Finance Doesn’t Create Clarity — It Reveals Whether It Already Exists

When leaders say,

“We need better data,”

what they often mean is,

“The numbers aren’t giving us the answers we want.”

So Finance gets asked to fix it:

• New reports
• New dashboards
• More reconciliations
• More explanations

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Finance doesn’t create clarity.
It exposes whether clarity already exists.

Let me give a very real example.

Do you know how many conversations I’ve had just trying to define a “shipment”?

When does a shipment actually become a shipment?

That is a real question — and the answer often depends on who you ask:

• Finance may define it based on revenue recognition
• Operations may define it based on physical movement
• Sales may define it based on customer commitment

All three perspectives are valid.
And all three answers are often different.

That difference does not invalidate how Operations or Sales need to see the data.

Operations needs shipment data to understand:

• Throughput
• Bottlenecks
• Operational efficiency

Sales needs shipment data to understand:

• Pipeline conversion
• Customer success
• Commercial performance

These views are valuable — and necessary.

But we need to name them for what they are.

They are operational reporting and sales reporting.
They are not financial reporting.

Financial reporting has to meet a different standard — one that holds up to:

• External auditors
• Regulatory and statutory filings
• Tax reporting
• Third-party scrutiny

That doesn’t make it “better.”
It makes it purpose-built.

The real problem arises when these differences go unnamed.

Because when definitions are unclear:

• Processes fracture
• Data drifts
• Reports contradict each other

And Finance — often the function that owns reporting due to proficiency — ends up being blamed for inconsistencies it didn’t create.

To be clear, I am not arguing for separate, siloed reporting produced independently by Finance, Operations, and Sales.

I argue the opposite.

Reporting must be centralized.

We must:

• Agree on core definitions
• Acknowledge that nuance exists
• Look at the same data in different ways to answer different questions

One dataset.
Clear definitions.
Multiple lenses.

Once those foundational decisions are made, leadership has to:

• Accept the conclusions
• Support them consistently
• And back them all the way down to the desk

Because definitions shape processes.
Processes shape data.
And Finance is often the one asked to report the result.

So before asking for another dashboard or reconciliation, it’s worth asking:

👉 Which definition are we still debating — and what is that indecision costing us in trust and efficiency?

Because until definitions are aligned, clarity will always feel just out of reach.