Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with the accounts team of a company in Shah Alam. We spent more than two hours trying to understand one important thing - what does a founder actually want to see beyond the existing accounting reports?
Most founders do not need more financial reports. What we really need is to understand what is happening now, why it is happening, what may happen next, and what action should be taken. This is where an AI-powered financial system can give real value to management.
Instead of waiting until month-end, a founder should be able to continuously monitor cash position, money coming in and out, receivables, payables, cost versus revenue, profitability trend and cash flow movement. The system should also highlight unusual transactions, sudden increases in expenses, unreconciled items and areas that may require attention.
Financial ratios also become more useful when AI explains the meaning behind the numbers. A Current Ratio of 1.45 should not just appear as a KPI. The system should explain whether short-term liquidity is healthy, whether the ratio is improving or declining, what caused the movement and what management should monitor next. The same applies to Gearing Ratio - not just showing the percentage, but explaining how dependent the company is on debt, whether the level is still manageable and what impact additional financing may have.
For me, the real value of AI in finance is not about replacing the accountant or finance team. It is about translating financial data into something founders can actually use for decision-making. A good financial system should not only tell us what happened. It should help us understand why it happened, what is likely to happen next, and what management should do about it.
