Inside Databricks Finance: How the Office of the CFO Uses Data and AI

Inside Databricks Finance: How the Office of the CFO Uses Data and AI

 

Databricks’ Office of the CFO uses the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to unify financial and transactional data, establish a governed source of truth, and bring AI into everyday Finance and FP&A workflows. Data from ERP, CRM, HRIS, planning and other enterprise systems can be brought together on a common data foundation, governed with Unity Catalog, and made accessible through AI-powered tools such as Genie.

 

For Databricks’ Finance organization, this approach has helped simplify financial workflows, expand self-service access to trusted data, and accelerate month-end close from 15 days to 6 days, with a target of real time.

 

Building a Modern, Governed Finance Data Architecture

 

A modern Finance data architecture brings financial and operational data from ERP, CRM, HRIS, planning and other systems into a unified, governed data foundation. Instead of relying on disconnected data across reporting tools and workflows, Finance teams can work from a consistent source of financial truth.

 

At Databricks, Unity Catalog provides access controls, audit logging and data lineage to help protect sensitive information and support audit readiness and SOX compliance. Shared business definitions also help Finance users find and analyze trusted data without requiring deep technical expertise.

 

Accelerating Financial Close and Finance Workflows

 

Databricks Finance has rebuilt key financial workflows on the Databricks Platform. For example, the Finance team built its revenue subledger on Databricks to support revenue recognition and ASC 606/GAAP-compliant reporting, bringing booked revenue and management reporting data together on a governed platform.

 

This transformation has helped reduce the monthly financial close from 15 days to 6 days, with a target of real time. Consolidating financial data and workflows can reduce handoffs, simplify account-level analysis and get trusted information to decision-makers faster.

 

Enabling Self-Service Finance and FP&A Insights With Genie

 

Databricks Finance uses Genie to let business users ask questions in natural language and receive answers grounded in governed enterprise data and shared business definitions. Consistent business semantics help define important Finance metrics and provide context for how those metrics should be interpreted.

 

The result is a more self-service model for Finance analytics: questions that previously required multiple handoffs and days of turnaround can be answered in minutes, while the underlying data remains governed through Unity Catalog.

 

Building Trusted AI for Finance With Unity Catalog

 

Trusted AI for Finance depends on governed data, consistent business definitions and appropriate access controls. Unity Catalog provides governance, lineage and auditability across enterprise data, helping Finance expand access to data and AI while maintaining controls for sensitive financial information.

 

Organizations evaluating how to modernize their own data and analytics environment can explore Databricks’ enterprise analytics platform evaluation framework.