No More Guesswork: How Finance Leaders Mitigate Uncertainty’s Invisible Expenses

If cash is king, uncertainty is the usurper.

And from ongoing geopolitical struggles to a dynamic global macroeconomic environment, all the way to election year volatility in the U.S., uncertainty remains an invisible expense on nearly every company’s ledger.

Against this backdrop, finance teams are scrambling to maintain control while juggling cash flow concerns, cost volatility and a minefield of risk. After all, in a world that changes faster than a stock ticker, staying ahead of the curve isn’t just a challenge — it’s survival.

It’s no secret that companies thrive on predictability. When the economy is stable, and a company’s business partners are on their own reliable growth path, forecasting and planning are simple enough. But in today’s environment businesses are being forced to make critical decisions with limited visibility. The result? Chief financial officers (CFOs) and their teams are increasingly feeling the heat.

And that’s before factoring in the potential for political upheavals and regulatory changes that could throw another wrench in the works.

Read more: Customer Demand, Supply Chain Uncertainties Costs Firms on Average $21 Million Annually

What’s a CFO to Do? Strategy and Tech to the Rescue

The true cost of uncertainty isn’t just financial. It’s operational. Companies are finding that constant market changes are pushing them into reactive mode, forcing them to rethink supply chains, adjust pricing models and revisit staffing needs, often on short notice. With so many moving parts, finance teams are struggling to stay one step ahead, and it’s affecting overall business agility — particularly for firms still wedded to manual and paper-based processes.

While PYMNTS Intelligence finds that 2 in 3 middle market firms, those with revenues between $100 million and $1 billion, expect uncertainty to improve within a year; those businesses with automated payment processes and digital tooling supporting their accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) functions hold a much rosier outlook, with 80% reporting low uncertainty levels right now.

Just 11% of their counterparts with less than 25% of financial operations automated have the same sense of certainty. That’s because automation significantly boosts certainty for firms by giving transparency and control over money movement and ultimately their bottom line.

“As digital payments have advanced and the technology that surrounds the payment acceptance landscape has evolved, the ability to implement, adhere and administer a payment policy that is both tied and centered to a merchant’s corporate objectives has become increasingly more important,” Kunal Patel of Billtrust told PYMNTS, noting this is even more crucial for firms handling large volumes of transactions.

“You might walk into the CFO’s office and find they have well-defined objectives, but when you dig into their payment policies, you find they’re not aligned,” Patel said.

Ultimately, strategy alone isn’t enough. More and more CFOs are leaning on technology to make their lives easier. Beyond just automation, tools like artificial intelligence (AI)-driven forecasting and real-time analytics are becoming go-to resources for finance teams looking to gain a competitive edge.

“We do see a real evolution into more sophisticated tools and ways to manage your money,” Albert Acevedo, senior vice president of treasury services at Priority, told PYMNTS. “We’re seeing the merging of payment processes with source data to create efficiencies.”

At the start of October, PYMNTS’ Karen Webster called out uncertainty as a growing impact across the B2B space in particular, noting 40% of CFOs say uncertainty has diminished profits.

See also: CFOs’ Top 4 Concerns Reveal Importance of Controlling What’s Controllable

CFOs Remain Source of Truth Amid Financial Uncertainty

Middle-market CFOs focus on the big picture, and according to PYMNTS Intelligence, 27% have identifiedbusiness performance as their top source of uncertainty. Most of these executives cite cash forecasting and cost control as main drivers of business performance uncertainty. However, this also marks the third consecutive month in which competitive position has weighed heavily on CFOs’ sense of certainty.

“Small businesses, fundamentally, just want control of their business,” Eliot Buchanan, president of Priority Tech Ventures, told PYMNTS. “Having control over your business is key to survival, and that control is often undermined when you lack visibility into your cash flow.”

While it’s impossible to eliminate uncertainty, businesses that learn to adapt will be the ones that thrive. In a marketplace that feels more like a roller coaster ride than a smooth highway, finance teams need to embrace a new playbook — one that’s all about agility, tech and forward thinking. The firms that can make uncertainty a manageable expense, rather than a crippling one, will come out on top.