When Control Becomes a Constraint

Johan Smith

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In many organizations, the forecasting process lies in the hands of one person, often the CFO or the FP&A manager. Typically, that person has spent years refining an elaborate Excel model, one that contains the company’s financial heartbeat. It’s smart, complex, and familiar. It represents a deep personal investment and effort, and "it works" in the sense that numbers are delivered every month.

But when "control" becomes a "central concentration" of power and knowledge, and familiarity turns into fragility, it’s time for a conversation.

Because while Excel is powerful, it’s not scalable. And what feels like control can quickly become a constraint, for the CFO, for the entire organization, and for the board’s visibility.

Let’s look at why.

The Risks of Personal Empires

It’s not uncommon for senior finance leaders to build forecasting systems around themselves. Excel allows them full flexibility and perceived control over every formula and every line item. But that model is often:

• Opaque: No one else truly understands the calculations behind the numbers.
• Inflexible: Budget holders don’t participate meaningfully, they just receive top-down targets with little or no context.
• Manual: Data is exported, adjusted, copied, and re-entered. Every month. Every quarter. Every year. Over and over again.
• Risky: Key logic lives in someone’s head, not in shared documented systems.

This process is not scalable. And it is not sustainable.

Worse, it creates a single point of failure. If that one person is unavailable, or leaves the company, much of the forecasting process and knowledge walks out the door with them.

“It Works” Is Not a Strategy

The common argument for maintaining the status quo is: “But it works.”

Sure, it may work. But only IF:

• There are no last-minute changes
• There are no errors in linked cells or broken formulas
• There are no in-depth or unexpected questions from the board
• The business stays static and predictable

That's a lot of IF's. And in today’s world things change constantly. You need a system that works not just when things are unchanged, but especially when they do change.

Empowerment Is a Strategy, Not a Threat

In many Excel-driven finance environments, forecasting is a one-person job. Budget holders don’t own their numbers, they’re handed the numbers and targets they are expected to deliver. That might feel efficient, but it creates misalignment and disengagement.

We often hear the excuse that budget holders "don't have the time", or "don't have the skills" to prepare their own part of the budget, but how can that be? How can a manager be responsible for an activity without the time or skill to plan and forecast that activity? If that is the case, then something more fundamental is wrong, surely?

Modern finance tools like XLReporting flip that dynamic. They don’t diminish the CFO’s and budget holders roles, they enhance it. They enable:

• Activity-based forecasting: What are we planning to do, why, when, what will it deliver, and what will it cost?
• Ownership: Budget holders contribute directly in a controlled environment.
• Transparency: Data is structured, traceable, and always up-to-date.
• Auditability: Every input, change, and approval is logged and visible.
• Scalability: Forecasts evolve with the organization, not around one person.

With XLReporting, the CFO moves from central number cruncher to strategic leader, guiding assumptions, aligning teams, and focusing on outcomes.

Consideration for the Board

As a board member, your role is governance, oversight, and long-term direction. And Excel-based forecasting, especially when it rests in a single person’s hands, creates risk in all three areas:

• Governance: Lack of transparency around how numbers are calculated.
• Oversight: Inability to easily access, question, or simulate alternatives.
• Sustainability: Dependency on individual knowledge, rather than systemized logic.

Modern reporting isn’t just about prettier dashboards. It’s about confidence, control, and clarity across the organization. It’s about enabling the CFO, and every stakeholder, to work from a shared, reliable view of reality.

Moving Forward

No one is questioning the CFO’s talent, expertise, and dedication. His or her Excel models reflect years of experience, knowledge, and care. But that’s exactly why they’re hard to let go of.

Still, holding onto legacy tools because they’re familiar, even powerful ones, can hold back the very progress you’re trying to drive.

You don’t grow by staying comfortable. You grow by building systems that can outlive the people who created them.

That’s what XLReporting offers: a way to capture all knowledge in your organization, and make it transparent, scalable, and future-proof.

It’s not about replacing the CFO's work. It’s about protecting it, and making it stronger.

Would you like to explore how XLReporting can help you? Request a demo today! Click here

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The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
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When Control Becomes a Constraint
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More about Reporting:

The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
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More from Johan Smith:

The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
If You Break It, You Own It
When Control Becomes a Constraint
Fixing the Reports is not Fixing the Problem
Still taking over a week to close your books?

Back to the list