Developing
Commissioned by a vendor that sells revenue management software, though respondents did not know the sponsor.
In 60 seconds
- The survey covered 865 finance leaders in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, fielded May 4 to 15, 2026.
- 71% sell through more channels than 12 months ago; 65% track deals across more than one revenue model; 87% plan to add consumption-based products.
- 67% say their team completes at least one in five workflows manually, often in spreadsheets.
- 90% of finance leaders using AI report positive ROI; top blockers are security (46%) and limited expertise, governance and integration (42% each).
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A survey puts numbers on how pricing models, channels and AI are widening the finance role.
- Why it matters
- RevOps depends on finance for pricing, quoting and revenue recognition, so complexity there flows back into the funnel.
- Who is affected
- RevOps, finance operations and CPQ owners.
- Martech stack area
- CRM, AI
- Stack impact
- Map your revenue models and manual workflows with finance, and decide which to automate first.
- Business impact
- Low Commissioned by Salesforce, which sells revenue management products; the article names no product feature. The 80% invoice-time figure is PwC's claim, quoted there.
- Related vendors
- What to watch
- Whether the same patterns appear in non-vendor research.
Salesforce published its CFO Priorities Report on September 9, 2026: a double-blind survey of 865 finance leaders in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, fielded May 4 to 15, 2026. Respondents were CFOs, chief accounting officers and finance EVPs or VPs, and did not know Salesforce commissioned it.
Findings
- About three-quarters say their role grew in the past year; top driver is managing AI use and expansion (49%). Half say they are primary decision makers on AI strategy.
- 71% sell through more channels than 12 months ago (average three); 65% track deals across more than one revenue model; 87% plan to add consumption-based products.
- 67% say their team completes at least one in five workflows manually, often in spreadsheets, and leaders see potential to automate up to 40% of team work.
- 90% of finance leaders using AI report positive ROI. Top blockers to expansion: security (46%); limited expertise, governance and compliance, and tech stack integration (42% each); lack of funding (39%).
Quotes
Sam Chung, Chief Customer Officer, Agentforce Revenue Management: “The CFO has moved from signing off on AI to being answerable for it.”
Our read
The survey is vendor-commissioned, but the pattern fits what RevOps teams see: more channels and pricing models mean more quote and billing exceptions. Sit down with finance and list which revenue models you actually run and which still need a spreadsheet.
Sources
- Salesforce: New research, CFOs turn to AI and agents to tame growing revenue complexity (opens in a new tab)
Source of the sample, method, findings and quotes from Sam Chung.