Finance has always been built around accuracy. We design processes to reduce errors, review numbers before they're published, and build checks into systems and approvals into workflows. It feels obvious that the strongest finance teams are the ones that make the fewest mistakes.
But one conversation at the UK FLAC workshop we held earlier this month challenged that assumption.
Not because mistakes don’t matter. Because trying to eliminate them completely might be the wrong goal.
When complexity is part of the job
Aaron Markowitz-Shulman, CFO of PawaPay, leads finance teams across 20 African countries. On any given day his team might be dealing with tax authorities interpreting legislation differently, banking systems that work differently from country to country, or thousands of transactions needing reconciliation after a payment provider experiences disruption.
In that environment, unexpected problems aren’t unusual. They’re inevitable.
Rather than pretending otherwise, Aaron described building a culture that accepts that things will occasionally go wrong. The important question isn’t who made the mistake. It’s what happens next.
Make the problem visible
One comment stood out. “Mistakes do happen,” Aaron said. “They’re not swept under the carpet.”
He described how that works in practice. Every week, the team reviews its service level agreements (SLAs). If one is missed, they talk about it openly. Not to blame anyone, but to understand the impact on the customer, why it happened and what needs to improve. The aim is to make sure everyone learns from what happened.
It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.
In some organisations, problems disappear into inboxes, spreadsheets and private conversations until they’re too expensive to ignore. In others, they surface early, while they’re still small enough to solve.
A leadership choice
Every finance team makes mistakes. The difference is whether people feel able to raise them quickly. That’s what makes this a leadership issue rather than a process issue.
Creating an environment where bad news travels fast doesn’t mean lowering standards. If anything, it raises them. Small problems get fixed before they become expensive ones. Teams spend less energy protecting themselves and more energy improving how they work.
Finance has always invested heavily in preventing mistakes. Perhaps the bigger advantage comes from making sure they never stay hidden for long. That’s not a process. It’s a leadership choice.
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