Thanks to our many years
of experience, we can see very quickly
whether your financial management system and internal controls are up
to par. In fact, you can already quickly get a pretty good indication
yourself by completing our quick
scan.
The presence of properly qualified staff is not the sole requirement for a good system of financial management. Your company also has to have the right structure and offer its staff the right incentives to act in line with its interests. Otherwise you’re fighting a losing battle. Over-refinement is one of the common pitfalls here. ‘Good’ is often good enough. A simple system is usually the most effective. Overly detailed systems come with the risk that they won’t work, are too difficult to use and hence not effective. At Finambition, we can help you design and implement a financial management system that really works.
Deliberately reducing the discrepancies between management information and financial reports can also be an extremely effective measure. One of the classic problems that arises in discussing numbers with the management team of a business unit, for example, is that you end up spending most of your time trying to reconcile the figures with the official financial statements. Whereas there is only one official set of accounts: the statutory financial statements. These are the figures for which senior managers are accountable. In many cases, therefore the very first step you need to take in getting things back under control is to get rid of all figures that have no real basis. Dispense with all those unnecessary discussions; do away with all that confusing information. Finambition generates management information –often in combination with a BBSC– that really matters and can easily be reconciled with your company’s official statutory financial statements.
Another problem is that
CFOs often have to manage a raft of
improvement projects and keep the show on the road at the same time.
The accounts department has to keep going, tax returns need to be
prepared, funding must be secured, monthly and quarterly reports need
to be produced, the books need to be closed at year-end and a statutory
audit performed. This the CFO needs to do at the same time as
developing and implementing new systems, dealing with backlogs and
putting out fires all over the place. Here at Finambition, we can help
you, preferably so that things improve in the long term.