Beyond the Close: How Financial Consolidation Creates Strategic Advantage

Financial consolidation has long been treated as a “back-office necessity,” but in today’s complex, data-dense businesses, it’s becoming a strategic engine. Craig Schiff, Founder and CEO of BPM Partners joins Melissa to unpack the evolution of consolidation, why it’s resurging in importance, and how AI is reshaping both FP&A and controllership. Craig shares what companies are getting wrong, why consolidation and planning belong together and the trends he’s seeing as organizations move from legacy systems, Excel-heavy processes and fragmented tools toward unified performance management. He also explains the critical connection between actuals, planning accuracy and strategic speed, and why more CFOs now lead with consolidation at the center of their data strategy.  Discussed in This Episode:  Critical features of modern financial close and consolidation software Building a unified finance tech stack AI in performance management: What CFOs need to know The future of close and consolidationFor CFO insights, episode show notes and exclusive blog content, visit thecfoshowpodcast.com.