Have you ever wondered how much it really costs to run your organization’s full spectrum of finance functions—from forecasting and budgeting to payroll, accounts receivable, and beyond? Tracking that total cost—and comparing it to peer organizations—is more than bookkeeping. It's a strategic tool that can unlock major gains in efficiency, talent management, and innovation.
To get the most value out of measuring these costs, organizations should focus on three key areas:
Cost Savings or Time Savings
Bottom performers spend significantly more than top performers to complete the same financial processes. Closing this gap can deliver substantial cost savings for lower- and mid-level performers. For top performers, where costs are already lean, the focus shifts to time savings—redeploying efficiency gains into higher-value activities like planning and growth.
Managing Your Human Capital
Employee salaries and benefits are the largest drivers of finance costs. While smaller organizations may hesitate to match the pay offered by larger firms, underinvesting in talent often leads to inefficiencies and higher overall costs. Attracting skilled employees can enable small teams to deliver the output of much larger ones. In finance, people truly are the organization’s greatest asset, and investing in them can create lasting process and system efficiencies.
Technology and Processes
Modernizing financial systems and automating workflows allows organizations to handle growth without expanding headcount—and in some cases, even cut costs. Success depends on having the right people or partners to implement and optimize these systems. Larger firms may have an advantage in standardizing cross-functional processes, but smaller ones must also prioritize closing workflow gaps to unlock efficiency. Regardless of size, benchmarking total finance costs against peers provides valuable context for decision-making, and dashboards that combine this with related metrics can give leaders a clearer picture of overall performance.
Learn more and compare your organization’s financial management costs to peers in APQC’s The Cost of Financial Management.