Process Transparency in Controlling: Four stages to help you assess where you stand

It’s Wednesday, 2:30 p.m. The CFO asks, “Where are we with the monthly closing?” You open your Excel spreadsheet with the manual checkmarks, scroll through your emails, and call two colleagues. Fifteen minutes later, you have an answer. Probably. Sort of.

That’s not process management. That’s improvisation.

Why Process Transparency Is the Assumed Standard in Controlling

In Controlling, the same processes run every month: forecasting, consolidation, reporting, and plan reviews. They’re complex, they involve many interdependencies, and they must be completed on time. Yet many teams treat them like individual projects: coordinated anew each time, often via email, and frequently managed solely in the mind of a single person.

That works – until the day that person is sick. Or the company grows. Or an audit requires traceable processes.

Three signs that indicate a lack of process transparency:

• Whenever management has questions, you have to look things up every time instead of having a prepared answer.
• Covering for someone on vacation is noticeably more difficult than it needs to be. The person filling in is constantly calling with questions because they don’t have the full picture.
• When there’s a mistake in the financial statements, you spend more time discussing what happened than what needs to be done.

These symptoms are not the cause. They are the result of a certain level of maturity. And levels of maturity can be developed.

The Four Levels of Process Transparency

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a simple model that helps customers assess their process maturity. It has four stages. You can honestly assess where you stand in each one.

Level 1: Implicit

The process isn’t documented anywhere. It exists only in the minds of two or three people. These people are irreplaceable – replacing them would be painful.

You can tell it’s Stage 1 when your answer to “How exactly does that work?” is: “Ask XY – he knows.”

Level 2: Documented

There is an Excel file or a Word document that describes the process. It is more or less up to date. It is rarely read.

Advantage: better onboarding, lower key-person risks. Disadvantage: You still don’t know where the process actually stands right now. The documentation shows the target state, not the current state.

Level 3: Tracked

A tool or structured template shows: Step 1 completed, Step 2 completed, Step 3 in progress. You can see at a glance where the process stands. This also applies to your deputy and the CFO.

This is where process transparency becomes a reality for the first time. Problems become visible in real time. The effort required to check status updates decreases dramatically.

Level 4: Controllable

At Level 4, the process is not only visible but can also be controlled directly from within the tool. Individual steps can be restarted immediately. The underlying logic is clear enough that the tool itself can detect and report problems. Performance data is automatically fed back and highlights opportunities for optimization.

Level 4 is the prerequisite for true automation. As long as you’re at Level 1 or 2, “We’ll automate that” is an empty promise. You first need to be able to see what you want to automate.

How to Move from Level 1 or 2 to Level 3

The leap from Level 1 or 2 to Level 3 is the most significant driver of change. It noticeably transforms day-to-day work in Controlling. And it can be achieved in small steps:

1. Start with one process. Not all of them. Pick the one that hurts the most: usually the month-end close or the forecast run. One process done right is worth more than five half-done ones.
2. Write down the steps in the order they actually happen. Not how they should happen. Include wait times, dependencies, and responsibilities. That’s the reality. It’s ugly. That’s exactly why it’s valuable.
3. Define status fields for each step. At a minimum: “open,” “in progress,” “completed,” “blocked.” That’s all you need to start with.
4. Make the live status available. This could be a table in your BI tool, a form in TM1, or a simple web dashboard. The main thing is that everyone with access can see the current status without having to ask.
5. Establish discipline. The tool is only helpful if status changes are reliably updated. Ideally, this happens automatically by integrating the tool with TI processes or workflows. If necessary, do it manually, with clear accountability.

How this works in practice

In 2024, we upgraded the monthly closing process for a corporate client from Level 2 to Level 3. Previously, it consisted of a three-page Word document describing the process. During the closing, it was hardly ever read. Status updates were sent via WhatsApp and email.

We broke the process down into 9 steps. For each step: the person responsible, dependent preceding steps, a status field, and, where applicable, a link to an IT process. We call the tool behind this our “Workflow Tool.” Time required: 2 days.

The results after three months:

• 4 to 6 hours less coordination effort per month for the person responsible for closing the books
• First true vacation coverage for closing the books in years without any issues
• Performance issues became apparent in individual steps, two of which were immediately resolved
• ROI in the first year: approximately 476 percent

What we didn’t do: introduce a new system. We used what was already in place – TM1, a few TI processes, and a streamlined web interface. The value came from the structure, not the technology.

Conclusion

Process transparency in controlling isn’t a byproduct of digitalization. It’s a prerequisite for it. Until you understand where your processes currently stand, you can neither improve nor automate them.

With the right tools, making the leap to Level 3 takes just 2 to 3 days per process. It’s worth starting small: one process, a specific form, clear responsibilities. After three months, you’ll see the results.