Interview with Darren Cran of AccountsIQ
Finance leadership is entering its most consequential shift in decades. In this interview, Darren Cran shares how AI and automation are redefining the role of the modern finance director. You will discover why technology alone is not enough, how to avoid transformation fatigue, and where automation delivers measurable strategic advantage.
You’ve had a long career scaling teams and leading finance functions. What personal lessons from that journey most influence how you approach leadership today?
One of the biggest lessons is that investment in technology always requires an investment in people. You can pick the ‘best’ system on paper, but it will still fail if teams aren’t properly supported through training, clear ownership, and ongoing enablement. I’ve seen firsthand how poor adoption leads to manual workarounds, workload inflation, and burnout, which is the exact opposite of what transformation is meant to achieve.
The second lesson is to balance ambition with practicality. It’s easy to overreach – especially when you’re scaling fast and under pressure – so I try to keep anchored on outcomes: does this improve decision-making, or does it add complexity? For me, the finance function of the future isn’t about more tech for tech’s sake; it’s about giving teams time back and making data easily accessible and accurate to significantly improve outcomes.
Looking back at your early roles in professional practice and senior finance positions, what habits or skills proved most valuable for navigating complex systems and transformation projects?
Two habits stand out. The first is getting forensic early – mapping processes, integrations, and data realities before you commit to a plan. Hidden complexity tends to show up late (and painfully) if you don’t surface it upfront, especially where multiple systems and stakeholders are involved. That’s why I’m a big believer in de-risking early with practical testing and clear scope boundaries.
If people don’t understand the purpose, they’ll default to old ways of working, even with a new system.
The second is communication discipline: translating the ‘why’ into language that makes sense for each group – finance, IT, operations, and leadership. In transformation, you’re constantly aligning expectations, making trade-offs, and keeping confidence high. If people don’t understand the purpose, they’ll default to old ways of working, even with a new system.
Many finance directors are under pressure to deliver deeper business insight alongside operational control. Where should teams focus first when introducing AI and automation to create a tangible impact?
Start where friction is most visible: data collection, reconciliation, and manual reporting – the work that consumes time without improving decision quality. If you remove those bottlenecks, you quickly create capacity for higher-value analysis and partnering.
I’d also encourage leaders to separate hype from utility. A lot of what finance teams need is already available in proven automation (e.g., rules-based approaches, OCR, smarter reconciliations). That can deliver immediate gains with lower risk, then you can layer more advanced AI use cases once your data foundations and controls are strong.
As transactional and reporting work becomes increasingly automated, how can finance leaders reposition their teams to contribute more strategically to the business?
Automation should give finance bandwidth back – and the best use of that bandwidth is helping the organisation understand the story behind the numbers: what’s driving performance, where risks are emerging, and what choices will shape the next quarter. Finance can move from producing reports to producing insight by building a stronger narrative around data and asking ‘’what story are we trying to tell?”.
That shift also relies on having a single source of truth and connected systems, so people trust the numbers and can move faster. When finance can close quicker and explain variances with confidence, they are a core element to a business that makes better decisions.
Change management is often the biggest challenge in finance transformation. What practical steps can directors take to guide their teams and maintain confidence during system and process upgrades?
First: right-size the change. One common pitfall is assuming that bigger automatically equals better and consequently selecting an overly complex system or approach that the organisation isn’t ready to adapt to. That’s where confidence erodes, timelines slip, and people disengage.
Teams need structured learning, accessible help that they can refer back to at any time in the process, and a clear “this is how we do it now” process definition so they don’t retreat to old spreadsheets and shadow workflows.
Second: invest early in training, support, and clear ownership. The system doesn’t create value – adoption does. Teams need structured learning, accessible help that they can refer back to at any time in the process, and a clear “this is how we do it now” process definition so they don’t retreat to old spreadsheets and shadow workflows.
Third: reduce risk by being pragmatic about data migration and integrations – bring what you need to operate and report well, and avoid importing poor-quality historical data that creates downstream confusion. Confidence grows when go-live is clean, and people can see quick wins.
Over the next few years, which areas of finance – such as forecasting, reporting, or controls – do you expect to be most transformed by AI and automation, and how should leaders prepare?
We’ll see major change in continuous close and reporting (less manual consolidation and more real-time visibility), plus forecasting and planning (faster scenario modelling, better variance explanations, and more dynamic rolling forecasts). But the real leap is when these capabilities sit on clean, connected data – then the organisation gets faster at decision-making, not just faster at producing outputs.
To prepare, leaders should focus on: (1) data foundations and a single source of truth, (2) automation of repeatable processes first, and (3) clear governance – so controls strengthen as speed increases, rather than weakening.
For finance directors looking ahead, what capabilities, skills, or mindsets should they prioritise today to ensure their teams remain resilient, effective, and ready for the future?
The first shift is redefining performance. It’s no longer about how hard the team works to produce accurate numbers – it’s about how quickly and clearly finance can translate data into decisions. That means investing in strong data foundations, consistent processes, and a genuine single source of truth, while building commercial storytelling skills so teams can explain not just what happened, but what it means and what should happen next.
Just as importantly, leaders need to create space for honest conversations – about skills gaps, system limitations, and readiness for change. Automation should increase people’s capacity, but that capacity must be deliberately redirected into forecasting, scenario planning, and proactive business partnering. The finance function of the future will be defined by clarity, adaptability, and the confidence to challenge existing ways of working before circumstances force change.
Executive Profile
Darren Cran has been with AccountsIQ since 2012, joining when the company had just 14 employees and has played a key role in scaling the business to over 150 employees supporting more than 35,000 users worldwide. A Chartered Accountant who trained with KPMG, Darren’s career in finance and industry prior to joining AccountsIQ involved senior finance positions at Kefron, Crowe, and IRBC. As COO and now as CEO at AccountsIQ Group, he has overseen major milestones for the business, including major investments from Fitch and Axiom Group and the acquisition of leading Expense Management software, ExpenseIn, in 2025.
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