The $500K Risk of Excluding Finance from Tech Projects

A Fleetwood Mac–inspired reality check on why finance must be at the table in every tech project.

Do I have a song stuck in my head? Yes, yes I do. And it's making it hard to write this post. But it’s also annoying my kids to hear me sing, “you can call it another lonely day,” which means I must persist. It’s school holidays, and I intend to win the title of ‘Most Annoying’ member of the Green household. Losing to an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old is not on my bingo card, baby!

That lyric ‘you can go your own way; you can call it another lonely day’ is tickling a memory and wiggling a metaphor.

Elsewhere on the site, I talk about one of my great learnings: the importance of unique identifiers. This story is where I learned that lesson. And I swear Lindsay Buckingham must’ve been thinking about relational databases and the fractured relationship between tech consultants and finance business partners when he wrote that chorus.

Don’t Stop… Thinking About the Budget

When I first moved to Australia, I worked as a business analyst, which is where my love of big data, relational databases, and data warehouses was born. I loved how our systems were so intelligently designed that I could query both our CRM and ERP to create genuine, actionable insights. Our data integrity was beautiful. Honestly? I haven’t seen quality like it since.

So when the business announced we were moving to a fancier ERP, I was ready. I was thrilled to be selected as the finance representative on the project.

I was moonwalking my way to the IT team, thrilled to represent finance. They responded with the Robot — and a hard “talk to the hand.” 
“We know what we’re doing. We don’t need you here.”

☹ SAD FACE

And then I saw the field map on the PM’s desk. One of the fields being cut? Our hexadecimal unique identifier.

Trust me, once you understand what that field did, you’ll say Oh no they did not.

TL;DR: Cutting it broke historical data integrity and future reporting requirements in one clean stroke.

I flagged the risks. I explained it to everyone who would listen (and a few who wouldn’t). I was told I needed to trust the process. I was told I needed to be ‘a better team player.’

I’d never been accused of failing to be a team player before. 
’You can call it another lonely day.’ Sing it, Lindsay, sing it.

Two months post-launch? I was proven right. Finance went back 5 years* to Excel spreadsheets and manual workarounds. My 15-minute morning workflow ballooned to an hour. We were in a worse position than when this project started! Ad hoc reporting requests piled up. The business was not impressed.

The technical fix required major custom development, data migration, and a year of inefficient workarounds.

Cost of excluding finance: nearly $500k in development, a year of reporting failures, and an exhausted, demotivated team.

The Pattern Repeats Everywhere

Over 24 years across pharma, financial services, and SaaS, I’ve seen the same mistakes again and again.

Why Finance Needs a Seat at the Data Table:
Business Context – We understand how decisions ripple across functions.
Risk Assessment – We’ve seen the chaos when systems break under pressure.
Sustainability Perspective – We think past launch to cost, support, and scale.
Integration Reality – We know what connects and what does not.

The Cost of Exclusion

When finance is sidelined:
Requirements are missed
Integrations break down
Reporting becomes impossible
Compliance gaps surface
Adoption fails

Making Finance a Strategic Technology Partner

The best tech projects I’ve seen had finance involved from day one.

Include us in vendor selection – we understand operational implications.
Involve us in system design – we see structural and data needs.
Invite us to user acceptance testing – we test for real-world conditions.
Keep us present during deployment – we know what business continuity really takes.

Your Next Tech Project

Before your next tech initiative begins, ask: Who’s representing finance at the decision-making table?

If the answer is ‘go your own way,’ you’re setting the team up for ‘another lonely day’ — one that’ll keep you trapped in Chains and prevent you from achieving your Dreams.

The finance voice isn’t just about budget. It’s about ensuring your tech actually works and is fit for purpose. When the landslide hits your go-live, don’t say finance didn’t warn you.

Because the most expensive systems aren’t the ones that fail immediately.** The reality is even worse; they’re the ones that almost work, just well enough to become a nightmare for years.

*I mistyped tears instead of years but if you’ve had the same experience, well IYKYK.
**ooh this reminds me of a story of $20m flushed on a failed project with nothing left to show for it but that is for another day.

Ready to ensure your next technology project includes the strategic finance perspective from day one?