A decade ago, revolution was in the air. Report after report argued that the finance function, that hive of management accounting activity at the heart of every company, was going to change out of all recognition. In fact the prognosis was that it would disappear. The logic of the idea was clear: the basics of processing transactions would be outsourced while specialist teams would advise on disciplines such as tax and treasury.
Financial controls would move down the line into the different parts of the organisation. The accountants would no longer be part of a traditional finance function. They would be off creating value in disparate parts of the organisation. Any central finance function that still remained would be a husk of what had been there before.
