06/12/2021
CUSTOMISED MANAGEMENT TRAINING ON THE FINANCIAL CONTROLLER'S KEY REQUIREMENTS, FUNCTIONS, DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES, SKILLS, AND CHARACTERISTICS.
INTRODUCTION
The term financial controller (FC) refers to a senior officer responsible for managing the financial actions of a company. His duties include tracking cash flow and financial planning as well as analyzing the company's financial strengths and weaknesses, proposing corrective actions and advising the management.
The FC is the center of the strategic planning, implementation and operations of the organization, offering financial leadership and direction towards the growth and development of the company. He is also the driver of the finance operations, including account processing). He holds the key to all the information for planning and decision-making.
Needless to say, that FC, is knowledgeable in financial records entries, processing, and analysing. His business skills and understanding of business processes, value creation, value added, as well as the competitiveness in various industries are top notch, therefore, every organization understands that an ineffective FC is the first indicator towards organizational collapse.
Financial comptrollers or chief accounting officers, are tasked with overseeing day-to-day accounting functions, integrating finance operations, forecasting and budgeting, handling tax matters, preparing financial reports, and ensuring organizational financial stability.
He must be results-driven and confident to manage and improve organization's financial performance and direct our accounting operations.
FUNCTIONS OF FC
Stewardship: Controls!
1. Protects and conserves business resources and
2. Accurately reports on its financial position.
Operator: Efficiency!
1. Manages the finance organization efficiently.
Catalyst: Ex*****on!
1. Provides the right information at the right time to support business ex*****on.
Strategy: Performance!
1. Supports executives moving the company toward its mission and goals with financial information and analysis.
DUTIES
The financial controller's duties will include managing accounting records, evaluating and managing risk, ensuring compliance with regulations, publishing financial statements, overseeing accounting operations, analyzing financial data, monitoring expenditure, forecasting revenue, coordinating auditing processes, and ensuring accuracy of financial information.
RESPONSIBILITIES
He must be proficient in preparing financial reports, analyzing financial data, monitoring internal controls, overseeing and preparing income statements.
He also participats in budgeting processes, managing financial transactions, streamlining accounting functions and operations.
Developing plans for financial growth.
Evaluating and managing risk, às well as coordinating audit processes.
He must be skilled in strategic planning and exceptional in numerical proficiency also will aid our organization in maintaining positive revenue and financial growth, formulating sound financial strategies, implementing proper internal controls, achieving organizational targets, and developing financial plans that support organizational strategy.
He reports to the CEO, in the absence of CFO or Finance Director.
QUALIFICATIONS
The ideal candidate should possess strong analytical skills, exceptional problem-solving skills, a flair for numbers, be highly organized, and have excellent leadership skills. The noteworthy financial controller should streamline our accounting functions and operations, provide financial analysis and reports, train staff on business finance issues, promote regulatory compliance, and drive income generation.
He must possess degree in accounting, and professional qualification in accountancy, master's degree in accounting or equivalent would be preferable.
Proven years of experience in finance management for a minimum of 10 years in the management cadre.
SKILLS
Good communication skills.
Strong leadership qualities.
Excellent interpersonal skills.
Sound knowledge of accounting fundamentals.
Auditing experience.
Compliance oriented.
Proficiency in accounting software.
Analytical skills.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FC
The financial controller job has moved way beyond number crunching. These 6 tips help financial controllers play a more strategic role in any organization.
The role of financial controller has moved way beyond number crunching. Increasingly, controllers are taking on the job of financial operating officer. They are becoming the CFO’s go-to source to ensure that finance runs smoothly and there are no surprises at quarter end.
But leading a smoothly running finance department is not negotiable. Today’s financial controllers must do more. They must be forward-looking. They must always be searching for ways to improve productivity, reduce costs, and streamline processes—including quote to cash, purchases to payables, the month-end close, consolidation, management, and financial reporting. They must also scale these processes to handle high growth.
Navigating the Financial Obstacle Course
Chances are that those added responsibilities don’t come with added resources. Outdated, disparate financial systems can’t provide finance leaders with the real-time information needed to adapt quickly to market changes. In addition to accurately stating results, reports must tell a story.
The good news is that many financial controllers have successfully met these challenges using financial analysis software, and in the process, have made themselves strategic business partners to the rest of the organization.
Let’s look at the six best practices that today’s best-in-class controllers follow.
1: Cut Error Risk
The most effective controllers know that spreadsheets are the wrong choice for managing consolidation and close related processes. These controllers are building workflows; automating reconciliations, allocations, intra-company eliminations; and importing data from multiple ERP systems.
They’re minimizing errors due to manual entry, creating standard, repeatable processes, and reducing risk. With the time they save by automating, they have more cycles for the strategic analysis they’re now expected to provide.
2. Use of Automation
Despite the general expectation that companies should be able to close their books within a week, many organizations don’t achieve that goal for their quarterly or annual close. Most companies have a long way to go before they achieve a “virtual close,” in which fully integrated financial applications and ERP systems enable real-time financial statements, on demand.
The top controllers in today’s best run companies overcome these challenges by transforming processes altogether, and making use of technology and people to maximize their efficiency. They streamline and automate key close tasks like consolidation and reporting with cloud-based applications. Because these applications reside in the cloud, they’re easier to deploy, use, and manage.
By automating processes and eliminating manual tasks, controllers can allocate their personnel to more value-added activities.
3: Data Management
Increasingly, controllers are being asked to provide not only financial data but budget and operational information as well. They do more than simply compile packages of reports—they interpret the data and contribute to decision-making.
Best-in-class controllers automate their reporting processes with self-service tools so they can analyze data without needing a programming degree. They use visual analytics and scorecards to identify patterns in prior-period trends. Reports provide relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and interactive dashboards that can be consumed across the entire organization.
4: Culture of Self-Service
Even more efficient reporting doesn’t eliminate the fact that controllers are becoming de facto information sources for both financial and nonfinancial managers. According to the IMA, more than 90% of controllers are being called upon to provide operational data, and many are being used to source business performance and customer data.
They best understand that pulling reports for others takes them away from more value-added, strategic activities. So, to deal with the onslaught of requests, these people are enabling key stakeholders and business users with self-service reporting and dashboards.
5: Seamless Handoff of Consolidation of Financial Planning and Analysis
Top controllers deploy business systems that integrate budgeting, planning, consolidation, reporting, and analytics into a single application that can be used by both accounting and FP&A. In the Adaptive Insights CFO Indicator Q3 2015 report, 38% of the global CFOs survey respondents said their organizations had achieved a single source of truth, while 45% said they were working toward a central repository for financial performance data.
A single system makes it much easier to move from close to planning and analysis, because everyone is aligned around the same data.
6: Collaboration
Finance departments are more decentralized now than ever before, but accountants still need to collaborate around the close process. Centralized, hard-to-access systems stand in the way of collaboration, as do poorly defined schedules and weak commitments to deadlines.
The best controllers manage their distributed teams by carefully balancing leadership and project management. They create a consistent close schedule that reduces bottlenecks, minimizes surprises, and promotes a culture of unity. A consistent schedule also allows the team to deliver information more quickly.
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