In 2018, the Treasury Department imagined a future of federal finance built on trust, transparency, and technology. Nearly a decade later, those goals feel as urgent – and elusive – as ever. Today’s finance leaders remain trapped by legacy systems, siloed data, and manual, spreadsheet-driven processes that slow the budget cycle, frustrate oversight, and obscure true mission costs.

In the “Future-Ready Finance: Trust, Transparency, and Accuracy in Government Spending” report, MeriTalk – in partnership with Workday – surveyed 100 federal finance decision-makers across civilian agencies, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community.

The report examines:

• What stands between today’s CFOs and the agile, data-driven operations they need?
• Where are the biggest points of friction and risk across planning, programming, budgeting, execution, and reconciliation?
• How much time is lost to manual reporting and rework, and how many critical insights are “impossible” with current tools and data limitations?
• How can modern, cloud-based platforms – powered by analytics and responsible AI – improve visibility, strengthen internal controls, and create a single source of truth that connects people, budgets, and outcomes?