Process governance and controls for growing finance teams
Right first time, so your team has time for what matters.
When processes depend on checking, re-checking and correcting, your team's time is lost to rework. We help your finance team build accuracy, completeness and quality into everyday work, freeing time for analysis and business partnering, and giving the business reliable information that makes decisions easier.
20+ years delivering finance and system change · Building capability in your team · Fixed-fee diagnostic
The short answer
What is process governance and controls support?
It's about making sure each finance process produces accurate, complete, good-quality results the first time. Greenshoots works alongside your team to map how processes run, agree who owns and checks what, and build simple controls and documentation into everyday work. Your team builds the capability and owns the result, and spends far less time on rework.
Sound familiar?
Signs your team is stuck in rework
If two or more of these ring true, it's the process holding your team back, not the people.
Too much checking and correcting
Good people spend their days fixing errors instead of preventing them.
Problems surface at month-end
Errors are found late, when they take longest to unpick.
It all depends on one or two people
Holidays and leavers put the process at risk.
Everyone does it differently
No agreed way of working, so quality varies person to person.
Approvals get chased
Sign-offs happen over email and hold the work up.
No time left for insight
Analysis and partnering always come last, if at all.
What we help you build
Quality built into the process
Practical tools your team owns and improves, focused on the processes that take the most time today.
- 01
Clear process maps
How each end-to-end process runs, step by step, in plain English.
- 02
Owners and responsibilities
Everyone knows what they own, what they check and who they hand over to.
- 03
Right-first-time checks
Simple checks at the source, so errors are caught early, not at month-end.
- 04
Smoother approvals
Clear approval levels and workflows that keep work moving.
- 05
Process notes and sign-offs
Short guides and simple owner sign-offs that confirm each process ran as it should.
- 06
Skills and confidence
Coaching and handover, so your team runs and improves the process itself.
How we govern change
Governance that keeps improvements on track
Good processes drift without someone looking after them. We help you set up light-touch governance, so changes are well designed, well timed and properly adopted, and problems show up early.
Design Authority
One place to steward process and control changes
A small group that reviews and approves changes to processes and controls, so each change is designed once, agreed and documented, rather than made ad hoc.
Change Advisory Board
The right changes, at the right time
Governs the scope, timing and adoption of change, so your team isn't overloaded and every change lands smoothly with the people it affects.
ITSM harmonisation
From email and spreadsheets to a single intake
Business requests flow through one pipeline in tools such as Jira or ServiceNow, so your team can see, plan and prioritise its work instead of chasing inboxes.
Service management
Early warning, not late surprises
A simple framework to track and report KPIs and service levels, so you see a process starting to slip before it fails.
BAU operating rhythm
Meetings that keep the day-to-day on track
We refine your regular meetings so each one has a clear purpose, the right information and owned actions.
Daily stand-ups
A short morning check-in with operations leaders to clear blockers and agree the day's priorities.
Weekly operations meeting
A review of KPIs, open requests and planned changes, so issues are spotted and owned early.
CFO debtor review
A focused review of overdue balances and disputes with the CFO, with clear owners and next steps.
The capability shift
From fixing the numbers to using them.
With quality built into the process, your team no longer spends its time finding and fixing errors. That time returns to the work finance people value most: understanding the numbers, partnering the business and providing the reliable information that makes decisions easier.
Less time on
- Checking, correcting and re-doing work
- Chasing approvals and missing information
- Firefighting at month-end
More time for
- Analysis and insight
- Partnering the business
- Developing new skills
How we work
Fix today, transform tomorrow
We work alongside your team at every stage, so the capability stays with you.
Start here
1. Diagnose
The Finance Health Check: a review of your key processes and where your team's time goes on rework, with improvements prioritised. Typically 3 weeks, for a fixed fee agreed up front.
2. Build
Process maps, owners, checks and sign-offs, designed with your team, not handed to them.
3. Embed
Coaching, handover, and the governance forums and tools that keep improvements on track.
4. Grow
Redirect the time saved into analysis, partnering and new skills.
What changes
A team that spends its time adding value
Accuracy
Fewer errors, caught earlier.
Completeness
Nothing missed, nothing duplicated.
Consistent quality
The same standard, whoever does the work.
Time back
Less rework, more value-add.
A stronger team
New skills, and the confidence to use them.
Questions
Process governance and controls FAQs
What do accuracy, completeness and quality mean in practice?
Accuracy means the numbers are right. Completeness means nothing is missed or duplicated. Quality means the work meets the same standard every time, whoever does it. We help your team build simple checks into each process so all three happen as the work is done, not at the end.
Won't more controls slow us down?
Done well, they do the opposite. A few clear checks at the source replace the late reviews, rework and chasing that slow teams down today. We focus on the checks that save the most time and remove the ones that add little.
What are process sign-offs?
A simple way for each process owner to confirm the process ran as it should: what was done, what was checked and anything that needs attention. They give your team clear ownership and make problems visible early.
How do you build our team's capability?
We design the process with your team rather than for them, coach people as it beds in, and hand over documentation they own and keep up to date. When we step back, your team runs and improves it themselves.
Do we need Jira or ServiceNow?
Not necessarily. We work with the tools you already have. If you use Jira, ServiceNow or a similar service management tool elsewhere in the business, we help finance use it too, so requests, changes and performance are managed in one place rather than in email and spreadsheets.
How long does a review take?
Our Finance Health Check typically takes 3 weeks, for a fixed fee agreed up front. You get a clear view of where time goes on rework, and practical improvements, prioritised.
Our scope: Greenshoots helps finance teams design, document and embed processes and controls. We don't provide audit, assurance, legal or regulatory advice, and responsibility for controls and financial reporting stays with your management team.
Ready to give your team time back?
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk through where your team's time goes today and suggest practical next steps, with no obligation.