2026 Resolutions To Improve Financial Reporting

For many finance leaders, 2025 was a year of upheaval, chaos, and uncertainty. Between supply chain disruptions, tariffs, interest rates, and other challenges, plenty of leaders spent their time just keeping the team afloat.

As 2026 begins, it’s time to shift to a better perspective. With the right tools and attitude, finance professionals can set and meet goals that are more than just keeping your head above water. You can learn to use AI well, invest in upskilling, keep your awesome team, and truly become a strategic business partner.

Below are a few 2026 resolutions you can make in your organization.

Use AI in Practical, Helpful Ways

There’s no doubt about it: AI has permeated business operations. In our recent Finance Teams Trends Report, we found that 68% of finance teams use AI to a moderate or high level. However, there are helpful and less-than-great ways to use this emerging technology.

Of course, you don’t want your team to use AI to create videos of cats surfing. And you certainly don’t want to use it in a way that you can’t trust to be accurate. So, how should you use AI in 2026?

“I think that the next level of practical AI usage is the ability to surface insights from data that’s going to help streamline decision-making,” Richard Leigh Stout, Director of Infor Service Delivery at RPI Consultants commented in a recent podcast. “So rather than having to write all these reports and draw our conclusions, let’s let the AI summarize all the data that’s in the system and point us to trends or what we should focus on.”

The right AI tools can surface the data you need, automate repetitive processes, and save time. For example, Spreadsheet Server reduces time spent on reporting by up to 90% thanks to automation. However, the key to this resolution is finding the AI and automation tools that are useful and trustworthy.

Read our research report to learn more about how you can use AI for your reporting needs and make progress on your 2026 goals.

Invest in the Right Skills Development

You don’t get into this field without some passion for growth and curiosity to learn, or you won’t get far. However, learning for the sake of it doesn’t always spell success for the team. In 2026, it’s important for finance leaders to invest in strategic upskilling for their teams.

“There is a huge opportunity cost in the time spent manually building and delivering reporting pages that could be allocated to sharpening Excel skills,” Maeghan Carriere, a VP of software sales at insightsoftware, said in a recent podcast. “Companies are going to have to upscale their teams in AI to remain competitive.”

Instead of spending all this time on manual reporting every month, teams can spend time on personal career development. This investment in upskilling can save time and money all year. It’s even better if teams can learn to hone their skills inside of the tools they already know, like utilizing AI in Excel.

Keep and Delight Your Awesome Employees

A great finance team isn’t easy to build. When you have a team full of excellent employees, it’s important to keep them happy. But one thing that’s likely to make them unhappy is filling their days with boring tasks.

In a LinkedIn Live with insightsoftware, Paul Barnhurst (AKA The FP&A Guy) emphasized the importance of keeping finance teams engaged. He noted that when you give your good FP&A employees more engaging tasks, they are more likely to stay.

“Most of them do not want to spend their days cleaning data,” Barnhurst said. “You’re not able to influence the business in the way you’d like to because you’re busy cleaning up crap.”

When tools like Spreadsheet Server can automate routine processes for your team, they don’t have to spend their time “cleaning up the crap.” Instead, they can pull insightful reports, dive into strategic priorities, and truly make a difference in the organization. That can help keep your talented team members motivated at work.

Be Seen as a Strategic Business Partner

Do you ever feel like your team only has time to put out fires and do the bare minimum reporting? You’re not alone. Many finance leaders and their teams feel this way. Wassia Kamon, MBA, CPA, CMA, and Finance Executive Keynote Speaker, talked about this phenomenon in a webinar with insightsoftware.

“It’s like living from month-end to month-end, almost paycheck to paycheck, but in that world,” Kamon explained. “It’s essential, but it doesn’t allow us to be seen as strategic because the cycle itself by default will not make you see things beyond whatever silo you are in.”

This old-school way of reporting keeps finance teams from being able to be strategic partners. Josh Schauer, CFO at insightsoftware, explained this problem in an interview with Forbes.

“If you’re still manually pulling reports or reconciling data every month, you can’t be nimble enough to guide strategy,” Schauer said. “You’ll always be playing catch-up.”

If you want to be a strategic partner in your business, start with better reporting processes. Using automation tools like those in Spreadsheet Server can free up your team’s time and attention. Then you can spend your time strategizing for the future, not just reporting on the past.

What are your 2026 resolutions? Spreadsheet Server may be able to help.

Learn more about how you can become a strategic partner in this whitepaper. From Spreadsheets to Strategy: Leveraging ERP and Real-Time Insights for Modern Accounting Practices | insightsoftware

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