Services / Efficiency Roadmap
Efficiency Roadmap. Find out what should be automated before you automate anything.
Most finance automation fails because it starts with a tool rather than a map. This works the other way round. We inventory every recurring task in your finance function, measure what each one costs in hours and in errors, and rank them by what automation would actually return. You get a sequenced plan, and the authority to say no to the rest.
When this helps
- You have been sold finance software and are not sure which problem it solves
- The team is busy, but nobody can say which of the work is genuinely necessary
- You want to automate without rebuilding everything at once
- A finance hire is being considered to absorb work that should not exist
- Leadership wants an AI plan and there is no honest baseline to build one on
What is included
The scope is agreed around the decisions in front of you. A typical engagement draws on the following.
Task inventory
Every recurring finance task: who does it, how often, and how long it takes.
Effort and error baseline
Hours per month and rework per task, measured rather than estimated.
Automation assessment
Which tasks a rule can handle, which need AI judgment, and which should stay with a person.
Sequenced plan
What to do first, second and third, ordered by payback rather than by what is easiest to buy.
Build or buy
Where your current systems already do the job, and where something new is genuinely warranted.
Business case
Cost, effort and expected return for each step, in a form a board will approve.
Deliverables
- Finance task inventory
- Once
- Effort and error baseline
- Once
- Ranked automation backlog
- Once
- Twelve-month roadmap
- Once
- Business case per initiative
- Once
How it works
A clear sequence, so that you see value early and nothing is built that your team cannot own.
Observe
We sit with the team through a full monthly cycle and record what happens, not what the process document says.
Measure
Hours, handoffs, rework, and the points at which the numbers stop being trusted.
Rank
Every task scored on effort saved, error risk removed, and cost to change.
Plan
A sequenced roadmap with a business case for each step, and a clear list of what not to do.
Questions
How long does it take?
Typically a few weeks, covering one full close, so that we see the real cycle rather than a quiet period.
Do we have to use you to build what it recommends?
No. The roadmap is a standalone deliverable, written so that another party could execute it. Most clients ask us to build the first step or two, which is a separate engagement.
What if the answer is that we should not automate?
Then that is the answer, and it is a far cheaper one than finding out after the purchase. Some finance functions need better process before they need any tooling at all.
Other services
Most clients combine two or more services as their needs develop.
Discuss an Efficiency Roadmap. Thirty minutes, without obligation.
Tell us where the business is headed and what stands in the way. Or write directly to alberto.salas@blackbearcorp.com.
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