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#COP26 Ready, Steady Glasgow – 3 key actions for CFOs

26th Oct 2021
Brought to you by
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Award-winning cloud accounting software for multi-company businesses.

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When Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, declares that COP26 ‘has to succeed’, the environmental agenda has hit the business mainstream.  For finance leaders, looking at their organisational and investment plans, the pressure to focus on the drive to net zero doesn’t just come in the form of ESG reporting. It can also stem from environmentally conscious customers, employees, investors and the media.

The COP26 conference (in Glasgow 31 October – 12 November) has an ambitious agenda. World leaders will be debating everything from sustainable transport and renewable energy to biodiversity and re-wilding. We’ve sifted through some of the main talking points and summarised three key actions finance leaders can’t afford to ignore.

1. Go Paperless

We’ve been talking about the paperless office for years. A finance function dependent on paper piled on desks or stacked in cabinets, constitutes a serious, negative environmental impact. Going paperless also gives finance teams competitive advantages.

Automating accounts payable and month-end processes, drives efficiency and improves productivity. It also gives you greater control and security than imputing figures into spreadsheets and then manually filing paperwork. Modern, automated accounting software massively reduces the potential for keying-in errors.

According to MarketWatch, nearly 90% of spreadsheets contain errors. “In large spreadsheets with thousands of formulas, there will be dozens of undetected errors,” says Professor of IT management at the University of Hawaii, Ray Panko. In fact, bad spreadsheet practices are so rampant he declares: “errors in spreadsheets are pandemic.”

2. Up your scenario planning capabilities

For businesses looking to expand their green agenda, there are many crucial elements to consider.

For example, COP26 will spark new discussions around:

  • Sustainable transport. Should you be switching your delivery fleets and company cars to EVs? The UK Government has set a target date of 2030 for the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars. They’ve also announced capital allowances available to companies when buying new zero emission vehicles.
  • Clean energy. It’s likely that businesses will be at the heart of any clean energy transition strategy announced at COP26.
  • New business opportunities. Mark Carney has described the net-zero transition as ‘creating the greatest commercial opportunity of our age’ – businesses will need to consider how they align their strategy and investment decisions to this next normal.
  • Remote/Hybrid working. Could effective collaborative working tools help your team reduce their commutes?
  • Environmental impact reporting. Investment managers are pushing for an agreement on the global carbon price (a metric used to calculate the financial impact of carbon emissions).

Because so much is changing so quickly, finance teams will need to deliver extensive scenario planning reports modelling the cost, ROI and environmental impact of all these ‘what if’ situations.

Find out more about how AccountsIQ and our integration partner, ProForecast, can help with financial forecasting.

3. Green your corporate travel

According to Skyscanner’s research, over 10 million travellers are already selecting the lowest emissions flight for their route. We can expect to see a range of new tools designed to support finance teams when calculating the environmental impact of their corporate travel. For example:

  • Google has recently revealed a raft of new sustainability features aimed at helping consumers and businesses be more green. These include a ‘green badge’ for lower emissions choices on flights and information on hotels’ eco-friendly efforts, such as energy efficiency and water conservation. There will also be options on Google Maps for taking greener, fuel-efficient routes and data on where to find the nearest bike or e-scooter in over 300 cities worldwide.
  • Prince Harry’s Travalyst (a partnership that includes Google, Skyscanner and Visa) aims to create an open model for calculating the carbon impact of air travel and hotels.

As corporate travel recovers from pandemic-imposed restrictions, businesses will come under increasing pressure to justify and account for the cost (both financial and environmental) of their corporate travel. Do you really need to take that flight when you have Zoom? When you do have to travel, how do you assess the most sustainable options?

Take your next step to making better, greener finance decisions

As campaigner Dame Jane Goodall DBE said in a recent interview: “Companies will change, for two reasons. One, because this [more sustainable] ethic is creeping in and young people are growing up with a different understanding. The other reason is the writing is on the wall.” As a result, finance teams will increasingly find themselves fulfilling a new, and demanding, role – how to calculate, estimate and compare the financial and environmental impact of a vast range of business options.

Join our Webinar and learn how to automate your finance processes

Join our Online Demo Webinar at 11am, this Thursday 28th October to discover how you can:

  • automate your finance processes
  • collaborate across your business and
  • get detailed business insights to help you evaluate options and make better, greener, business decisions.

Reserve your place.