Finance leaders in Southeast Asia are navigating a regional budgeting crisis, from spreadsheet dependency and mounting regulatory pressure to a growing shortage of qualified finance professionals.
This whitepaper draws on research published between 2024 and mid-2026 and will give CFOs and FP&A teams the clearest picture of corporate budgeting practices across Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, specifically where the pain is, what is driving it, and what the next three years will demand.
Findings every APAC finance leader should know
| 29% of organisations take more than 10 days to finalise a single forecast iteration GrowCFO, 2025 | 84.4% foreign currency deposits to broad money in Cambodia, creating unique budgeting complexity NBC Financial Stability Review, 2025 | 89% of Vietnamese IT decision-makers cite VAS compliance as the top financial software selection factor InCorp Vietnam, 2026 |
Vietnam
Finance is the highest-demand sector for AI adoption, with 26 per cent year-on-year growth, yet 65 per cent of SMEs are still unaware of the benefits of cloud-based financial management platforms. The gap between AI ambition and cloud infrastructure readiness is the defining tension for Vietnamese finance leaders in the years to come.
The question for Vietnamese CFOs is no longer whether to move toward more dynamic planning, but when.
Thailand
For three consecutive years, ‘lack of internal and external expertise’ has ranked as the top barrier to digital transformation. Finance teams know what tools they need but having the people to implement and govern them effectively is the greatest challenge the country is facing.
The issue for Thai CFOs is not ambition but execution.
Cambodia
There are fewer than 200 IFRS-qualified accountants in Cambodia to serve over half a million SMEs. For most Cambodian enterprises, structured budgeting does not exist in any meaningful sense. Where it does, the annual compliance cycle is the primary and often the only framework.
For Cambodian CFOs, the foundation for formal budgeting is still being built.
What other insights you can find in this whitepaper
| ✓ Why annual static budgets are breaking down under regulatory pressure across all three markets | ✓ A five-point roadmap for streamlining and optimising financial planning in your organisation |
| ✓ The specific tax changes in 2025-2026 that are forcing finance teams to move to more dynamic planning | ✓ Why compliance obligations — not modernisation aspirations — are now the strongest business case for FP&A investment |
| ✓ How Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia differ in their budgeting maturity, tech adoption, and talent landscape | ✓ How to position finance technology investment internally to win the resource allocation debate |
| ✓ The single most common reason digital transformation initiatives in finance stall — and it is not the technology | ✓ What ‘targeted automation’ means in practice for finance teams at different stages of digital maturity |
The full whitepaper is free to download. Complete the form to receive your copy immediately.
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📋 Stories of businesses that have made the transition
Global Insurance Corporation (GIC)
GIC faced a critical technology challenge that could compromise its security. To resolve this critical issue while also ensuring scalability and sustainability, GIC partnered with TRG International to migrate to the cloud. → Read the full case study
Astra Life
To improve the efficiency of its accounting and reporting systems, Astra Life, an Indonesian insurance company, has adopted automation to increase reporting speed and efficiency. → Read the full case study
