I work at Tilting the Lens in a role that sits between operations and finance. I’m responsible for managing financial information, supporting our accountants, and making sure that what happens day-to-day across the company is accurately reflected in our financial systems.

I came into this role through a mix of operational experience and a growing interest in how companies manage their internal systems, especially in ways that are clear, efficient, and accessible. At Tilting the Lens, that perspective matters even more. As an accessibility consultancy, we must be our own best example, and have to ensure that the tools and systems we use internally meet the highest possible standards. As a B Corp™, this responsibility goes even further: we’re committed to ensuring that how we operate internally reflects the same values of inclusion and accountability that we advocate for externally and as a majority-Disabled team dealing with the practical realities of managing finances in a growing organisation, it’s important to ensure that the systems we rely on are accessible to everyone who needs to use them.

When spreadsheets become an inaccessible system

From the beginning, Excel was the backbone of how we managed finances at Tilting the Lens. Spreadsheets start out as a practical solution for start-ups. They’re flexible, widely understood, and easy to build as you go. As a remote team, it’s also easy to collaborate on them. Our spreadsheets allowed us to build quickly and adapt as our needs evolved. But over time, you create one sheet for expenses, another for tracking payments, maybe another for budgets. Weeks and months pass, more sheets appear. Tabs multiply. Formulas become more complex.

I spend a lot of time looking at numbers, reconciling information, answering questions about spending, and helping to ensure that the data behind financial reports is correct. I work closely with accountants and our CEO, but I’m the person who sees how financial processes actually play out within company operations. And for a long time, much of that work happened inside Excel.

Looking for a new accessible solution

In 2025, we decided to create more robust structures around financial processes as part of our B Corp application process. 

Instead of financial data being spread across multiple files, transactions should now be recorded and organised in a single platform solution to reduce the administrative burden and provide the teams with better insights and overviews on finances. It also improves consistency and for the accountants we work with, this also simplifies reporting. The information they receive is already organised within the accounting platform, making it easier to review and prepare formal financial reports.

As an accessibility consultancy and a B Corp, moving to a new digital system always comes with another layer of consideration: accessibility.

As we began to onboard with our new supplier, QuickBooks which solved many of our financial workflow challenges, it also presented new accessibility barriers. So, rather than quietly working around those barriers, we decided to raise them directly with Intuit, the company behind the platform.

Raising our accessibility issues

What followed was a collaborative and constructive exchange with Intuit’s accessibility and inclusive design team. For a global platform used by millions of businesses, accessibility improvements don’t happen overnight. But the conversations that started were meaningful and constructive. 

Some of the issues we raised were small, but accessibility often lives in these details. 

  • One area was colour contrast in parts of the interface, which can make text difficult to read for users with low vision as well as those with colour blindness. 
  • Another area we discussed was run-on sentences and readability in parts of the interface text. 
  • We also touched on design flexibility. Some software systems prioritise visual consistency but limit how users can adjust the interface to suit their needs. That rigidity can unintentionally exclude users who need different viewing or interaction options. 

For us, raising these issues was about recognising that accessibility is an ongoing and often collaborative process. Large technology platforms evolve constantly, and accessibility improvements happen through dialogue with the people using those systems in real contexts. The work is ongoing, but it was genuinely encouraging to see how seriously the issues were taken and how quickly the accessibility team engaged with us. Knowing that our feedback could influence improvements to a system used by millions of organisations was a powerful reminder of how meaningful accessibility work can be.

Advocating for better systems

Instead of managing finances through a collection of spreadsheets, we now have a central system that supports how financial information is recorded, organised, and reported and alongside that shift came another outcome we hadn’t anticipated: the opportunity to contribute to improving the accessibility of a global financial platform.

For us, this is where our B Corp journey becomes real. How we operate internally is a reflection of how our systems, tools and processes demonstrate our commitment to inclusion, accountability and equity. Choosing better systems is part of that, but beyond that, challenging those systems to be more accessible is another.

For someone working between operations and finance, and within a company dedicated to accessibility, that combination felt particularly meaningful. The system didn’t just support our work – it also gave us an opportunity to make it better.

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