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UKThe barometer that shows what’s top of mind for organisations right now – at least at the C-suite level – is hovering most often around ‘cost control’. But why is it such a hard problem to solve?
At the beginning of 2025, one in three C-suite executives told the Boston Consulting Group that they’re “prioritising cost reduction as a critical need”. [1] This answer led above several other options, just as it did in BCG’s similar 2024 study.
Of the 570 executives surveyed by BCG, over half (52%) of cost-saving targets aren’t achieved, and their companies “struggle to maintain efficiencies.”
So, what’s going wrong? In accounting, we know we have plenty of strategies at our disposal, such as:
But, setting and enforcing these strategies depends on visibility, and this might be why cost-saving measures aren’t yet fully embedded in organisations. To learn how Xledger can help you gain better cost control and visibility, get in touch with our expert consultants today.
Now visibility isn’t the only factor. Human behaviour is ultimately what causes day-to-day decision-making to drift away from cost-saving measures. As BCG’s report found, cost-saving measures lose their lasting effects primarily due to “cultural resistance”.
If cultural resistance is the greatest barrier, visibility is one of the greatest solutions. 79% of executives stated that “company performance visibility,” especially the visibility of “financial year targets and gaps,” is the most effective way of ensuring that people in the organisation are cost-aware in their daily decision-making.
Visibility helps with awareness and supports budgeting. Suppose budget holders can access live financial information at any time. In that case, they can manage and monitor expenditure and steer their teams in the right direction before they go over budget.
The visibility you do or don’t have will largely depend on the technology you have. To get an accurate gauge of your visibility, try asking yourself the following sets of questions:
a. Does your accounting system offer live and accurate organisational spend and remaining budgets information?
b. Or do intermittent reports and errors still leave too much room for guesswork?
a. When your reports arrive, can they be analysed from various perspectives, such as by region, department, or time period?
b. Or does your system lack the power to support multidimensional reporting?
a. Finally, is all the latest data available in one accessible location?
b. Or is it fragmented between different software applications?
Successful integration ensures people trust the data they see. And trust is a critical part of cost visibility and awareness.
See a selection of our available integrations on our integrations marketplace
In a survey of nearly 500 financial controllers, Gartner found that companies see a 75% reduction in financial errors if they digitise with “high technology acceptance”. [2]
User experience factors defined this acceptance of the accounting software: users find the technology easy to use, easy to learn, easy to customise for their needs, and they can see all the information they need in one view.
Mallory Barg Bulman, Senior Director of Research in the Gartner Finance Practice, commented on the report:
“It stood out that when users displayed acceptance of the technology they were using in accounting, they used it much more effectively, realized capacity improvements, and made significantly fewer errors.”
That ease of adoption and use is far more likely when the accounting software is designed for you, not someone else.
Xledger is designed by accountants, for accountants, and is expertly tuned to make life easier for finance teams in mid-market organisations. To learn more about our software solution, book a free demo today, or get in touch with one of our dedicated team members.
References
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