Finance Manager - Role, Responsibilities, Skills and Remuneration
Syed Muhammad Ali This short blog is for accounting and finance professionals pursuing their career as finance managers in mid to large scale organizations.
What is a Financial Manager?
Financial managers are responsible for the financial health of an organization. They produce financial reports, direct investment activities, and develop strategies and plans for the long-term financial goals of their organization.
A Finance Manager distributes the financial resources of a company, is responsible for the budget planning, and supports the executive management team by offering insights and financial advice that will allow them to make the best business decisions for the company.
Financial managers increasingly assist executives in making decisions that affect the organization, a task for which they need analytical ability and excellent communication skills.
What Does a Financial Manager Do?
The role of the financial manager, particularly in business, is changing in response to technological advances that have significantly reduced the amount of time it takes to produce financial reports. Financial managers’ main responsibility used to be monitoring a company’s finances, but they now do more data analysis (finance managers and data analytics will be covered in next blog) and advise senior managers on ideas to maximize profits. They often work on teams, acting as business advisors to top executives.
Financial managers also do tasks that are specific to their organization or industry. For example, government financial managers must be experts on government appropriations and budgeting processes, and healthcare financial managers must know about issues in healthcare finance. Moreover, financial managers must be aware of special tax laws and regulations that affect their industry
Financial managers have distinct personalities. They tend to be enterprising individuals, which means they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic. They are dominant, persuasive, and motivational. Some of them are also investigative, meaning they’re intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive.
Key Responsibilities
Responsibilities will vary, but examples include:
- Monitoring ongoing financial operations within a company, such as payroll, invoicing, cash flow and other transactions.
- Overseeing employees within the finance department, including accountants.
- Researching and reporting on factors influencing business performance and identifying areas for potential improvement.
- Identifying cost reduction opportunities.
- Ascertaining methods for minimizing financial risk to the company.
- Liaising with auditors to ensure annual monitoring is carried out.
- Developing external relationships with appropriate contacts, e.g. auditors, solicitors, bankers and statutory organizations.
- Managing budgets and producing accurate financial reports to specific deadlines.
- Ensuring compliance with applicable laws and procedures
- Contracting outside services for tax, auditing, banking, investments, and other financial services.
- Providing insightful information to senior management to aid long-term and short-term decision making.
- Presenting financial reports to board members, stakeholders, executives, and clients.
- Keeping up to date with technological advances and accounting software.
Skills Needed For This Role
A finance manager needs to be able to deal with complex modelling and analysis, as well having a sound understanding of financial systems and procedures. Excellent attention to detail and strong interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills are essential. Commercial and business awareness is highly beneficial, as are good organizational, planning and research skills.
How Much Does a Finance Manager Earn?
$75,000 - $150,000 Per Year
A Finance Manager salary is determined typically by the number of years of experience, soft and technical skills, and the scale of responsibilities in the organization.
The remuneration you could expect working as a finance manager varies depending on sector, experience and skill level. Top managers who can add genuine value to their organization can be among the top earners at a company.
Categories: General