7 things ops leaders are doing that their finance teams love

"Supply chain people are starting to recognize that they deal in dollars," Aaron Alpeter, founder of supply chain consultancy Izba, recently told me. 

And he’s definitely not the only one feeling that way. 

From automated cost analysis systems to master COGS files, today’s ops leaders are speaking finance fluently and building bridges between execution and economics. They’re not just managing operations; they’re directly tying their work back to gross profit and creating more visibility for their companies along the way.

The seven operations leaders featured in this article represent a vanguard of this new approach. 

Their strategies range from building KPI dashboards that finance teams are “fighting to get access” to, to automated systems that eliminate month-end fire drills. They're backing requests with strong business cases and measurable ROI. And when finance comes knocking at their doors begging them to cut costs, they’re not just meeting their goals, they’re doubling them. 

Here’s what this group of finance-savvy ops leaders have to say about finding this kind of success at your org:

Matt Hertz, Founder @ ThirdPerson

On using tech to get visibility into true performance, cost, and flow of goods

“As Mike Tyson astutely remarked, ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.’ While this is true, it doesn’t encourage not planning! It is more important than ever to plan, anticipate, and build contingency in your operations.

Changes are inevitable, particularly in this evolving time. The brands who maintain the most fortress operational (and financial!) positions are those who have not waited — not reacted — but who have been proactive in asking questions and developing Plans B, C, and D, so they can respond to any deck they are dealt.

The most pressing dynamic that brands have been focused on is the potential change to tariffs and how that will impact global trade, production, and freight. Even more recently, a change in U.S. leadership will inevitably create new dynamics in global ecommerce. Depending on how these decisions play out, it will impact where product is manufactured, how it is transported, and where it is fulfilled — all greatly impacting costs.

Logistics is hard. Logistics is expensive. But visibility is power.

Logistics is hard. Logistics is expensive. But visibility is power. Without total visibility on performance, cost, and flow of your goods, it is near impossible to manage your supply chain. Working with modern partners who are tech-forward, who can provide intelligence you need, and help make informed decisions, is key to successfully scaling your operations.

On a more tactical level, the logistics ecosystem is quickly evolving. There are many new incumbents focused on certain segments or niches of supply chain, whether that’s fulfillment, freight, or small parcel and delivery. Embrace modern partners and leverage folks with specialties that overlap with your needs.”

Bill Shube, Supply Chain Ops + Tech

On building KPI dashboards that will make your finance team drool

“We’ve recently kicked off an initiative to create a one-stop shop for all our supply chain KPIs. We’re focusing on defining them better, making them more easily accessible, and as automated as possible. 

When finance got wind of what we were doing, they were all over it. We’ve actually had to ‘fight them off,’ so to speak — there’s such a demand for this kind of transparency that they came to us with a laundry list of requests, we just couldn’t do it all at once.

As we’ve gone through this exercise, we’ve realized that once you get the underlying data in place to support the top-level KPIs, there’s huge potential to drill into the data and build out lower-level operational metrics to support the rest of the business. It’s a lot of work to put it all into place, but will make reporting so much easier once it’s done.”

Keith Frymark, SVP Supply Chain + Quality @ Seed Health

On doubling savings initiatives in 2025

“We built a master COGS file (it's our operational COGS library/bible), but finance has this file open at all times to help inform their financial modeling and P&L. It's been a great tool for both teams. 

The file is built by SKU by channel and breaks out by month and by year the specific costs for raw materials, packaging, labor, kitting, freight, etc. If we are modeling costs for a new product or say marketing or sales need to check the cost of a SKU, they can easily find the information without having to bother ops.

Finance has tasked our team with some pretty hefty savings initiatives in 2025 — not only are we going to be able to hit the goal, we have the opportunity to double it! Finance sure loves that. 

These processes and initiatives have established a high level of trust from finance. Operations and finance go hand in hand, I find great operational leaders also have a high financial acumen making it easy to partner with finance.”

Paige Zachs, VP of Supply Chain + Ops @ Coterie

On slicing and dicing the data and making budgeting a breeze

“Because we have automated almost all of our variable cost analysis using invoice data in Parabola, 2025 planning and budgeting has been a breeze! 

We now have so much cost visibility, allowing us to slice and dice the data in an endless number of ways and highlight margin opportunities.

We now have so much cost visibility, allowing us to slice and dice the data in an endless number of ways and highlight margin opportunities. Even though we have an ERP and BI tool, there are still so many things that get done in Excel and Google Sheets and we’ve been showcasing the power of Parabola to our finance and wholesale teams who are looking to leverage this tool as they build their budgets and P&Ls too.”

Aaron Alpeter, Founder @ Izba

On the need for increasing cross-functional forecasting

“I think the biggest thing is that supply chain people are starting to recognize that they deal in dollars and need to have a good interface with finance folks — and finance folks are recognizing that units and things that happen in the supply chain world also matter in a spreadsheet.

So what I’m seeing is that there are tighter linkages around annual planning, around month-end where people are starting to have some conversations to say, ‘Hey, you keep asking me for the same report every month. What is it that you need and when do you need it?’ They’re just making those workflows part of the process versus having more of a fire drill every month.

I’m also seeing that people are being much more explicit in how they’re building their forecast. Teams are starting to look at an integrated S&OP plan and say: ‘What is this difference between what I want to have happen and what I think is going to happen? And then how do I make sure that we’re being as aggressive as we should be in our forecast?’”

James Hargett, Director of Ops

On funneling actualized logistics costs into your ERP

“One thing we recently did was leverage Parabola to get our actualized logistics costs into our ERP, which not only helped our team track but also gave finance that data point so they could use that instead of having to pull invoices to validate at the end of the month.

Another thing we were doing was regularly adjusting any inventory variances so that we didn’t have any large adjustments at the end of the year or surprises when it came to doing our full physical inventory counts.”

Jennifer Renner, Senior Manager of Vendor and Sample Operations @ Stitch Fix

On building strong business cases when requesting resources

“My teams and I are dedicated to driving efficiency and maximizing our current resources to manage growth without automatically increasing headcount. 

We rigorously evaluate end-to-end processes, identifying gaps and modernizing workflows where possible. Any request for additional resources is backed by a strong business case and measurable ROI, showing that we’ve pursued all internal solutions first. 

My finance partners trust that if I’m asking for something, it’s because I’ve already thought through every opportunity, clearly outlined the options, and demonstrated why adding spend is critical and other approaches won’t achieve the same results. This reinforces my commitment to strategic, cost-effective improvements that truly support our bottom line.”