Has Your Finance Function Outgrown Adra?

Has Your Finance Function Outgrown Adra?

When the platform that helped you automate the close starts becoming a limitation, it may be time to think about what comes next.

Finance teams don’t stand still.

Organisations grow, structures become more complex, transaction volumes increase and expectations on Finance continue to rise. At the same time, Finance Leaders are under constant pressure to close faster, improve controls, reduce manual effort and give their teams more time to focus on higher-value work.

For many organisations, Adra was an important step towards achieving that.

But what happens when your Finance function has evolved beyond the requirements you had when you selected it?

Your Finance function has outgrown Adra. Your platform should too.

That is the question at the heart of our latest report for Finance Leaders currently running Adra.

Adra may have solved yesterday’s problem. Is it ready for tomorrow’s?

Choosing a financial close platform is a significant decision. Adra has helped many organisations move away from entirely manual close processes and introduce greater structure and automation.

But the needs of a growing Finance function can change considerably over time.

What starts as a relatively straightforward requirement to manage reconciliations and close tasks can evolve into a much broader need for connected, intelligent financial operations.

Finance Leaders may find themselves asking:

• Can we automate more of our close processes?
• How much manual work is still being carried out in spreadsheets and email?
• Do we have real-time visibility of the entire close?
• Can we automate journals as well as reconciliations?
• Are our processes sufficiently controlled and auditable?
• Can our platform scale as we add entities, geographies and complexity?
• Are we still working around our technology rather than having technology work around us?

If these questions sound familiar, it may be a sign that your organisation has reached the limits of what its current platform can deliver.

Five signs you’ve outgrown your current platform

1. Your Finance processes have become more complex

Growth brings complexity.

More entities, currencies, accounts, systems and stakeholders can turn what was once a manageable close process into a collection of disconnected activities.

A platform that worked well for a smaller or less complex Finance function may struggle to provide the flexibility and control required as your organisation scales.

2. Your team is still doing too much manually

Automation should remove work — not simply move it somewhere else.

If Finance teams are still downloading data, manipulating spreadsheets, sending emails, chasing approvals, checking information manually or rekeying journals, there may be a significant opportunity to automate further.

The goal shouldn’t be to automate one task at a time.

It should be to create a connected financial close where automation operates across the process.

3. Visibility is still a challenge

Finance Leaders need to know what is happening across the close without relying on conversations, spreadsheets or status updates.

Which entities have completed their reconciliations?

Which journals are waiting for approval?

Where are the exceptions?

What is holding up the close?

And who needs to take action?

Modern Finance operations require a single, connected view of these activities, with the controls and audit trail to support them.

4. Your technology isn’t keeping pace with your ambitions

Finance transformation doesn’t end with implementing a close management platform.

The expectations placed on Finance continue to increase.

Organisations want faster close cycles, greater automation, stronger controls and increasingly intelligent ways of working.

That means your technology needs to provide a foundation for continuous improvement rather than simply solving the problem that existed when it was implemented.

5. You’re adding processes around the platform

Perhaps the clearest warning sign is when Finance teams start creating workarounds.

Additional spreadsheets.

Manual uploads.

Separate approval processes.

Email chains.

Disconnected tools.

If these have become part of your standard operating model, your platform may no longer be simplifying Finance. It may be contributing to the complexity.

Moving beyond task automation

The next generation of Finance technology is not simply about managing tasks more effectively.

It is about connecting processes, automating activity and giving Finance teams greater intelligence and control.

For Shared Services and Finance organisations operating at scale, this means thinking beyond individual activities such as reconciliation or close task management.

The opportunity is to connect the broader financial close — including journals, reconciliations, approvals, controls and reporting and automate more of the work that currently requires human intervention.

And increasingly, AI is becoming part of that evolution.

But AI should not come at the expense of control.

For Finance, intelligent automation needs to be trusted, governed and auditable.

The question Finance Leaders should be asking

The decision isn’t necessarily “Should we replace Adra?”

The more important question is:

“Is our current platform capable of supporting where our Finance function needs to go next?”

If the answer is no, then it may be time to explore what a modern financial close platform can offer.

At Pacera, we believe Finance technology should adapt as organisations evolve providing the automation, connectivity, control and intelligence needed to help Finance teams operate at their best.

Is your Finance function ready for what’s next?

We’ve created a practical report specifically for Finance Leaders currently running Adra.

Your Finance Function Has Outgrown Adra. Your Platform Should Too.

The report explores the key signs that an organisation may have outgrown its current platform, the challenges this can create for Finance teams and what to consider when evaluating the next generation of financial close technology.