors, and the board.
Staying compliant and preparing for audits can be a stressful, time-consuming ordeal. Automation makes it much easier. An automated system creates a clear, unchangeable audit trail for every transaction and journal entry, so you always know who did what and when. This real-time visibility into your financial data is crucial for meeting complex standards like ASC 606. When auditors come knocking, you can quickly provide them with the detailed documentation they need, making the entire audit process smoother and less disruptive for your team.
The traditional close process often involves siloed teams working in different spreadsheets, leading to version control nightmares and endless email chains. An automated financial close solution acts as a central hub for your entire team. Everyone works from the same set of real-time data, with clear visibility into task ownership and deadlines. This shared platform breaks down communication barriers and ensures a smoother handoff between different team members and departments, reducing friction and making the entire process a more collaborative effort.
Why wait until the end of the month to understand your company's financial health? With automation, you can move away from outdated, rearview-mirror reporting. Automated systems provide access to real-time dashboards and analytics, giving you an up-to-the-minute snapshot of your performance. This allows leadership to make faster, more informed strategic decisions based on current data, not information that’s already several weeks old. You can spot trends, address issues, and seize opportunities as they happen.
A manual close process that works for a small company will quickly break down as your business grows. As transaction volume increases, the manual workload can become completely unmanageable, creating a bottleneck that hinders growth. An automated system is built to scale. It can handle a growing number of transactions and increasing complexity without requiring you to proportionally increase your finance team's headcount. This creates a flexible and robust financial infrastructure that supports your company’s expansion.
Choosing the right financial close software is a huge step, but the real work begins with implementation. A thoughtful rollout strategy is the difference between a tool that gathers digital dust and one that truly transforms your finance operations. It’s about more than just flipping a switch; it’s about setting your team up for success, managing change, and ensuring the new system delivers on its promise from the very beginning. This phase is critical because even the best software can fail if it's not introduced correctly.
Think of it like this: you’ve bought a top-of-the-line car, but you still need to learn how to drive it, set your GPS, and get comfortable on the road. A rushed or poorly planned implementation can lead to team frustration, low adoption rates, and a failure to achieve the results you were hoping for. By following a few best practices, you can ensure a smooth transition and start reaping the benefits of automation much faster. The key is to be intentional and methodical, focusing on clear goals, realistic timelines, and strong team support from day one. This approach builds momentum and gets everyone excited about the positive changes ahead.
Before you migrate a single piece of data, you need to know what success looks like. What are you trying to achieve with this new software? Vague goals like "be more efficient" won't cut it. Get specific. Are you aiming to reduce your month-end close from ten days to five? Do you want to decrease the number of manual journal entries by 75%? Or maybe your primary goal is to eliminate reconciliation errors entirely.
Writing down these specific, measurable objectives gives you a clear destination. It also helps you prioritize features during setup and provides a benchmark for evaluating the project's success later on. To ensure your automation initiatives deliver real value, it's crucial to define these targets from the outset.
It’s tempting to want everything up and running yesterday, but a rushed implementation is a recipe for disaster. A successful rollout requires a realistic timeline that accounts for every stage of the process. Break the project down into manageable phases: planning, system configuration, data migration, user testing, team training, and the final go-live.
Be sure to build in buffer time for unexpected challenges—they almost always pop up. A phased approach, where you roll out the software to one department or for one specific process first, can also be a smart strategy. This allows you to work out any kinks on a smaller scale before a company-wide launch, making the entire process feel much more manageable for your team.
The most powerful software in the world is only effective if your team knows how to use it. Proper training is non-negotiable. Go beyond a single webinar and develop a comprehensive training plan that builds confidence and competence. This could include hands-on workshops, creating custom documentation with real-world examples from your own business, and appointing a few tech-savvy employees as "super-users" who can provide peer support.
Remember, this is a change in how your team works. The goal is to make them feel supported, not replaced. When you invest in their training, you’re not just teaching them to use a new tool; you’re empowering them to become more strategic contributors to the business.
How will you know if your investment is paying off? This is where those goals you set at the beginning come back into play. You need to define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you'll use to track your progress. These metrics make success tangible and help you demonstrate the project's ROI.
Key metrics to consider include the length of the close cycle, the number of manual reconciliations, the time spent on data entry, and the accuracy of financial reports. Tracking these KPIs isn't just a one-time check after launch. Regularly reviewing this data helps you see what’s working well and identify areas for further optimization, ensuring your financial close process is managed effectively over the long term.
Every major project comes with potential roadblocks, and it’s always better to anticipate them than to be caught off guard. Take some time to brainstorm what could go wrong. Will migrating data from your legacy systems be a challenge? Is there a risk of poor adoption due to resistance to change? Could there be issues with how the new software integrates with your existing tools?
Once you’ve identified potential risks, you can create a mitigation plan for each one. This might involve a thorough data cleanup project before migration, a clear communication plan to get team buy-in, or working closely with your software provider to ensure seamless connections. Proactive planning turns potential crises into manageable tasks.
The world of financial close is evolving quickly. We're moving beyond simple automation that just checks boxes faster. The next wave of technology is about making the entire process smarter, more predictive, and deeply integrated into the fabric of your business operations. These advancements aren't just incremental improvements; they represent a fundamental shift in how finance teams operate and add value. Instead of spending weeks buried in spreadsheets and reconciliations, teams can become strategic partners who guide the business forward. Keeping an eye on these trends will help you choose a solution that not only solves today's problems but also prepares you for what's ahead. The goal is to transform the financial close from a backward-looking chore into a forward-looking source of strategic insight.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are no longer just buzzwords; they're becoming core components of modern close automation. These technologies go beyond basic rule-based automation by learning from your data over time. Think of it as having a super-smart assistant who can analyze massive volumes of transactions in seconds. They can identify anomalies, flag potential errors, and even suggest journal entries, all with a high degree of accuracy. This allows your team to automate complex tasks that once required hours of manual review, freeing them up to focus on analysis and strategy instead of data entry and validation.
Historically, the financial close has been about reporting on what happened in the past. The future, however, lies in predictive analytics. This technology uses your historical data to forecast what’s likely to happen next. Instead of just closing the books on Q3, you can get data-driven insights into Q4's potential revenue, cash flow, and expenses. This shift allows finance teams to become more proactive, identifying potential issues before they become major problems. Having the ability to forecast future financial performance turns the finance department from a historical record-keeper into a strategic guide for the business.
The frantic, end-of-month scramble to close the books is slowly becoming a thing of the past. The concept of a "continuous close" is gaining serious traction, and for good reason. Instead of cramming all reconciliation and validation tasks into a few stressful days, this approach distributes them throughout the month. With automation tools that provide real-time updates, journal entries and reconciliations can happen daily. This not only reduces month-end pressure but also means your financial data is always up-to-date. As a result, companies can close their books more frequently and with greater accuracy, providing leaders with a constant, clear view of the company's financial health.
For any automation software to be truly effective, it needs to play well with the other tools you already use. The next generation of financial close solutions is focused on creating deep, intelligent connections with your ERP, CRM, and accounting systems. These aren't just simple data dumps; these smarter integrations create a seamless flow of information between platforms. This eliminates the need for manual data exports and imports, which are often a major source of errors and delays. When your systems are perfectly in sync, you can trust that the data you're seeing is accurate and complete, creating a single source of truth for your financial operations.
In today's market, waiting until the 15th of the month to understand last month's performance is too slow. The future of financial close is about providing immediate access to financial intelligence. Modern automation platforms offer dashboards and reports that give you an instant snapshot of your company's financial standing at any given moment. This instant visibility into financial data empowers leaders to make faster, more informed decisions. Whether it's adjusting a budget, capitalizing on a new opportunity, or addressing a potential cash flow issue, having real-time data at your fingertips is a powerful competitive advantage.
Is financial close automation only for large corporations? Not at all. This technology is valuable for any business where the month-end close has become a source of stress and inefficiency. The decision should be based on your process complexity and transaction volume, not just your company's size. If your team is spending too much time on manual tasks or if your growth is making the close harder to manage, it's the right time to explore automation.
I'm worried this will make my finance team's jobs obsolete. Is that true? This is a common concern, but the goal of automation is to empower your team, not replace it. By taking over the repetitive, error-prone tasks, the software frees your finance professionals to focus on more valuable work. They can spend their time on strategic analysis, forecasting, and providing insights that guide business decisions, transforming their roles from record-keepers into true strategic partners.
How difficult is it to get started with a new financial close system? Getting a new system up and running is more straightforward than you might think. The key is to have a clear plan. Start by identifying your biggest challenges and look for a solution that directly addresses them. Most modern platforms are designed for a smooth transition, and providers often offer guided onboarding to help with data migration and team training, ensuring you can start seeing benefits without major disruptions.
My ERP system already has some financial modules. Why do I need separate close software? While your ERP is essential for core accounting, it typically isn't built to manage the entire close process from start to finish. Dedicated financial close software provides specialized tools for task management, complex reconciliations, and compliance that most ERPs lack. It integrates with your existing systems to create a central hub, giving you a level of control, visibility, and collaboration that an ERP alone can't provide.
How do I know if my business is ready for financial close automation? There are a few clear signs. If your team consistently works late during month-end, if you frequently find errors in your financial reports, or if your close process takes more than five business days, you're ready. Another key indicator is growth. If increasing sales and transactions are making your manual processes feel fragile or unsustainable, it's a good time to find a more scalable solution.
Former Root, EVP of Finance/Data at multiple FinTech startups
Jason Kyle Berwanger: An accomplished two-time entrepreneur, polyglot in finance, data & tech with 15 years of expertise. Builder, practitioner, leader—pioneering multiple ERP implementations and data solutions. Catalyst behind a 6% gross margin improvement with a sub-90-day IPO at Root insurance, powered by his vision & platform. Having held virtually every role from accountant to finance systems to finance exec, he brings a rare and noteworthy perspective in rethinking the finance tooling landscape.