Marc Blythe, president of Blythe Global Advisors. Expert resources to help businesses meet accounting & financial reporting requirements.
Most conversations about the modern audit committee focus on the committee itself: how it should be composed, what skill sets its members should bring, the growing demands of technology and which risks belong on its agenda. These are fair conversations to have, but they leave out the group actually answering to that committee every quarter: the finance team. As the audit committee’s job has expanded, the finance team’s job is expanding right along with it, but often with far less attention paid to how they’re supposed to keep up.
I work with finance leaders across a range of industries, and have watched the pressure on them build from a handful of specific directions.
What’s Changing
The ground keeps shifting under reporting rules.
There is active debate about whether public companies should move from quarterly to semiannual reporting. Some argue that less frequent formal reporting would ease pressure on finance teams; others point out that companies would likely keep issuing interim earnings updates anyway, so the burden would not disappear so much as change shape. I do not think that question is close to being settled.
AI arrived faster than the governance around it.
Every audit committee I talk with wants to know what the company is doing with AI, and most finance teams are still working out the answer themselves. That is not a criticism. The technology has moved faster than the rules, and a lot of companies are figuring out the ground rules as they go.
The bench is thinner than it used to be.
The pipeline of new CPAs entering the profession has been shrinking for years, and years of remote work have changed how early-career accountants build the judgment that used to come from sitting next to someone more experienced. That is a structural problem, not a talent problem, but it means there is less room to absorb a bad quarter, a departure or a surprise finding, and audit committees are starting to ask about succession and single points of failure because of it.
Committees are asking for more than a numbers recitation.
More audit committees now flag a specific topic ahead of time, such as cybersecurity, a control gap or talent risk, and expect a real conversation about it at the next meeting rather than a passing mention.
Together, these shifts point to the same conclusion: The finance team can no longer treat the audit committee relationship as a quarterly reporting exercise. It must be a standing part of how the team operates.
What Finance Teams Should Do Now
Know the agenda before you walk into the room.
If the committee chair has flagged a topic ahead of time, treat it as a real deep dive, not a slide to skim past. Come with the context, the numbers and a point of view, not just an update. Show how the company is addressing the issue, or use the moment to make the case for resources it still needs.
Stay ready for the reporting calendar to shift.
The quarterly-versus-semiannual debate could go either way, and it may not resolve the way anyone expects. Build a reporting rhythm disciplined enough to hold up under either outcome, rather than betting on one.
State your AI position before anyone asks for it.
Do not wait for the committee to raise the topic. Be ready to say plainly what the company is using, why and what controls are in place. A finance team that can answer this clearly builds more trust than one with the most advanced tools and no clear explanation of them.
Plan for a thinner bench before it becomes a gap.
If the execution of a key control or process sits with one person, that is a problem worth solving now, not when that person leaves. Audit committees are already asking questions. Have an answer ready before they do.
Automate the close to make the audit easier, not just faster.
With the CPA shortage showing no signs of easing, automation is not a luxury; it is leverage. Teams that automate journal entries and reconciliations are not just saving time internally. They are handing auditors a cleaner, more traceable file, which shortens review time and cuts down on back-and-forth during the audit itself.
Get ahead of control gaps before they become material weaknesses.
A thinner team has less capacity to catch a problem before someone outside the company does. I am seeing material weaknesses surfacing more often. When one surfaces, the real test is not necessarily how serious it looks; it is how fast you can produce and execute on a credible remediation plan. That speed comes from work done long before the weakness is ever identified. Build in a genuine controls assessment on a regular cycle, and keep frequent, informal touchpoints with your external auditor rather than saving every question for the end of the year.
None of this requires a finance team to have every answer internally. I have seen management treat outside help as a mark against them, as though asking for it is an admission that the committee will hold against them. In my experience it is the opposite: Committees respond well to management that identifies its own gaps and closes them deliberately.
The finance teams built for what is coming are not the ones that never need support. They are the ones that know exactly where they need it and go get it first.
Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify?