RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- insightsoftware, the most comprehensive provider of solutions for the Office of the CFO, today released a new report, Finance Under Pressure: How Leading Teams Are Navigating Uncertainty, revealing that the vast majority (93%) of finance teams are struggling with poor data management. The challenge comes at a critical time, as economic uncertainty around supply chains (31%) and global tariffs (30%) continue to pressure organizations to plan more strategically and operate with greater agility.
Additional external pressures impacting finance teams include interest rates (27%), cloud migration pressure (27%), and economic disruption (26%). In response, business leaders are prioritizing operational efficiency and tech stack optimization to dedicate time and resources toward strategic analysis and planning.
“There’s a digital simplification happening across industries right now,” said Josh Schauer, Chief Financial Officer at insightsoftware. “We have access to more data than ever before – but if you’re using separate tools to evaluate that data, you’re only ever seeing one puzzle piece at a time. As finance teams navigate new challenges and assume additional responsibilities across FP&A, reporting, compliance, and operational decision-making, they need a holistic view of their organization’s finances.”
The average finance team now uses four or more separate tools for data management (82%), creating inefficiencies and data quality issues. As teams look to 2026 and beyond, integration capabilities will be table stakes for any new technology investments.
The report uncovers additional trends impacting finance teams heading into the new year:
- Finance teams increasingly use AI to improve efficiency.
The most common ROI noted in AI was time saved on daily tasks (71%), followed by customer feedback (33%), bridging employee skills gaps (32%), decreased financial reporting cycles (27%), and improved sales performance (21%). - Skills shortages are exposing unsustainable manual processes.
With 67% of finance teams facing skills shortages and 88% relying too much on IT, manual processes are becoming impossible to sustain. More than two-thirds of finance leaders (69%) spend at least five hours every week re-creating reports, and 58% of them spend at least five hours per week transferring data between systems. - Market uncertainty and data accuracy issues continue to challenge planning and budgeting.
Finance teams pointed to market uncertainty (36%) and data accuracy (35%) as the biggest challenges during their planning and budgeting cycles, followed by unforeseen events (32%), misalignment with strategic goals (25%), and integrating financial and operational data (22%).
The findings are based on insightsoftware and Hannover Research’s survey, which gathered insights from 365 finance decisionmakers across organizations with more than 250 employees in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States in August 2025.
Download the full Finance Under Pressure: How Leading Teams Are Navigating Uncertainty here to learn more about critical trends, challenges, and opportunities facing finance leaders.
About insightsoftware
insightsoftware is a global provider of comprehensive solutions for the Office of the CFO. We believe an actionable business strategy begins and ends with accessible financial data. With solutions across financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, and operations, we transform how teams operate, empowering leaders to make timely and informed decisions. With data at the heart of everything we do, insightsoftware enables automated processes, delivers trusted insights, boosts predictability, and increases productivity. Learn more at insightsoftware.com.
Media Contacts
Inkhouse for insightsoftware
insightsoftware@inkhouse.com
insightsoftware PR Team
PR@insightsoftware.com
