It seems too many times we end up asking our finance teams to total up the score for our businesses, after the fact. We make all our plans, execute them and modify them when they come in contact with reality. We move. We react. At the end of the month, the quarter or the year, finance tells us how we did.

This management structure breeds an adversarial relationship with finance, and casts them in the role of being the “money police”. The oversight check-and-balance needs to be there, but it needs to be there at the front end of the process. Finance needs to be an integral part of the planning process, the sales process and execution team from the beginning.

Understanding the financial ramifications of each move before you make it is critical. It will help avoid mistakes and missteps. It also builds finance into the team, instead of casting them in an external watch-dog role.

And the truth be known, finance would like to be involved earlier in the running of the business as well. Invariably finance is also compensated on the performance of the business as well, and they would like to have input into the process. Aligning your resources, either direct report or corporate finance, is key to creating a sound business team, and good business performance.