Five finance trends that increase cash flow | Business

Your company may have grown from a mom-and-pop shop into an enterprise. As you expanded, you hired, delegated, created systems, and built specialized departments.

Often, the last C-suite hire in a small business is the chief financial officer. Owners focus on client experience and growth, then often hope the profit will follow. You could do better by keeping pace with financial trends.

Deloitte surveyed 1,326 finance leaders for its Finance Trends 2026: Navigating the expanded scope of finance report and identified five trends shaping finance. While the study focused on big companies, these ideas apply to smaller businesses: speed, strategy, cost discipline, practical AI and more technical talent.

Trend 1: Scenario planning creates flexibility. The advantage isn’t predicting the future but being able to react faster when things change. Finance leaders use scenario planning to make faster decisions amid uncertainty.

Start by building three scenarios: Baseline, downside and upside. Keep them to one page each. Focus only on the four main drivers: revenue, gross margin, payroll and cash.

Set clear triggers for action. For example, if bookings drop below a defined threshold for two consecutive months, pause discretionary spending. If accounts receivable days exceed a set threshold, tighten payment terms and focus on collections.

Trend 2: Finance leaders steer strategy by letting you know what you can afford. Have you ever looked at your profit and loss statement, marveled at the bottom line, and wondered where all the cash went?

Request three monthly outputs each month: A rolling 12-month P&L forecast, a cash forecast tied to real collections and payments, and a growth model that shows what must happen with price, volume, and margin to reach your goals. These tools help you avoid being profitable on paper but short on cash.

Trend 3: Focused cost management drives value. Cost-cutting is easy; cost discipline requires effort. Deloitte highlights that when finance owns cost and expense management and is held accountable, organizations are more likely to achieve savings targets. If you aren’t ready to hire a full-time CFO, assign a leader to each major spending bucket: labor, outside services, technology, freight, marketing, etc. “Owner” means they can explain what drives the spend; they’re not there just to sign invoices.

Next, select one productivity metric that aligns with your model and discuss it regularly. The report suggests using revenue per employee. When the number changes, focus on understanding why, not on blaming anyone. Finally, audit recurring expenses closely. Set up a quarterly review to decide whether to renew, replace, or remove each auto-renewing contract.

Trends 4 and 5 go hand in hand. The fourth trend is the widespread use of Artificial Intelligence, although the results are still developing. The fifth trend is infusing tech talent in finance. For large companies, the result is a finance function that looks more like an analytics shop than a back-office ledger team, but there are easier solutions for small businesses.

Many teams have deployed AI, but far fewer can point to clear, measurable value, and fewer still have integrated AI “agents” that can take actions, not just make recommendations. By most measures, I use large language models (LLMs) more than those outside the technology industry do. Nonetheless, I can attest to falling into old, non-AI habits. It reminds me of 1996, when I was less efficient with phone calls than with email. A form of that still happens today, with meetings that could have been an email. It will take time for workers to fully adapt to these new tools.

The practical play is to build hybrids. You probably don’t need a full-time data scientist. Finance can hire companies that specialize in tracking automation (my company, Berkshire Money Management, uses Beemo Automation and has consulted with Microsoft’s former managing director of capital markets).

Select one AI use case that involves cash and measure it over 90 days. Accounts receivable is a good place to start: use AI to spot likely late payers, follow up quickly, and improve your collections process. You can also use AI for expense reviews and invoice processing to reduce manual effort and prevent duplicate payments. Define success in dollars (AR days down, write-offs down, hours saved that get redeployed to revenue-producing work).

The main message from all five trends is clear: finance can give your business an edge. Quick planning, better decisions, careful cost control, useful AI, and skilled tech staff help your business grow while managing expenses.