In Pursuit of Profit
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At this stage, companies are feeling the limitations of their existing accounting personnel and are evaluating what their next move should be to keep the company moving forward. But knowing whether to hire a Controller or a CFO is a big decision, because, contrary to popular opinion, the roles are distinctly different.
As Kevin Briscoe, the CEO of CFO Selections, explains in nonprofit leadership podcast, “A Controller is ‘walls-in and rear-facing’ and a CFO is ‘walls-out and forward-facing’.” He goes on to explain that a controller analyzes what the company has done already while a CFO evaluates where the company is going next.
For companies lagging behind, the financial cost of taking an extra 20 days to close their books can be steep, and for companies performing on par with the industry, the financial benefit of reducing their work by 10 days can be a huge advantage.
In some cases, holding onto the role internally means hiring an in-house accountant, but at many small businesses, the alternative is simply tasking other employees with these kinds of functions. And, to no one’s surprise, the lucky person who gets the accounting work added to their to-do list tends to be the business owner.
In recent months we have solidly come to understand that for better or worse the typical office work model we were once accustomed to has been permanently changed and we may never see the corporate world fully return to the office full-time. And yet, even as we begin to look forward to 2023, this question of whether accounting work will move back into the office still remains.
Other times they are more internally motivated, looking for ways to improve and standardize the handling of their financial data to facilitate growth.
Either way, many businesses come to us looking for a set of generic standard accounting policies and procedures that they can just copy. We understand the rationale here. Why reinvent the wheel if you can just take what someone else is already using it and tweak it to fit your company’s needs? And in all honesty, there is nothing wrong with modifying an already existing manual if you know why your business needs formalized accounting policies. However, simply creating accounting policies based on someone else’s business practices without an understanding of why you are doing it and what kind of outcome you are looking for is not the right strategy.
In fact, the adoption of technology seems to be quickening across the board among consulting accountants, for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, and the government alike. (Yes, even the IRS is now using video visits to oversee tax preparers!) In an interview with Accounting Today Twyla Verhelst, head of the FreshBooks Accounting Partner Program, explained, I've heard it said that the last 30 years of technology and accounting have been taking what accountants used to do on paper and digitizing it. This is a very broad oversimplification of the advance of technology over 30 years, but I think there's some truth to it… Now, of late, we're starting to move away from that and move to creating new things based on what the technology can do as opposed to recreating what paper could do. As fractional accountants, we have experience with a wide array of “less than full-time” accounting engagements ranging from ongoing part-time work and extra assistance during busy periods to short-term project work and interim roles while a new accountant is hired. Of these, interim work is notoriously underutilized, which is disappointing because it is an area where bringing in help expeditiously can have a huge impact. Gig work can trace its origins to before the creation of the internet. However, over the last decade companies like Uber and Lyft have steadily led the push in the mass acceptance of the gig economy. In 2020 as lockdowns swept the nation, hundreds of thousands of new gig jobs became available virtually overnight thanks to Amazon, DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, and Shipt. The pandemic accelerated a shift that was already well on its way to becoming the next big trend in work. But the quickly burgeoning gig economy was not isolated to takeout and grocery delivery. Professional gig work also grew exponentially as workers were laid off and left their traditional office jobs to manage personal responsibilities. According to a Harvard Business Review article on Thriving in the Gig Economy, Approximately 150 million workers in North America and Western Europe have left the relatively stable confines of organizational life — sometimes by choice, sometimes not — to work as independent contractors. Some of this growth reflects the emergence of ride-hailing and task-oriented service platforms, but a recent report by McKinsey found that knowledge-intensive industries and creative occupations are the largest and fastest-growing segments of the freelance economy. Have you noticed a significant rise in controller job openings these days? We have! In fact, over the last year, we have worked with more companies looking to hire a financial controller than ever before. But, why? Are controllers resigning en masse, leaving vacant roles in their wake? No. despite all the publicity around “The Great Resignation,” existing controller jobs are largely not opening up due to turnover. Instead, they are mainly appearing at organizations where controller roles have not previously existed. Since the pandemic there has been an increased need for experienced financial leadership. More organizations are creating financial controller positions to meet these new needs. As a result, accounting recruiters began unofficially calling 2021 “The Year of the Controller” as it drew to a close. And by the time 2022 started, the moniker had stuck, carrying over to this year as well as the recruiting push continued strong. Let’s look at what is driving this hiring trend, what should be included in a controller role, and how to hire a controller. |
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12/12/2022