Part 1 - Why Your Financials Don’t Tell the Truth
Roger Knocker • September 8, 2025
Why Your Financials Don't Tell the Truth (Even When They’re Perfectly Clean)
I’ve built an activity-based costing system.
For my own group of companies.
It works.
The logic works.
The reports work.
The numbers run beautifully.
Except for one thing.
The data.
The master data isn’t quite right.
Not wrong.
Just... inconsistent.
So we start investigating.
We doubt the results.
We trace back through layers of transactions to find the flaw.
Hours go by.
Not because the tool is broken.
Because the foundations were never right in the first place.
And here’s the bigger problem.
The real problem.
Our trial balance and our financial statements?
They don’t reflect the real business.
At all.
Even though we’ve done everything right.
Dedicated finance team? Check.
Excellent outsourced accountants? Check.
Senior chartered accountants with carte blanche to "sort it all out"?
Check, check, and check.
We have clean audits.
We're compliant.
We tick every box.
And yet...
The insights we get?
High-level.
Irrelevant.
They don’t help our managers.
They don’t help our pricing.
They don’t help us decide what to stop doing.
Meanwhile, finance is pushing debits and credits into the general ledger at a furious pace.
If they were paid per journal, they’d all be millionaires by now.
And when those journals land?
We look at the information.
And it helps us squat.
Nothing.
No insights.
Just questions.
No answers.
No decisions.
Just a few more tasks to investigate what’s going on.
Are the entries complete?
Are they valid?
Are they even useful to anyone outside of finance?
Because here’s the truth most people won’t say out loud:
Finance doesn’t understand the business.
They process hundreds of journals efficiently.
Fast. Neat. Organised.
But the entries are wrong.
Allocated to the wrong products.
The wrong services.
The wrong lines of business.
Calculated on the wrong ratios.
Based on assumptions that no one in operations would agree with.
So when decisions are made?
They’re based on fiction.
Or worse - on “efficiently processed” fiction.
And nobody sees it.
Except business.
They feel it.
They just don’t have the time to audit finance’s work.
Why should they?
Isn’t that what we pay Finance to do?
Because financial systems are built for someone else.
For SARS.
For the taxman.
For the auditor.
Not for the operator.
Not for the person running the business.
Not for the one asking, "Where are we actually making money?"
And here’s the part that really gets me.
We are master data junkies.
We pride ourselves in clean, structured, standardised data.
We obsess over naming conventions, hierarchies, mappings.
So if we're struggling?
What about the companies who don’t care?
Who hire people who don’t care?
Who don’t even know what master data means?
What chance do they have?
As a qualified accountant, I deeply want the financials to be right and adding value - all at the same time.
I tell everyone I’m an accountant.
I love playing for the winning team.
Who doesn’t?
I want our sweat to generate the numbers and tick all the boxes (I’m all for that).
But at exactly the same time, I want them to add business value.
Win/win.
Finance and Business, joined at the hip.
Partners.
Winning together.
Who wouldn’t want that?
So we end up with financials that are easy to print.
Easy to submit.
Easy to tick off.
But useless to run a business.
What would it look like...
...if we rebuilt financial systems from scratch?
Not for compliance.
But for clarity?
That’s what I’m working on.
And it’s harder than it sounds.
But it’s possible.
And it’s necessary.
Discover how finance teams can move beyond reporting to lead strategy—turning data into direction and driving better, faster business decisions.
When did finance become the department of “no”? “No, we can’t spend that.” “No, that’s not in the budget.” “No, that’s not how we do it.” Here’s the truth: If finance is just a gatekeeper, it’s failing the business. Finance Isn’t Just About Numbers Andrew Brown put it bluntly on the FP&AI Podcast: “Finance should be leading conversations about the future, not just reporting the past.” Think about it— What’s the point of a month-end pack that no one reads? What’s the point of perfectly reconciled accounts if they don’t change the way decisions are made? Finance isn’t just about accuracy. It’s about impact . The Business Partner Mindset T he best finance professionals think like entrepreneurs. They ask: Where are we really making money? What assumptions are broken? How do we change the levers to hit our goals? They don’t just report results. They interpret them. They walk into the room with a story, a strategy, and a plan. What Johan Taught Us Remember Johan, the volunteer deacon who turned financial updates into action? He wasn’t trying to impress anyone with accounting jargon. He used a worm chart and a waterfall chart to tell a simple story: Are we on track with donations? If not, where are we falling behind—and why? It worked because it made the future clear. That’s what business partnering looks like. The Shift Every Finance Team Must Make B ookkeepers report. Business partners lead. The shift is subtle but powerful: From data-dumping to decision-driving. From hiding behind compliance to leading with insight. From “here are the numbers” to “here’s what they mean—and what to do next.” Your Move So, is your finance team stuck in bookkeeping mode? Or are you stepping up as a commercial conscience— the team that sees ahead and helps the business win? The mindset shift starts here: Stop asking “What happened?” Start asking “What’s next?” ________________________________________ This article is inspired by my conversation with Andrew Brown on the FP&AI Podcast – Episode 1: Finance as a True Business Partner – Beyond the Numbers.
