How overcomplicating your finances is killing your decision-making

Published - Apr 30, 2025

How overcomplicating your finances is killing your decision-making

Many growing SMEs face a common challenge: overcomplicated finances.

They have a tendency to make the numbers a scary, sacred thing – rarely sharing them outside of boardroom contexts. And whilst, yes, it does require nuance and knowledge to understand why debt might not be bad, or why soaring profits might cause problems – a wider understanding of the basics of finances is vital to getting all of your people to pull in the same direction.

The case for simplification

For us – ‘dumbing down’ the numbers is good for growth, because it means that everybody in your business understands the financial implications of big decisions. And those big decisions can also be improved, via the input of multiple perspectives from people who understand how all the component parts fit together. You might not naturally include a marketing manager in a bottom line discussion about profits, but by keeping them out of the conversation – you’re missing out on a lot of expertise that the financiers in your business simply won’t have.

[This is why we, when we’re providing an outsourced finance function for one of our clients, the reports we generate are designed to be read and understood by people at all levels of financial literacy. At the end of this post, we’ll show you what one of those reports looks like.]

Financial transparency is the antidote to financial obscurity. Instead of decision paralysis, limited collaboration, and reduced accountability – you get:

More trust, because open financial communication builds a culture of integrity where everyone in the business feels like they’re involved in the core reason the business exists – to make money.

Better decisions, because when employees understand the financial implications of their actions, they can make more informed and effective decisions in their day-to-day jobs and are more confident to offer their take on the big decisions being taken at board level.

[Many companies are now taking financial transparency one step further, and sharing the numbers on social media too. It’s a trend called building in public, or BIP, and is growing in popularity – especially in tech and SaaS. Founders share the realities of what scaling actually looks like, and it helps keep the conversation open and transparent.]

How to simplify your finances Demystifying the numbers takes a little more work, but comes with a lot more benefits.

Educate your team, by providing basic financial training to all employees which enables them to grasp key concepts and understand the financial status of the business.

Encourage open dialogue, where financial discussions are part of regular team communications rather than confined to the boardroom.

Streamline financial reporting, by developing clear and concise top level reports that highlight the essential metrics which actually move the needle.

To paint a picture, here’s the kind of report that we provide to our clients that aim to simplify and democratise finances for everybody in the business:

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We’re GMT Finances. We provide flexible, simple, outsourced financial functions for growing businesses. From fractional CFO advisory to full off-site financial departments, we provide tailored packages that can scale up and down depending on what you need.

For more information, visit www.gmtfinances.com

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Posted in Finance on Apr 30, 2025