Clarity in Complexity

Structuring a Scalable Operating Model for Shared Service

As organisations grow and diversify, shared services must do more than process transactions must provide clarity, consistency, and confidence. This article outlines how we developed an operating model for Accounting & Control that supports five business areas and over 150 legal entities. Rather than a one-off transformation, the model emerged by connecting strategic initiatives, finance harmonisation, process orientation, and digital workflows with local operational improvements. The result is a coherent structure with clear roles, governance, and scope. The model enables cross-functional collaboration, strengthens business partnership, and supports strategic finance capabilities making it scalable, resilient, and built to evolve.

Clarity Is the Operating System

In shared services, structure is not just a framework — it is what keeps complexity from becoming chaos. Without clarity, even skilled teams struggle to deliver at scale.

Our operating model for Accounting & Control did not come from a single transformation. It evolved through practical necessity shaped by strategy, local improvements, and the cumulative impact of decisions made by those closest to the work. Over time, we saw that what held it all together was not a new system or process, but a shared understanding of scope, roles, ownership, and governance.

Documenting the model turned that understanding into something visible and durable.

Connecting Strategy with Operational Reality

Several strategic directions helped shape the model. Finance harmonisation established a mandate to reduce variation and centralise recurring tasks. In parallel, process-oriented ways of working gave new definition to ownership and handoffs. And our digital service portal, built in ServiceNow, brought structure to how services were requested, tracked, and improved.

These shifts did not all come from the centre. Many were led by teams responding to concrete challenges, reporting gaps, bottlenecks, or unclear responsibilities. The breakthrough came not from launching yet another initiative, but from aligning what was already working. By defining the model, we created a framework that supports consistency without dampening initiative.

Scope, Structure, and Role Clarity

The model governs the Record-to-Report (R2R) process — from subledger close to the handover of validated data for group consolidation. It explicitly excludes consolidation itself and system ownership. These boundaries keep accountability intact.

Within this scope, five roles form the backbone of delivery:

- Controllers ensure accuracy, integrity, and alignment with business understanding.

- Accountants execute standardised, recurring tasks across entities, enabling scale and efficiency.

- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) secure quality and lead process improvement.

- Reporting Responsibles (RRs) coordinate the reporting flow and link financial output with business context.

- Shared Service Representatives (SSRs) drive governance, manage collaboration, and own escalation pathways.

These roles overlap by design. Controllers may serve as RRs; Accountants may be SMEs. This overlap enables flexibility and supports development, allowing teams to scale work without duplicating structure.

Governance That Solves, Not Slows

Governance routines translate structure into action. Monthly meetings bring together SMEs, RRs, SSRs, and team managers. Their purpose is not just control, but resolution: surfacing issues early, tracking improvements, and preparing for change.

Escalation paths are simple and visible. Delivery issues move from RR to Team Manager to Department Head. Process concerns move from SME to SSR to Process Owner — and, when needed, to the Financial Management Team for cross-functional intervention.

Metrics turn governance into learning. Close cycle time, reconciliation coverage, reporting accuracy, and stakeholder feedback are reviewed routinely. Case data from ServiceNow provides traceability and trend visibility. Capability-maturity assessments help identify where automation or further standardisation is needed. Most importantly, governance ensures that decisions are made and followed through.

Harmonisation That Enables Judgement

Harmonisation reduces noise so judgement can travel. Finance harmonisation was never about one-size-fits-all; it was about removing unnecessary variation. With fewer local deviations, it became possible to compare, analyse, and act with confidence. Teams could focus on insight rather than reconciliation.

Alignment, not enforcement, made harmonisation stick. Clear scope, mutual trust, and shared targets created the conditions for convergence. Harmonisation worked because the model respected both central structure and local accountability.

A Model That Develops People

Role clarity turns the operating model into a development system. Because roles are transparent and responsibilities structured, individuals can grow across functions — becoming RRs, SMEs, or stepping into governance roles.

This structure makes people decisions more deliberate. Resource planning, succession management, and coaching can be based on visible roles and capabilities. Managers can shift attention from firefighting to capability-building. Teams become less dependent on individual heroes and more resilient as a whole.

Over time, the model has helped us become not just scalable, but sustainable.

Strategic Finance in Action

Strategic finance emerges when operational clarity frees capacity. With the operating model in place, teams can deliver more than compliance. Controllers participate in business reviews and support planning. Reporting Responsibles ensure numbers are not just accurate, but meaningful. SMEs anchor quality while enabling process change.

The RR role, in particular, moves the centre of gravity closer to the business. Positioned between business units and shared services, RRs translate business needs into finance language and finance insights back into business discussions. Strategic finance becomes a capability embedded in how we work, report, and connect, rather than a separate staff function.

Durable Clarity in a Changing Environment

Durable clarity makes change manageable. Our operating model continues to evolve — and it has to. ERP landscapes shift, reporting demands grow, and the business environment becomes more complex. Because the structure is anchored in purpose and shared logic, these changes are absorbable rather than disruptive.

Shared services succeed when they enable others to succeed. For us, that has meant investing in clarity: in ownership, in roles, in routines. Clarity is what makes performance repeatable and improvement possible.

If you are navigating similar complexity or designing a model of your own, I would be glad to exchange perspectives.

The Accounting & Control function described here supports five business areas with more than €5 billion in turnover and covers financial reporting for over 150 legal entities. The operating model described was implementation-ready in June 2025.

A version of this article was originally published as a LinkedIn article in June 2025.