Businesses are leaning more heavily on their finance teams than ever before, to help drive growth, navigate change, and guide big decisions.
But according to our latest survey, fewer than half of respondents (41.7%) plan to grow their finance function in the next 12 months. The rest are either staying the same or haven’t decided.
That mismatch matters.
If you expect your finance team to support bigger goals, more complexity, and faster decision-making (but you don’t plan to increase capacity) something’s got to give.
Whether that’s team burnout, slower reporting cycles, or missed opportunities, the impact will show up eventually.
So, how do you build a finance function that’s actually ready to scale?
The gap between expectation and capability
Finance isn’t just about compliance anymore. Today’s finance teams are expected to:
- support funding rounds
- improve forecasting
- tighten cost control
- guide strategic decisions
- manage reporting for multiple stakeholders
That’s a lot to deliver without adding headcount or upgrading systems.
Yet the data shows most businesses aren’t planning to resource finance differently as they grow. That may not be a short-term issue, but it will be a problem down the line.
You can’t scale your business if your numbers, reports, and financial operations are stuck in survival mode.
Signs your finance team is stretched
If your team is regularly behind on reporting or can’t easily produce decision-ready numbers, those are warning signs. So are:
- spreadsheets doing too much heavy lifting
- confusion over real-time cash position
- late nights at BAS or EOFY
- bottlenecks in approvals or forecasting
And while these things can be manageable in smaller businesses, they often get worse – not better – as you grow.
So what does a scale-ready finance function actually look like?
There’s no one-size approach, but here’s what typically helps:
- Smart systems that take care of the basics: Automation should handle the heavy admin. Your team should spend more time on thinking and less time on data wrangling.
- Forecasting you can actually use: It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be consistent, clear, and reviewed regularly. If you can’t easily model different scenarios, scaling becomes a gamble.
- People with room to think ahead: If your finance lead is always reactive, there’s no capacity left for future planning. Outsourcing or fractional support can help bridge this gap.
You don’t always need to hire
Not every business is in a position to grow their internal team right now. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck.
Many of our clients use outsourced finance support to plug capability gaps, handle specialist functions (like forecasting or capital modelling), or to free up internal staff to focus on higher-impact work.
If you’re planning to grow, ask yourself:
- Can your current finance setup support double the volume?
- Are you relying too much on one person or outdated systems?
- What’s the cost of delay or error if things fall through the cracks?
Build the finance function your growth needs
It’s one thing to have a strong product or growing customer base. But if your internal systems can’t keep up, your business starts to feel the strain in all the wrong places.
Whether you need a bigger team, better tools, or just some outside help; we can work with you to design a finance setup that grows with you, not against you.
Talk to Vital Addition about scaling your finance function with confidence.