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What Is Manual Debt?
Finance functions are at a tipping point. CFOs hear constantly about agentic AI, automated workflows, and predictive modeling, yet many find their teams stuck. Jill Eubank, who leads the finance and accounting specialization at Randstad Professional Talent Solutions and is in her 24th year in the field, calls the cause manual debt: years of legacy workarounds, brittle processes, and institutional knowledge concentrated in a few key people.
Organizations are trying to stack advanced AI on operational foundations that, as Eubank put it, are held together by duct tape and key person dependencies. Closing that gap is the work Randstad sees its clients tackling every day.
Three Ways Manual Debt Shows Up in Finance Functions
Most CFOs, controllers, and vice presidents are mid-flight on digital transformation, from enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrations to more sophisticated AI tools. Eubank sees manual debt surface in three ways:
- Capacity overload. Teams are running at 110% to keep the lights on, with no spare capacity waiting for new technology.
- The transformation trap. When a project starts, leadership pulls top performers into workshops and strategic work, leaving daily operations exposed.
- Tribal knowledge risk. Critical workarounds live in the heads of two or three people. With intentional turnover and upcoming retirements, reporting accuracy suffers when they leave.
To stay agile, organizations are turning to contract experts. According to Randstad data, 43% of finance managers use consultants for critical projects such as tax, compliance, quarter-end close, and ERP work. Full-time hiring can take 60 days or more, while contract experts can deploy quickly for weeks or months. Eubank described a client that completes several acquisitions a year and relies on contract talent to keep integrations moving when acquired teams, and their knowledge, depart.
The Human Cost of Stacking AI on Stretched Teams
Randstad research shows 88% of CFOs report that manual debt is their single biggest barrier to AI return on investment (ROI). Software cannot fix broken baseline processes, Eubank said, and the burden falls directly on finance teams.
High-performing people say yes when asked to do more. Randstad’s data shows double work is a primary driver of mid-project resignations. And while 95% of leaders are excited about AI, only 51% of employees feel they have the bandwidth or skills to use it. That gap creates a bottleneck that builds quickly.
Operational Insurance and the Discipline to Say No
The biggest misstep Eubank sees is leaders assuming new technology automatically guarantees operational continuity. Transitions take real time, and teams cannot be run into the ground during the bridge phase.
She encourages leaders to treat saying no as a form of operational insurance. A CFO declines risky budget requests to protect the bottom line; the same discipline applies to piling transformation projects onto a team already at its limit. Operational insurance keeps the work flowing while the organization transforms. It may mean saying no, and it may mean bringing in a contractor or consultant to take on a piece of the business.
Accountants and Architects
Randstad frames finance roles around two mindsets. The accountant manages legacy compliance, manual reconciliations, and daily operations. The architect focuses on AI governance, data strategy, and long-term ROI. Teams buried in static legacy reports get trapped in reactive execution, with little bandwidth to partner on strategy.
Eubank pointed to a finance leader who joined a Randstad panel at an FEI conference earlier this year as a model early adopter. He asked his team for honest feedback on new tools, acknowledged the process would be a work in progress, and held weekly sessions where team members shared screens and worked through challenges together.
An organization’s highest-value strategic thinkers should operate as architects. Many are stuck acting as accountants because no one is backing up the baseline business. Dedicated talent squads can take on routine legacy work or step in as the architect, preventing burnout and giving the core team room to build for the future.
Case Study: 28 Hours Returned to Every Monthly Close
Eubank shared the example of a publicly traded residential solar company. Its balance sheet carried years of historical accounting errors, and nearly all technical knowledge lived with the finance director. The team was running on fumes, and the transition had hit a wall.
Randstad deployed a specialized team that performed a forensic balance sheet cleanup and built workflows to automate monthly revenue, accounts receivable, and delinquency analysis. The automation removed 28 hours of manual labor from every monthly close. The company institutionalized its processes, trained its internal team, delivered clean trial balances to pass its audit, and migrated to NetSuite with clean data. The finance director gained the room to act as an architect.
“The best way to replace that knowledge is to operationalize the process.”
– Jill Eubank, Randstad
The Three-Question Reality Check
Eubank recommends that financial leaders run a three-question reality check with their leadership teams:
- If your key systems lead walked out the door tomorrow, would the majority of your critical process logic leave with them?
- Is your team expected to maintain 100% reporting accuracy on legacy systems while simultaneously building a new platform?
- Are your most expensive strategic thinkers stuck processing manual data?
A yes to two or more means a transformation may be running without a safety net, with manual debt burning away future ROI. Honest answers are the starting point.
A “Glocal” Challenge for Multinational Organizations
For organizations operating across borders, Eubank described a “glocal” approach: a unified global strategy paired with local execution. Compliance requirements vary across the US, the UK, Germany, and Australia, while the manual debt challenge is identical everywhere. A partner that deploys localized talent across markets supports consistent execution.
Eubank also noted the value of professional networks such as FEI, where financial leaders learn from peers, alongside advisors who see what works across many organizations and can share best practices quickly.
The Takeaway
“We simply cannot build a finance function of tomorrow if our best people are trapped in managing the manual friction of yesterday.”
– Jill Eubank, Randstad
Protecting daily operations with dedicated talent, Eubank said, is essential operational insurance to prevent burnout, safeguard reporting, and achieve the ROI leaders expect from AI. Leaders who close the gap now avoid looking back in 2030 and wondering why their transformation never arrived.
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