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(Part-time) Finance Directors

Appointing a Finance Director (FD) (or Chief Financial Officer - CFO - to use the American term) with the right skills to match the needs of your business is vital to its success.

Axiom-e focuses on higher-value strategic financial management and can provide assistance whether or not a client has a Finance Director or CFO in place.

Importantly, we focus on the key areas regarded as part of the role of the Finance Director rather than (or in addition to) that of the Finance Manager or Financial Controller.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a finance director are many and varied and will generally include responsibility for:
  • developing successful financial strategies in pursuit of value for money
  • monitoring and managing all financial flows
  • ensuring effective internal control and corporate governance
  • ensuring compliance with financial accounting and reporting requirements
Additionally, as a member of the senior management team, the finance director will provide financial leadership and give direction to the strategic policy, plans and operational activities of the business. Whether or not s/he is also the company secretary, the finance director of many enterprises, especially medium-sized ones, also has responsibility for all administration. S/he may, therefore, be responsible for such functions as:
  • ensuring compliance with legal and tax regulations
  • Personnel, including payroll and health and safety
  • IT, especially the implementation and effective management of business systems
  • facilities management
  • purchasing.
Key team-player

It is quite clear that a finance director is much more than a bookkeeper or financial transaction processor. Apart from being in full control of day-to-day accounting processing , s/he should be focused on working towards the future success of the business. As such, s/he will be heavily involved in business planning and providing forecast data for use in making decisions. Such decisions could range from which product lines should be marketed through to how much to pay for a proposed acquisition.

Ensuring the establishment of processes, procedures and systems appropriate to a company's needs is a critically important part of the finance director's role. Without focus on the company's strategy and how to achieve the related objectives, the stakeholders (shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers etc) will all miss out on what might have been. It is no surprise, therefore, that a recent book called CFO was subtitled architect of the corporation's future.

Strategic financial management

The role of the Finance Director is not dependent on the title "Finance Director". Indeed, in a number of smaller businesses, individuals who are known as the Finance Director do little more than bookkeeping and some office administration.

Good finance directors will generally be professionally qualified accountants with wide experience of finance and general business management. They should be able to:
  • develop a coherent business strategy,
  • ensure the necessary finance is available and managed effectively to see the strategy through;
  • contribute to the management of the company so as to ensure strategic success.
In short, they should have broad experience of strategic financial management.

An article entitled "How to build a firm, sell it and make a million" that appeared in the Sunday Times of 10th February 2002 supports this view. The quotation is of John Richards, a software entrepreneur and now a business angel.
To get the interests of a buyer most entrepreneurs will also need to hire a financial manager. "In the early days it is okay to have a financial controller but if you are going to build some real value you need a proper finance director. In a bigger firm the issues become more complex and the information you need is much more than just reports of the figures."
Axiom-e's role

Given the difficulty that non-finance personnel may have in selecting a suitable finance director, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has prepared a booklet entitled Appointing the right finance director for your business. Whilst it inevitably focuses on the financial elements of the finance director's role, it also refers to non-financial responsibilities and useful personal qualities.

Unless there is sufficiently regular work at a level necessary to justify a finance director, companies will be reluctant to employ one and are probably better off without one. Such companies, however, may fall into the trap of using unsuitable finance staff to undertake the work of the finance director. They will therefore miss out on the benefits that would come from using experienced personnel.

Axiom-e seeks to fill this gap in the market by providing businesses without a finance director with the skills that qualified, well-experienced personnel can bring for the work in question. We are engaged by you to do specific tasks and as such you pay only for the necessary work undertaken for you.

To find out how we can help you, read the rest of this web site including Board Level Involvement for more information or contact us now.