April 24, 2026
Let's be honest: the last few years haven't exactly been a gentle warm-up for UK finance teams.
Interest rates that climbed faster than anyone predicted. Inflation that squeezed margins across almost every sector. A cost-of-doing-business crisis that turned routine financial planning into something that felt more like navigating a ship through a storm, blindfolded. And now, just as things start to feel slightly more stable, global economic uncertainty is back on the agenda, trade pressures are building, and boards are asking harder questions than ever.
If you work in finance, whether you're a CFO at a growing tech business, an accountant advising a portfolio of SME clients, or a Finance Director walking into a board meeting every quarter, you already know this. You feel it in the questions that land in your inbox. You hear it in the conversations before a board meeting starts. You sense it in the expectation that you'll have an answer, and that the answer better be good.
So what are UK finance leaders actually being asked right now? And how are the sharpest ones making sure they're ready?
In March 2026, Fathom surveyed 370 finance professionals across three global regions. The UK findings are worth paying attention to.
It probably won't surprise you to learn that cash flow is the number one concern right now. What might surprise you is just how dominant it is.
44% of UK finance professionals said cash flow was the top question they were asked this quarter. Not profitability. Not revenue. Not headcount. Cash. Where is it? Where is it going? How long will it last?
This makes sense when you zoom out. After years of elevated interest rates, many UK businesses are managing debt repayments they didn't plan for at those levels. Working capital cycles have stretched. Clients are paying slower. The question "are we going to be okay?" has become the single most common opening line in finance meetings across the country.
But here's what's interesting. The best finance leaders aren't waiting for that question to arrive. They're walking into meetings with the cash position already articulated; the runway already modeled, the "what if" scenarios already run. They're turning a reactive question into a proactive conversation. In doing so, they're changing how their boards and clients see them entirely.
Read the full data breakdown in our State of Financial Storytelling Report.
Here's a data point that stopped us in our tracks when the survey results came in.
40% of UK respondents cited profitability as a top question this quarter, higher than any other region globally. Higher than the Americas. Higher than Australia. The UK, more than anywhere else, has finance leaders being asked granular, uncomfortable questions about where the money is being made.
And these aren't broad questions. They're specific. Which service lines are profitable? Which clients are worth keeping? Which products look good on paper but are quietly destroying margin when you factor in the real cost to serve?
This is a direct consequence of the inflationary environment of the last few years. When input costs rise faster than prices can follow, margin compression becomes the defining financial challenge. And when margin compression becomes the challenge, surface-level P&L reporting stops being enough. Boards and clients want to understand the granular picture. They want to know which parts of the business are worth doubling down on and which ones need rethinking.
The finance leaders doing this well have shifted how they present profitability data entirely. Instead of a consolidated P&L that shows the headline number, they're breaking performance down by segment, by client, by product line and presenting that picture with enough clarity and context that the board can make actual decisions rather than just nod along.
Beyond cash and margin, there's a third theme running through the survey data that speaks directly to the current moment.
33% of UK respondents said budget vs actuals was a consistent focus this quarter. Boards want to know whether the plan is holding up. Whether variances are a blip or a signal. Whether the forecast they approved six months ago still reflects reality, and if not, what's changed and why.
In an uncertain economic environment, this accountability question gets harder. The plan you put together in October looks very different by March if trade conditions have shifted, if a key client has gone quiet, or if hiring costs have moved in ways you didn't anticipate. Finance leaders are increasingly being asked not just to report the variance, but to explain it, contextualize it, and tell the board what it means for the next quarter.
The ones doing this brilliantly aren't scrambling to build the story after the fact. They're maintaining a live, rolling view of performance against plan throughout the quarter so when the board asks, the answer is already formed, already tested against multiple scenarios, already supported by data.
Here's what the survey tells us about how UK finance professionals are equipping themselves for these conversations, and it's genuinely encouraging.
47% of UK survey respondents are using forecasting tools regularly, the highest adoption rate of any region globally. That number matters because forecasting is the capability that sits at the heart of all three questions above.
You can't answer the cash question without a forward-looking cash model.
You can't answer the margin question without the ability to run scenarios on different cost and pricing assumptions.
You can't answer the accountability question without a live, dynamic view of performance against plan.
But here's what really sets the best apart. They're not just using one feature. They're layering them.
In our survey, the finance professionals who said Fathom helped them significantly weren't just pulling a P&L. They were stacking forecasting on top of KPI dashboards, running cash flow analysis alongside trend breakdowns, and using multiple views together to build a complete picture rather than a snapshot.
One respondent described using forecast snapshots to compare different versions of the plan over time.
Another talked about combining microforecasts with cash flow reports to model the exact impact of a hiring decision.
A third used breakeven analysis alongside scenario planning to show the board what needed to be true for the numbers to work.
None of those are complicated things to do. But doing them together, routinely, before the question lands? That's the difference between a finance leader who's always ready and one who's always catching up.
The finance leaders who are getting ahead aren't just running better reports. They're building a toolkit that lets them think forward, not just backward. They're using scenario planning not as a once-a-year budgeting exercise, but as an ongoing way of stress-testing assumptions and being ready for whatever the board throws at them.
And looking ahead, the data suggests this isn't going to let up. 51% of UK accountants say cash flow and runway will be their clients' number one focus next quarter, the highest figure of any region globally. For in-house finance teams, revenue growth (20%) and margin protection (19%) are close behind cash as near-term priorities.
The economic environment is keeping finance leaders on their toes. The ones who are thriving in that environment aren't the ones who react fastest to the question. They're the ones who've already answered it before anyone had to ask.
Something is changing in how the best UK finance leaders see their role, and the survey data captures it.
The old model of finance was backward-looking. Your job was to close the books, report the numbers, and explain what happened. That model still exists, but it's increasingly insufficient. Boards and clients don't just want to know what happened. They want to know what's going to happen, what the risks are, and what the plan is if things don't go as expected.
The finance leaders who are meeting that expectation aren't just better at numbers. They're better at narrative. They understand that data without context is just noise, and that the real value they bring is in translating complex financial information into clear, confident answers that help their organizations make better decisions.
They're also better prepared. The margin pressure question, the cash question, the accountability question, none of these are surprises. They're the same questions, asked every quarter, in slightly different forms. The finance leaders who are ready for them aren't smarter than everyone else. They've just invested in building the setup that means they never have to scramble.
In an economic environment that keeps finding new ways to be uncertain, that preparation is worth more than it's ever been.
The questions aren't going away. But with the right setup, you'll never be caught off guard by them again.
If you want to see how Fathom helps finance leaders answer the tough questions with confidence; from cash flow and margin analysis to scenario planning and board-ready forecasts, we'd love to show you around.
Start your free trial today. No credit card required. Just you, your data, and answers that actually hold up in the room.
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Based on the Fathom Q4 FY26 Pulse Survey, conducted in March 2026. 370 responses from accountants and SMB finance teams across the Americas, UK, Australia and New Zealand, and rest of world.
Ellie is a campaign marketing manager at Fathom, with a degree in branding and marketing. With a background in campaign strategy and creation, Ellie is passionate about showcasing how Fathom can make a real difference to finance professionals and businesses.
