Get your finance team to play nice with others (sales, marketing, everyone!)

Key takeaways

• Most finance–department conflicts come from poor visibility, not bad intent.
• Siloed tools and email threads create delays and misalignment.
• A shared project management hub connects finance, sales, marketing, and ops around shared goals.
• Breeze gives teams a transparent view of progress, budgets, and approvals.
• Shared visibility reduces rework, saves time, and helps teams trust one another.

1. Why do finance and other departments often clash?

Different goals drive most disagreements. Finance focuses on control, compliance, and precision, while marketing and sales value speed and experimentation. Add in disconnected systems — spreadsheets for finance, CRMs for sales, creative platforms for marketing — and collaboration breaks down quickly.

For example, finance might stop a marketing campaign mid-launch because the spend wasn't clearly approved or documented, causing frustration and lost momentum. Meanwhile, sales might commit to discounts or special deals without getting prior approval, putting finance in a tough spot to justify revenue and manage margins. These situations create tension because each department feels misunderstood or blocked by the other.

However, many modern businesses have started adopting shared collaboration tools that help bridge these divides. Instead of working in silos, teams use centralized platforms where budgets, timelines, and approvals are visible to everyone involved. This transparency fosters better alignment and reduces surprises. For instance, finance can see upcoming campaigns and provide guidance early, while marketing and sales can understand financial constraints and adjust plans accordingly. This shift from isolated workflows to integrated collaboration is key to reducing conflict and speeding up decision-making.

According to PwC's CFO Pulse Survey, 89% of CFOs say balancing cost and growth is a top challenge, and 64% are investing in technology to break down silos. Breeze helps bridge those gaps by offering a shared workspace where team goals, budgets, and responsibilities all live in one place.

These conflicts don’t just hurt relationships — they slow cash flow and delay critical business decisions.

2. What problems does the "us vs. them" mindset create in business?

When teams operate in isolation, misunderstandings multiply. Finance sees unapproved spending as chaos; other teams see budget constraints as roadblocks. The result is slower decisions and growing distrust.

This "us vs. them" mentality leads to a cascade of negative effects. Approvals take longer because finance is cautious and teams are hesitant to push back. Budget meetings become tense, with finger-pointing rather than problem-solving. Duplicate work happens when teams don't know what others have already done or approved, wasting time and resources. Morale suffers as employees feel frustrated and undervalued, which can lower productivity and increase turnover.

For example, a marketing team might prepare a campaign, only to learn late in the process that the budget was cut or reallocated. This forces last-minute changes or cancellations, wasting effort. Meanwhile, finance might be overwhelmed with last-minute requests and unclear documentation, increasing the risk of errors or missed deadlines. These inefficiencies ripple across the company, slowing innovation and reducing competitiveness.

Tools like Breeze change this dynamic by creating a shared space where budgets, timelines, and approvals are visible and managed collaboratively. This transparency reduces friction and helps teams focus on shared goals instead of internal conflicts.

Here’s how these disconnects typically play out:

Even small inefficiencies add up. A delayed approval cycle or missed discount can cost thousands each quarter — costs that compound silently across teams.

Breeze helps avoid these issues by giving everyone real-time visibility into budgets, requests, and timelines, ensuring surprises don't turn into conflicts.

3. How can a shared project management hub bring everyone together?

A central hub like Breeze replaces email chains with structured collaboration. Teams can see who owns what, when budgets are due, and which approvals are pending — all in one place. With shared boards, comments, and file attachments, context never gets lost.

One of the biggest benefits of a shared project hub is having a single source of truth. Instead of juggling multiple spreadsheets, emails, and chat threads, everyone accesses the same up-to-date information. This transparency enhances accountability because it's clear who is responsible for each task or approval, and deadlines are visible.

Better decision-making follows naturally. When finance, sales, marketing, and operations can see the full picture — from project goals to budget status — they can coordinate more effectively. For example, if a new product launch requires coordination between marketing campaigns, sales training, and vendor contracts, a shared hub tracks all these moving parts. Teams can flag risks early, adjust timelines, and keep leadership informed without chasing down updates.

Consider a company rolling out a new vendor for office supplies. The procurement team manages contracts, finance oversees budget approvals, and operations schedules deliveries. Using a shared tool, all stakeholders can comment, upload documents, and monitor progress. This reduces delays, prevents miscommunication, and ensures the rollout happens smoothly.

Deloitte’s Future of Work report found that companies using integrated collaboration platforms see up to 20% faster project turnaround.

Gartner's 2024 collaboration research found that teams using shared workspaces reduce rework by up to 30% and report stronger trust across departments. Breeze brings those benefits to everyday finance workflows by connecting numbers with people.

For more on creating simple collaboration systems, see simple project management in Breeze.

4. What does collaboration look like in practice with Breeze?

Here's how it might work: marketing submits a campaign budget as a Breeze card. Finance adds a checklist for documentation, attaches files, and marks stages for approval. Operations tracks vendor payments on the same board. Everyone comments, updates, and stays aligned without endless email threads.

Recurring checklists help ensure that no step is missed — from initial budget submission to final approval. Approval workflows automate notifications to the right people, so nothing gets stuck waiting. Document sharing keeps contracts, invoices, and creative briefs all accessible in one place, eliminating the need to hunt through emails or shared drives.

Breeze connects financial tracking with project progress in real time. For example, as marketing completes campaign milestones, finance can see how spending aligns with the budget. If costs start to exceed expectations, teams can collaborate immediately to adjust plans or request additional funding.

In this setup, approval times drop from days to hours, and finance gains full traceability without adding extra steps.

This approach scales well across multiple teams and even global offices. Whether teams are in different departments, Breeze keeps everyone on the same page. Real-time notifications mean updates aren't missed, and the shared platform creates a consistent process that's easy to follow regardless of location.

• Shared project boards for cross-department initiatives
• Comment threads instead of email chains
• Live budget visibility alongside project progress
• Audit-ready history of approvals and changes

This workflow turns reactive conversations ("Why didn't you tell us?") into proactive collaboration ("How can we make this work?").

5. How can finance lead the way in building cross-department trust?

Finance touches every part of the business, so it's uniquely positioned to model collaboration. By hosting cross-department initiatives in Breeze, finance can bring structure without adding bureaucracy.

Leadership advice for finance includes championing shared tools by demonstrating their value through quick wins. Encourage openness by inviting feedback and making data accessible to all stakeholders. Measuring results helps build momentum - track metrics like faster budget approvals, reduced late payments, or fewer escalations.

According to McKinsey’s 2023 Connected Leadership study, companies with collaborative finance leaders outperform peers in efficiency and innovation.

When finance leads with openness, it signals that collaboration is a shared responsibility, not just a process.

For example, a CFO at a mid-sized tech company led a cultural change by introducing a shared project hub for all budget-related initiatives. By involving marketing, sales, and operations early in the budgeting process, the company saw a 25% reduction in approval times and a significant drop in last-minute budget changes. This shift also improved morale as teams felt more included and informed.

• Use shared boards in Breeze for project and budget visibility.
• Replace static reports with dynamic views that everyone can see.
• Hold short, recurring check-ins instead of long approval meetings.
• Celebrate quick wins publicly to strengthen team relationships.

When finance leads with transparency, other teams follow. Breeze supports this shift by keeping everything visible and traceable while maintaining control over sensitive data.

The same approach helps streamline finance work, keeping budgets, approvals, and reporting aligned.

6. Conclusion

Cross-department tension doesn't come from personality clashes. It comes from missing context. A shared project hub like Breeze helps finance, sales, and marketing work from the same playbook. With better visibility, fewer surprises, and faster feedback loops, teams start to act like partners instead of opponents.

Trust and transparency are the foundation of healthy company culture. Modern tools that connect people and data make it easier to build that foundation. When finance opens up visibility, collaboration becomes effortless and the whole company benefits.

Starting small is key. Try hosting one shared project in Breeze — maybe a marketing campaign or vendor rollout — and invite all stakeholders to participate. As everyone experiences smoother collaboration and clearer communication, you can build momentum and expand this approach across the organization.

Breeze was designed to make collaboration feel simple. One shared space for every project, budget, and conversation.