What makes a good CFO great? A NetSuite consultant perspective
A CFO becomes invaluable to a growing company once the CEO is no longer able to wear two hats – overseeing the operations and the books. A CFO allows the CEO to focus on the business while the CFO acts as a watchdog over the books to monitor the financial health. Every CFO is expected to have well rounded financial knowledge of systems and processes, a strong management acumen and business sense. Most good CFOs have a college degree in finance or accounting and often an advanced diploma or certificate. A great CFO has specific experience in your industry and brings a wealth of ideas to the table. role with leadership skills, not just in managing people and processes, but experience in making decisions that have shown positive results. So what makes a good CFO great? As NetSuite consultants, here’s our experience.
The decision to hire a CFO usually for certain reason. A small business usually relies on outside accountants or they may have an internal bookkeeper and/or Controller. As a business grows, the needs for greater financial controls and insight evolve to depend on the role of a CFO.
Here are 3 common reasons a growing company hires a CFO
- Focus on the maintenance of the current systems; keeping pace with the business, basic management of the accounting processes and regular compliance requirements and tasks.
- Focus on strategic and future direction where the CFO leads the effort tend to foster change, improve processes, influence future company direction and have a build, repair and divide emphasis.
- Focus on stewardship where the concentration is protection, compliance, risk communication and shareholder value. With all CFOs, leadership and knowledge of the financial well-being of the company is still paramount, but it’s now trending for these leaders to have general management capabilities.
Whichever the focus, showing value is key to a CFOs success and the organization. So how does a great CFO show value for a growing company?
6 qualities that separate a great CFO from a good CFO
- A great CFO understand the whole organization. Accounting and finance processes are not the only specialty.
- A great CFO share new ideas and vision. You have more return-on-investment information at your fingertips then you know. Share what works and what does not.
- A great CFO is the watchdog on the lookout for financial risks in all departments.
- A great CFO understands and reports on historical trends in your organization, your industry and your competitors.
- A great CFO prioritizes tasks, seeks to remove inefficient processes and invests in the company where necessary.
- A great CFO leverages technology. Even with all the data, processes, departments, locations and people there is so much more to consider. In looking at all the issues and responsibilities, there is one way a CFO will become invaluable by investing in technology. Having a tool(s) that can give you the information you need when needed is not just a way to ‘share’ the goods, but a way to streamline and automate tasks. It can help you drive process improvement, create truly global methods and give you real-time visibility of all investments. Your ‘value’ will shine because you will be able to provide faster information, your accounting procedures will be accurate and timely and you will be able to balance revenue with company growth.
As NetSuite consultants, our team at goGirtualOffice, helps CFOs, Owners, Controllers, Accountants and IT managers with a fit assessment to decide if NetSuite is the right solution for some or all of your business needs. Contact us or email or call 888-773-2123 today!
Focusing on NetSuite since 2005, our team is one of the top NetSuite companies in the world. How is this possible? We focus on you! Contact us or email or call 888-773-2123 today and we’ll help you see if NetSuite is the right solution for some or all of your business needs.
NetSuite is a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that enables organizations to grow and unify their departments. Its built-in flexibility, real-time business intelligence, commerce-ready platform is designed for a modern company. NetSuite lowers costs and reduces hassle for IT. One platform spanning back office financials to customer records to professional services provides visibility and simplified integration.
Another version was previously published on goVirtualOffice’s Blog by Dirk Shimpach on July 8, 2016 - Show Your Value as CFO