How SMEs Can Align Finance Processes With Strategic Business Goals
- Werner Harahap
- Oct 13
- 10 min read
In today’s fast-changing business world, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a familiar challenge: how to grow without losing agility. It’s not easy. Markets shift fast, costs rise faster, and opportunities appear and disappear overnight.
For many SMEs, the answer isn’t working harder; it’s working smarter. And that starts with aligning finance processes with strategic business goals.
The problem is that finance is still often viewed as a back-office duty. A function that records what’s already happened instead of helping shape what happens next. But in a world driven by real-time data and rapid decisions, that approach just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Modern SMEs need finance teams that do more than crunch numbers. They need systems that connect strategy, operations, and performance into one cohesive engine for growth.
In this article, we’ll explore how to build that connection through three core pillars: integrating finance and operations, improving reporting and forecasting speed, and adopting integrated planning tools. We’ll also look at why collaboration is the glue that holds alignment together, and how a Target Operating Model gives SMEs the structure to make it last.
Before diving into those pillars, though, it helps to understand why financial alignment matters in the first place. Because once you know the “why,” the “how” starts to make a lot more sense.
Why Financial Alignment Matters for SMEs
When finance and strategy work hand in hand, SMEs gain the clarity and confidence to make smarter, faster decisions that drive meaningful growth.
This isn’t just theory. Findings from Deloitte’s 2023 Global Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting (PB&F) Survey show just how powerful financial alignment can be in practice. Companies that connect their finance teams with other core functions (think sales, operations, and HR) consistently perform better than those that don’t. In fact, half of those that link three or more functions keep forecast variances within 5%. Those that don’t? They miss the mark twice as often.
For SMEs, that difference matters even more. Smaller businesses run on thinner margins and tighter timelines. There’s less room for error, which makes every decision count. That’s where financial alignment comes in. When finance processes sync with strategy, leaders see the full picture. They can spot how pricing, hiring, and expansion choices affect both profit and growth.
Ultimately, the alignment between finance and business goals delivers three major benefits for SMEs:
Agility: Finance becomes a true business partner, helping the organization pivot fast when markets shift or costs rise.
Data-Driven Insight: Integrated systems turn raw numbers into clear, actionable intelligence, making forecasting sharper and faster.
Strategic Coherence: Every budget, forecast, and investment points toward the same long-term goals, keeping resources focused where they matter most.
Put simply, financial alignment doesn’t just make things run smoother: it gives SMEs the agility to course-correct quickly, protect margins, and keep growing even when the pressure is on.
The Three Pillars of Financial Alignment for SMEs
Now that we’ve seen why alignment matters, let’s look at how to make it happen. As mentioned earlier, building alignment between finance and strategy comes down to three core pillars: integrating finance and operations, improving reporting and forecasting speed, and adopting integrated planning tools. Together, they form the foundation for turning your finance processes into a true driver of performance and growth.
Let’s break them down.
Integrating Finance and Operations
For many SMEs, one of the biggest barriers to financial alignment is the invisible wall that often separates finance from operations. On one side, finance teams focus on budgets, forecasts, and reports. On the other, operations teams are immersed in production schedules, logistics, and day-to-day service delivery. When those two functions don’t stay in sync, decisions slow down, resources get misallocated, and valuable opportunities quietly slip through the cracks.
Deloitte’s 2023 Global PB&F Survey reinforces this reality. More than half of the organizations surveyed pointed to fragmented systems and inconsistent processes as their biggest planning challenges. Yet, those that bridged the gap—by connecting financial, sales, and operational data through shared dashboards—saw a dramatic difference. Their decisions became faster, their forecasts sharper, and their teams more coordinated.
The good news? Integration doesn’t have to be expensive or overly complex. SMEs can start small and still make meaningful progress by:
Holding regular planning sessions so finance understands operational constraints—like capacity limits or supply delays—and operations stay aligned with financial targets.
Adopting a unified planning platform or ERP system that connects key metrics—sales volumes, inventory, cash flow, and payroll—into a single, real-time dashboard everyone can access.
Standardizing calendars and timelines so every department plans, forecasts, and reports on the same schedule.
When these foundations are in place, the transformation is immediate. Finance stops reacting to what’s already happened and starts anticipating what comes next. Operations gain visibility into the financial impact of every decision. And together, both sides work from one version of the truth that clearly shows what drives profitability and performance.
Improving Reporting and Forecasting Speed
In business, timing is everything. The faster a company understands its numbers, the faster it can react to what’s happening around it. That’s why improving reporting and forecasting speed isn’t just helpful—it’s essential to financial alignment.
Deloitte’s 2023 Global PB&F Survey makes that point crystal clear. It found that 63% of organizations with connected functions—where finance, sales, and operations share data in real time—complete their forecasts in under three weeks. That kind of speed creates a real edge. It allows companies to pivot quickly when demand shifts, costs rise, or new opportunities emerge.
But not every business enjoys that advantage. Many SMEs still live in spreadsheet land. According to the same survey, 54% of companies rely heavily on them for planning and reporting. And while spreadsheets can be useful, they also slow everything down. Reports take longer to prepare, forecasts quickly go stale, and decisions end up based on outdated information rather than live data.
That’s where the problem lies. Slow reporting means slow reaction. A delayed forecast or a late month-end close can make the difference between catching an opportunity and watching it pass. But once reports start coming together faster, everything changes. Forecasts become more accurate. Budgets stay aligned with reality. Compliance stops being a mad rush at quarter-end. And regulatory reporting becomes cleaner, more consistent, and far less stressful.
So, how can SMEs move faster and smarter? By:
Automating repetitive tasks like data collection, monthly closes, and variance analysis to free up time for real analysis and decision-making.
Adopting rolling forecasts that extend beyond the fiscal year to help teams anticipate shifts in demand, revenue, and cost before they happen.
Tracking key performance drivers—like pricing, productivity, and customer churn—instead of only focusing on outcomes, so leaders can understand why performance changes, not just how much.
When SMEs make these changes, finance stops being a back-office function and becomes a strategic control tower. It starts spotting trends early, flagging risks before they escalate, and helping leadership make smarter, faster decisions with greater confidence.
Adopting Integrated Planning Tools
For many SMEs trying to align finance processes with strategic business goals, the challenge isn’t a shortage of financial data; it’s that the data is scattered everywhere. Spreadsheets sit in one place, accounting systems in another, and departmental reports tell their own versions of the truth. When information lives in silos, it’s hard for leaders to see the full picture or make confident, timely decisions.
That’s where integrated planning tools make all the difference. They bring finance, operations, and strategy together in one connected environment. Suddenly, everyone’s working from the same numbers, using the same assumptions, and moving toward the same goals. The result? Faster decisions, clearer insights, and stronger accountability across the board.
The Phoenix Rising Consulting Group Target Operating Model (TOM) gives SMEs a proven roadmap for building this kind of integration. It aligns people, processes, and technology so planning becomes not just connected but truly collaborative and measurable.
In a well-designed integrated planning setup, SMEs gain:
A single source of truth for both financial and operational data, eliminating version conflicts or guesswork.
Consistent performance metrics, so every department measures success the same way.
Better collaboration across finance, HR, and operations, with real-time visibility into how decisions ripple through the business.
Smarter capital budgeting and investment analysis, powered by live data and scenario planning tools that help SMEs prioritize projects with the best returns—without stretching resources too thin.
When these elements come together, everything starts to click. Integrated planning turns scattered data into a cohesive strategy. Capital allocation stops being guesswork and becomes a data-driven decision. And SMEs gain a unified view of their business—one where every number tells the same story, and every decision moves them closer to their long-term goals.
Cross-Functional Collaboration Is Key to Financial Alignment
Integrating finance and operations, improving reporting and forecasting speed, and adopting integrated planning tools may form the technical pillars of alignment. But collaboration is the cultural glue that holds everything together. Without it, even the best systems can only take you so far.
When teams work in silos, information gets trapped. Decisions take longer. Momentum fades. And before long, strategy starts to drift off course. Deloitte’s 2023 Global PB&F Survey underscores this point: 65% of organizations with active managerial collaboration report stronger planning alignment and better-connected processes. On the flip side, companies that fail to collaborate often face inefficiencies, duplicated effort, and misaligned incentives—all of which quietly chip away at agility and performance.
At Phoenix Rising Consulting Group, our TOM is designed to break down those barriers from within. It embeds collaboration directly into the organization’s structure through a matrix-style approach that clearly defines roles, responsibilities, and shared accountability across departments. In this model, finance, operations, and strategy don’t just exchange data; they co-own outcomes. When everyone works toward shared goals rather than guarding their own turf, collaboration stops being a separate initiative and becomes part of how the business naturally operates.
For SMEs, building that kind of culture doesn’t happen overnight, but it can start small. Begin with consistent actions that reinforce shared purpose, such as:
Encouraging joint target-setting between finance and operational leads.
Creating shared KPIs that tie departmental performance to company-wide goals.
Holding regular alignment sessions to review forecasts, dependencies, and results.
Building ownership at every level, so each team understands how their work drives business performance.
When silos come down, collaboration starts to grow. And when collaboration becomes second nature, alignment evolves from a one-time project into an everyday mindset. That’s when SMEs begin to move faster, think smarter, and grow stronger—together.
Building Financial Alignment Through a Target Operating Model
Once SMEs have laid the groundwork for financial alignment, the next step is figuring out how to make it last. That’s where a Target Operating Model comes in. It gives structure to your alignment efforts—something solid to build on as your organization grows and evolves.
Think of a TOM as the blueprint for how your business runs when everything works in harmony. It shows how strategy turns into execution and ensures that every decision—from the boardroom to the front line—stays anchored to the same priorities.
At Phoenix Rising Consulting Group, our TOM framework breaks this down into six connected parts that help SMEs design for growth that’s both scalable and sustainable:
Strategic Objectives & Initiatives: Clarify your mission, vision, and leadership structure so every decision supports long-term goals.
Operational Processes: Ensure key processes are well-designed, documented, and continuously improved.
Shared Services & Centralization: Streamline repetitive tasks to boost efficiency and create consistency across teams.
People, Roles & Culture: Define responsibilities clearly and foster collaboration, accountability, and trust.
Information Systems & Technology: Build an integrated tech ecosystem that delivers accurate, real-time data.
Performance Management: Set up metrics that track both financial and operational performance so you always know what’s working—and what’s not.
When these six elements work together, finance stops operating in isolation. It becomes a true strategic partner that drives agility, insight, and growth across the entire organization.
A well-built TOM doesn’t just connect departments; it creates a continuous feedback loop between strategy, execution, and results. That loop is what keeps your business focused, adaptable, and ready for whatever comes next.
Interested in learning how to design and implement a TOM tailored to your organization? Download our free whitepaper: “Your Operating Model: Driving Your Company’s Ability to Grow.”
How SMEs Can Get Started With Financial Alignment
Aligning finance with strategy might sound like a big leap, but it’s more achievable than most SMEs realize. You don’t need to rebuild your entire business overnight. The key is to start small, focus on the fundamentals, and build momentum as you go.
Here’s a simple roadmap to help you get started:
Step 1 — Assess your current finance processes: Start by taking an honest look at how things work today. Where are the bottlenecks? Where do finance and operations fall out of sync? This review helps you uncover inefficiencies and connect your KPIs directly to your strategic goals.
Step 2 — Build your Target Operating Model: Once you know where the gaps are, define how people, processes, and technology should work together. A strong TOM keeps strategy and execution aligned, while helping your business stay adaptable as it grows.
Step 3 — Invest in the right tools: Modernization doesn’t have to break the bank. Start with affordable, cloud-based planning platforms that connect finance, sales, HR, and operations. When everyone works from one version of the truth, alignment stops being a goal and starts becoming reality.
Step 4 — Redesign roles and responsibilities: Clarity is everything. Define who owns what—especially when it comes to planning, forecasting, and reporting. Clear accountability keeps teams focused and ensures everyone understands how their work supports the bigger picture.
Step 5 — Foster continuous collaboration: Hold regular planning sessions across departments. Review progress, share insights, and adjust as needed. Financial alignment isn’t a one-time project; it’s a discipline that grows stronger with consistency and communication.
Change won’t happen all at once, but it will happen with structure and persistence. The Phoenix Rising Consulting Group TOM framework gives SMEs a clear path to assess capabilities, close performance gaps, and build financial alignment that truly lasts.
Final Thoughts
For SMEs, aligning finance with strategy isn’t just another process upgrade; it’s one of the most powerful levers for growth. When finance, operations, and leadership work from the same playbook, everything starts to fall into place. Decisions happen faster. Insights become clearer. And performance becomes more predictable.
Of course, this kind of financial alignment doesn’t happen by chance. It’s built through deliberate action—by integrating finance and operations, improving reporting speed, adopting the right planning tools, and, most importantly, fostering a culture of collaboration. When those pieces come together, finance stops being a back-office function and becomes a strategic partner that drives the entire business forward.
If you’re ready to take that step, we’d love to help you get there. Book a needs assessment with our team to explore how your finance processes can be reshaped to reach your strategic goals faster, smarter, and with measurable impact.
About the Author
Werner Harahap brings over 20 years of experience in finance, accounting, and systems integration to his role as Co-Founder and Director at Phoenix Rising Consulting Group. Passionate about collaboration and continuous improvement, he helps organizations
streamline processes and unlock sustainable value. Born in the Netherlands and now based in Canada, Werner’s multilingual background and cultural fluency allow him to connect easily across teams and communities. Beyond work, he’s an active volunteer and community advocate, known for his commitment to mentorship, inclusion, and building lasting relationships that make a positive impact.
References
Deloitte (2023). Global Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Survey Insights Report. https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/services/financial-advisory/research/effective-planning-budgeting-forecasting.html/
Phoenix Rising Consulting Group Inc. (2025). Your Operating Model, Driving Your Company's Ability to Grow. https://www.phoenixrisingconsultinggroup.ca/post/whitepaper-your-operating-model-driving-your-company-s-ability-to-grow
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