It’s not enough to simply know the financial controller role. There are clear ways to be more efficient and effective in this position, and to move from simple data processing to trusted business partners.
Here are some keys to doing this.
a. Automate, automate, automate!
As every accountant is well aware, recording financial transactions still requires plenty of manual data input. And it’s not just the first time around – errors discovered late in the day mean you then have to go back and re-enter much of the data you’ve already dealt with.
In many cases, this is wholly unnecessary. Most transaction data can in fact be entered and copied across systems without a human touch.
At the very least, make sure you’re not inputting data more than once. Where you use multiple systems – invoice processing, expense management, and procurement, for example – they should all speak with your accounting systems and/or ERP. Information should be up-to-date across all of these, and it shouldn’t rely on you and your team to achieve this.
b. Practice clear communication
According to EY’s report, the biggest gap between importance and performance for FCs (as rated by themselves) is communication. The FCs polled felt that communication skills were incredibly important, and that their performance in this area fell short. This was followed by leadership skills and technical accounting acumen. This of course means communication within the finance team and to direct reports. But one area that consistently needs work is communication with the wider company. Finance teams rely on
other teams – sales, marketing, and purchasing among others – to follow policies and feed them useful data.
The big challenge here is to help others understand why good data is so valuable, and to set up efficient communication channels to get this across. Many finance leaders still fail to understand that just because a policy is written down somewhere, this doesn’t mean that others will actually follow it.
c. Give other teams autonomy
Another key issue with many finance processes is that they tend to rely on the finance team throughout. Take invoice processing, for example. In a typical company, it looks a little like this:
● A frontline employee receives a service from a supplier (freelance advice, for example)
● The supplier issues an invoice and sends this to the employee
● The employee sends it to their manager for approval
● The manager approves the invoice
● The employee sends the invoice on to the finance team
● A finance team member has to extract the key information from the invoice, enter it into a tool (or basic spreadsheet), and save it to the appropriate place
● The invoice is later paid as part of the normal cycle
● Accountants then have to rationalize the invoice against payments made by the company in order to close the books
Suppose, instead, that the employee could receive the invoice and enter it themselves into an invoice processing or spend management tool. No emails have to be sent, the manager can approve the invoice natively in the application, and the finance team has no data entry at all – all the way through to accounting.
Even better, employees learn how to create and process a valid invoice. This prevents problems occuring again and again down the road.
d. Strategist & catalyst vs steward & operator
A fascinating report from IMA and Deloitte explores the controller’s role in detail. The authors
segment typical controllership into four main categories:
● Steward: managing risk and preserving assets
● Operator: maintaining efficient and effective finance operations
● Strategist: shaping the future of the company
● Catalyst: helping to drive execution
Most controllers do all four of these. But according to the report, most feel that they spend too much time on the first two – the more traditional, functional roles:
Image source: Stepping Outside the Box: Elevating the Role of the Controller (IMA / Deloitte)
The simplest reason that most financial controllers aren’t considered “strategic controllers” is that it’s not an explicit part of their job descriptions. CFOs and FP&A leaders are there for the strategy, and controllers are there to control.
Therefore, the best way to make a financial controller role more strategic is to put it in the job description. Make strategy one of the defining characteristics of success for a financial controller, whether that’s you or the person you intend to hire.
