Chaos to Clarity: Fixing Financial and IT Back-Office Systems in Tandem
Here’s the thing about growth: when you’re small, duct tape and hustle get you pretty far. But as soon as you hit scale, the cracks in your back office start to show. Invoices go missing. Month-end close drags out for weeks. Your ERP is duct-taped to your CRM with manual exports. IT is running on “tribal knowledge” instead of documented processes.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Most companies don’t fail because of a bad product, they fail because the financial and IT foundation can’t keep up with the business.
If your finance and IT systems are a mess, fixing one without the other is like patching half a roof. You still get soaked when it rains. The path forward is to clean them up together.
Why Finance and IT Break at the Same Time
Finance and IT are like the plumbing and wiring of your company. They’re invisible when they work, but catastrophic when they don’t. And they usually fail together because:
Data lives everywhere: Finance needs reliable inputs from IT systems (CRM, billing platforms, HR systems). When IT is fragmented, finance spends more time cleaning spreadsheets than analyzing results.
Manual processes multiply: Without automation, AR clerks become human routers, IT tickets pile up, and basic tasks eat up senior time.
Controls fall apart: Finance controls (approvals, reconciliations) often rely on IT controls (user permissions, audit trails). If IT is weak, finance is exposed.
Growth magnifies flaws: The more customers, employees, and vendors you add, the faster little inefficiencies snowball into chaos.
That’s why fixing finance without IT (or IT without finance) doesn’t stick. You need a tandem reset.
OK. But What’s the Fix?
Step 1: Get the Financial Foundation Right
Finance is the language of the business. If the numbers are slow, inconsistent, or unreliable, you’re flying blind.
What to focus on first:
Chart of accounts structure: If you can’t slice results by product line, geography, or channel, rebuild it.
Revenue recognition policies: SaaS needs ASC 606 compliance. Manufacturers need work-in-progress accounting. Services need project-based recognition.
Close process: Document responsibilities, automate reconciliations, and set a target close timeline. Ten business days should be the ceiling, not the average.
Reporting package: Move beyond a static P&L. Build dashboards that integrate operational KPIs with financial metrics.
This is where fractional accounting teams add real value. They don’t just “do the books.” They build processes that scale: GAAP compliance, reconciliations, and reporting that holds up under audit or due diligence.
Step 2: Fix the IT Backbone
Finance cannot function on duct-taped systems. If IT is fragmented, finance becomes a manual data-entry shop.
Critical IT areas to address:
ERP and accounting systems: If you’re running QuickBooks with a hundred employees, it’s time to graduate. Move to NetSuite, Intacct, or another mid-market ERP with APIs.
System integrations: Build direct integrations between CRM, ERP, billing, and HRIS. No more manual CSV uploads.
User access controls: Lock down permissions. Segregation of duties matters as much in IT as it does in accounting.
Documentation and ticketing: Get IT processes out of people’s heads and into systems. If only one person knows how payroll runs, that’s a liability.
The IT work is not about “shiny tools.” It’s about building reliable pipes so finance and operations can trust the numbers flowing through them.
Step 3: Align Finance and IT Projects
Here’s where most companies blow it: finance runs one improvement project, IT runs another, and they never talk until a deadline is missed. That’s how you end up with finance begging for reports that IT “can’t pull.”
To align properly:
Joint roadmaps: Finance and IT should build a shared roadmap with dependencies mapped. If finance wants automated revenue recognition, IT has to prioritize ERP integration.
Project management discipline: Use a PMO or external advisor to keep both sides honest. Finance leaders often underestimate IT complexity, and IT leaders underestimate finance deadlines.
Change management: End users (AP clerks, AR analysts, controllers) need training. Don’t assume new systems equal instant adoption.
The companies that succeed here treat back-office transformation like a real program, not an afterthought.
Step 4: Decide What to Outsource
Not everything needs to be built in-house. In fact, for most growth-stage companies, building full finance and IT teams is overkill.
Financial outsourcing can cover:
Bookkeeping and reconciliations
Monthly close
Audit prep and support
FP&A modeling
IT outsourcing can cover:
Help desk support
System integrations
Cybersecurity monitoring
ERP administration
Outsourcing isn’t just about saving money. It’s about plugging in experts who have already solved these problems at ten other companies. That gets you to clarity faster and avoids rookie mistakes.
Step 5: Build Controls That Last
At the end of the day, buyers and auditors care about one thing: are your numbers reliable? That comes down to controls, which always cut across finance and IT.
Examples of strong tandem controls:
Finance approval workflows enforced by IT system permissions.
Automated three-way match in ERP for payables.
IT access logs that back finance’s segregation of duties.
Audit trails that make revenue recognition defendable.
Good controls don’t slow you down. They keep you from waking up six months later wondering why cash doesn’t match the P&L.
Bottom Line
Chaos in the back office kills growth and kills deals. The path to clarity isn’t fixing finance in isolation or patching IT alone. It’s aligning both at the same time, with the right people, the right systems, and the right controls.
Financial outsourcing gives you immediate leverage on the finance side. Smart IT outsourcing keeps the systems stable. Put them together and you go from firefighting every month-end to running a machine that produces reliable numbers and scales without breaking.
Because when it comes to growth, buyers, and investors, clarity is the currency. And you don’t get it without fixing finance and IT in tandem.
Ready to turn back-office chaos into clarity? Book a strategy call with Ursa. We’ll help you clean up your financials, and put the right controls in place — so you can scale with confidence and stop firefighting at month-end.