What is a Strategic Financial Controller?
Do you need a financial controller for your business? If you already have a CFO or an accounting team, it’s a good question.
Let’s start with the basics. A financial controller is essentially a company’s lead accountant, but they can be so much more than that. They oversee accounting activities and ensure that the books accurately reflect the inflow and outflow of cash into a business. Beyond that, they can help make important decisions for your business based on financial forecasting. This means more accurate budgeting and strategic decision-making based on accounting data.
The Difference Between Accountants, Controllers, & CFOs
An accountant is a professional who performs accounting functions such as audits or financial statement analysis. They usually have a variety of administrative roles within a company's operations and they can specialize in different areas of accounting. Their job is to manage the books, but they’re probably not focused on profitability.
Controllers often supervise bookkeepers, tax managers, credit managers and other accounting staff while reporting directly to the CFO, CEO, or business owner. They are essentially the lead accountant, but they also make decisions using forecasting and budgeting based on accounting data. The bottom line, a Controller can cut costs, manage finances, and improve inefficiencies for the maximum growth and profitability in your business. According to Randstad, “As the critical link that binds finance to the entire senior management team, you need to be a good communicator and to understand the entire business, not just the ins and outs of your own department. This means that a financial controller needs strong leadership skills, interpersonal flair, and more than a touch of charisma.” A great controller not only understands financials but has the innate ability to communicate needs and strategies for the overall financial health of the company.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company holds the primary responsibility for the planning, implementation, managing, and running of all the financial activities of a company. This includes business planning, budgeting, forecasting, and negotiations. The CFO job description often extends to obtaining and maintaining investor relations and generating partnerships.
Recent research done at Deloitte shows CFOs are looking to controllers as strategic business partners. These relationships free them up to look to the future while making decisions based on financial data.
At Oracle Profitability, we offer Strategic Financial Controller services and we’re excited to see the data on the growing strategic collaboration between Controllers and CFOs. In our experience, amazing things can happen when we combine our financial and profitability expertise with a CFOs fundamental understanding of their business. If you are interested in bringing on a Controller to your business, book a free consultation with us today.