41% of Singaporean business leaders skeptical about their financial data: survey

Manual processes and human error are mainly to blame.

About 41% of C-suite and finance and accounting professionals in the Lion City were skeptical about the accuracy of their organisation’s financial data, according to a new survey commissioned by BlackLine.

The study showed all of the Singaporean executives and professionals surveyed admitted that they do not have complete confidence in their organisation’s visibility over its cash flow, while 45% of the senior finance and accounting professionals disclosed their distrust of the financial data they are working with.

This lack of confidence in cash flow visibility might be affecting business operations with 56% of the respondents raising concerns about the extent to which business decisions are made using inaccurate or out-of-date information.

“Trusting the data organizations work with is critical for effective decision-making, not only for the office of the CFO but for the entire business ecosystem. This is especially important when dealing with external events that are difficult to predict or hard to control,” said Nikhil Parambath, regional vice president of Asia at BlackLine.

More than two-thirds of respondents attributed the lack of confidence in their data to manual processes and human error. 

They revealed that the volume of day-to-day work and the stress accompanying it leaves no room for proper financial planning and analysis, leaving their organisations vulnerable to errors that are likely to affect business decision-making.

To address the challenges with manual processes, the majority of the respondents agreed that businesses have to adopt new technologies to streamline their financial operations, including the use of cloud computing, generative AI as well other kinds of AI.

“When we look at what is undermining confidence in financial data, we repeatedly find that ineffective, manual processes are the problem,” said Parambath. “Companies need to embrace modern, next-generation solutions that automate cumbersome processes.”