As CFO at Help Scout, Shawna Fisher has approached budgeting differently. Like many finance and accounting leaders, she inherited a budget, tech stack, and plan for her org. But when the "status quo" didn't meet her expectations for improving her team and supporting the business, she trusted her experience and instincts to make important changes.
We sat down with Shawna and Leapfin CEO Ray Lau to talk about the challenges today’s Accounting and Finance teams are facing, and how smarter budget choices can improve accounting efficiency and business outcomes.
Setting the stage: new survey data reveals accountants' top challenges in 2024
In Q4 of 2024, we surveyed 288 accounting and finance professionals. The State of Automation for Revenue Accounting survey revealed top accounting and finance challenges as well as opportunities heading into 2025.
Top takeaways included:
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- Over half (58%) of companies doing $50 million or more in annual revenue say business demands are growing too fast to keep up with. In particular, these professionals say they don’t have enough time to complete their work.
- Finance and accounting operators (Controllers, systems pros, managers) are unhappy with the level of manual effort needed to perform revenue recognition. They’re also unhappy with the risk associated with those manual processes.
- Accountants feel their biggest overall challenge is technology and data.
- Accounting pros trust automation and see its value:
- 83% say they trust automation to perform accounting and finance tasks
- 92% say automation makes them more efficient; 53% say “a lot” more efficient.
- But 75% of finance teams have automated little to none of their major monthly processes
Why?
Your peers told us the biggest blocker to adopting more automation is cost.
Despite the clear advantages of accounting automation, teams are not allocating the budget to invest in solving these problems. Instead, they seem to be stuck in the “this is how we’ve always done it” status quo of adding headcount.
Shawna Fisher’s journey: from manual chaos to tech-driven efficiency
When Shawna joined Help Scout as the first finance hire, she faced a challenge familiar to many leaders. With limited resources, she needed to build a finance function that could support the company’s growth trajectory. Her solution? Start with automation.
"When I joined Help Scout as the first finance hire, I knew I couldn’t build the function with headcount alone. Instead, I focused on building a financial tech stack that allowed me to operate well above the size of my team."
-Shawna Fisher
Her decision to prioritize automation over hiring wasn’t just strategic – it was driven by necessity.
"I started with automation instead of adding bodies to the process because investing in tools gave me a much higher ROI."
-Shawna Fisher
The tipping point for Shawna came during the monthly close. With increasing transaction volumes, manual revenue recognition processes felt risky and unmanageable.
"The fear of getting my revenue wrong drove me to prioritize automating revenue recognition. It’s critical for building trust internally and with auditors. Getting it right is non-negotiable."
-Shawna Fisher
Framing automation as a strategic investment, not another cost
Ray Lau, CEO of Leapfin, highlighted the importance of changing how finance leaders think about automation. Instead of viewing it as a cost, teams must position it as an investment that drives efficiency and long-term value.
"The problem with traditional budgeting is it often treats automation as a cost, not an investment. But the reality is, automation drives high-leverage results, enabling your team to focus on strategic work instead of repetitive tasks."
-Ray Lau
Ray emphasized the importance of crafting a compelling business case for automation. It’s not just about asking for money – it’s about creating a story. What’s the problem, what’s the outcome, and how does the solution get you there?
A big part of this is highlighting the tangible benefits of automation, such as time savings, reduced errors, and enhanced team productivity.
Change management starts with storytelling
Both Shawna and Ray underscored the importance of storytelling in gaining buy-in for automation. For Shawna, creating a visual representation of the current state and the future potential was key to aligning stakeholders.
"I didn’t go to leadership with just an ask. I showed them the problem with a visual of our current state, and then I showed the future state – the efficiency and ROI we could achieve. That made the investment decision much easier for everyone."
-Shawna Fisher
Ray echoed this sentiment, highlighting how zero-based budgeting encourages innovation.
"Budget constraints actually drive creativity. By starting from zero, you ask what’s truly needed for the business rather than just accepting the status quo."
-Ray Lau
Automate your pain points first
For Shawna, automation began with the most pressing challenge: the high-risk, high-friction process of revenue recognition.
"I knew revenue recognition was our biggest pain point – and the riskiest to get wrong. Automating it not only gave me peace of mind, but it also allowed us to handle growing volumes without adding complexity.”
-Shawna Fisher
Ray added that many accounting challenges stem from data issues that automation can solve.
"Many complex accounting challenges are really data problems in disguise. Fix the data flow with automation, and you eliminate a significant amount of manual effort and error."
-Ray Lau
Consider a rolling forecast
Both speakers highlighted the benefits of rolling forecasts over traditional budgeting approaches. In Shawna's experience, this method provides greater flexibility to adapt to real-time business conditions.
"Moving to rolling forecasts allows us to adjust for real-time business conditions. We revisit assumptions every quarter, which makes the annual budget less of a rigid constraint and more of a flexible guide."
-Shawna Fisher
Ray agreed, emphasizing that even the most predictable businesses can benefit from this approach.
"The reality is no business can perfectly predict what’s going to happen 12 months out. A rolling forecast gives you the agility to adapt while keeping strategic goals in focus."
-Ray Lau
Push past the fear of change
While change can be daunting, Shawna stressed the importance of embracing it to unlock the full potential of finance teams.
"Change is hard. But the real value we bring as finance leaders isn’t in managing spreadsheets. It’s in the strategic impact we have on the business. Automation is the bridge that gets you there. You have to trust your instincts, trust yourself, know there's a better way, and take that ownership and make the change."
-Shawna Fisher
Hear more of Shawna and Rays' thoughts in the full recorded webinar here
See the full results of our State of Accounting Automation survey
See our top takeaways and analysis from the survey
About Shawna Fisher
- Shawna is the CFO at Help Scout, a leading customer support platform. She’s been with the company for 8 years, and in the CFO chair for the last 6 years.
- Prior to Help Scout, Shawna has held Controller and VP Finance roles across the technology and construction industries and been responsible for defining and executing financial strategy and vision.
- Shawna began her career as a Senior Accountant at KPMG.
About Ray Lau
- Ray is the co-founder and CEO of Leapfin. He’s seen firsthand the challenges companies like SeatGeek, Canva, and Reddit have had solving revenue accounting and data challenges and wants to help other companies modernize their tech stack and finance orgs.
- Prior to Leapfin, Ray led finance operations at the popular social gaming company Zynga, where he owned business operations, financial planning, and budgeting through Zynga's rapid growth and IPO.
