How consolidation can keep up with complexity and challenges

Modern tools, scarce expertise and complex transactions are putting consolidation under pressure, making managed services key to delivery.

In brief

• Aging consolidation tools and system upgrades create disruption and risk for finance teams.
• Talent scarcity makes it difficult to secure and retain specialized consolidation expertise.
• Managed Services provide scalable expertise, modern technology and continuous innovation to handle complex transactions with confidence.

For many finance teams, consolidation sits at the core of the reporting cycle. It brings together financial data across entities, geographies and accounting standards to produce a single, reliable view of performance. Yet as organizations grow and expectations increase, consolidation is becoming harder to sustain within traditional operating models.

Three recurring challenges are driving this shift. Aging technology, limited access to expertise and increasingly complex transactions are putting pressure on finance teams and exposing structural weaknesses in how consolidation is organized today.

Aging consolidation tools are reaching their limits

Many organizations still rely on legacy consolidation systems that are approaching end-of-life or no longer meet evolving business needs. These tools often require significant manual effort and lack the flexibility and automation expected in modern finance environments. As a result, they are increasingly difficult to maintain and adapt to growing data volumes, integration needs and reporting requirements.

At the same time, replacing a consolidation tool is complex and resource-intensive. It typically involves redesigning processes, migrating historical data and running parallel systems while ensuring continuity of reporting. During this transition, internal teams must balance transformation efforts with day-to-day delivery, which significantly increases operational pressure. This dual burden raises the risk of delays, inconsistencies and loss of control, turning what should be a step forward into a potential source of disruption.

Securing consolidation expertise is increasingly difficult

Consolidation depends on specialized expertise across accounting standards, systems and processes, yet in today’s talent-scarce market, securing and retaining this expertise has become increasingly challenging. Organizations often struggle to attract profiles with the right combination of technical accounting knowledge and system experience, while existing teams face growing workloads and expectations.

As a result, many finance teams operate at or near full capacity, with a limited number of individuals holding critical knowledge. This creates dependency risks and reduces flexibility during peak reporting periods such as monthly or year-end close. Highly skilled professionals are therefore required to focus on execution and issue resolution rather than insight generation or process improvement, limiting the ability to scale operations or absorb additional complexity as the organization evolves.

Complex factors are increasing the pressure on consolidation

Consolidation has become significantly more demanding as organizations face more frequent and complex changes in group structure – such as acquisitions, disposals and mergers – alongside evolving reporting requirements. These developments introduce additional layers of complexity that go beyond standard activities and require careful coordination across data, systems and accounting treatments. In practice, implementing new reporting requirements often lacks clear, scalable approaches, further increasing the burden on finance teams.

Managing such situations often requires a combination of deep technical expertise and strong process coordination within tight timelines. Without the right support model in place, internal teams can quickly become overstretched, which increases the risk of errors and reduces confidence in reported figures. As demands continue to evolve, many organizations find that their current setup is no longer sufficient to handle this level of complexity in a consistent and controlled way.