Should Your Startup Partner with a Financial Controller?

Running a startup involves lots of complexities, especially during a turbulent economy. Many of the startups fail in the first few years of their inception. Young entrepreneurs tend to make mistakes such as improper management, lack of knowledge of all domains, especially non-core activities, and poor market analysis. Despite working for hours with devotion entrepreneurs fail to recognize that one of the major causes of failure is poor cash flow management.

Once your startup is up and off the ground and generating profits, who is managing your company’s finances? To stay competitive in rapidly changing business climates, companies of all sizes and across all industries are constantly looking for new ways to cut costs, increase efficiency and ultimately boost profits. This is especially true for startup companies in the hyper-competitive innovation/technology space.

With the help of outsourcing, you can improve your finances and overcome the challenges that are in the market. Outsourced financial controller services can help small business owners properly execute a financial strategy and drive success for your business.

What is a Financial Controller?

A financial controller — also known as a finance manager, accounting manager, senior controller, or director of finance — is a must-have for any business that requires financial management. While a CFO is responsible for the overall strategy, a financial controller takes the lead on the crucial activities of financial reporting, compliance, and complex accounting policies related to accruals, deferrals, and receivables.

Business owners should consider engaging a financial controller for the following benefits:

1.  A financial controller clarifies your financial reporting and keeps your business on track.

Where financial structures and procedures are more complex, a financial controller can provide insight and clarity on business operations and performance. Monthly reconciliations are not enough to provide an accurate picture of your business and the risk for financial misstatements can be high. A business that is generating millions of dollars in revenue could, in actual fact, be losing money in one or more areas. By the time a business owner realizes the problem, it may already be too late to change course, and the effects can be long-lasting.

2. Assist small business owners in making important decisions

For taking any important decision or changing the policy of a firm, it is essential that as a business owner you need to have the financial reports in your hand. Once you know the financial position of the company you can easily change and implement any new policy or strategy. Outsourced financial controller services can assist business owners in making the best decisions possible for their small business.

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3.  If you want to save your time

Accounting is a time-consuming task and investing so much of time on this non-core operation is obviously not a good choice. So it is better to outsource finance and accounting department to third parties who can efficiently manage your tasks and allow you to focus on your core activities to increase your profitability.

4.  Reduce errors and fraud risk

In order to detect fraud in accounting, it is necessary to reconcile the statements on a monthly basis. Though reconciliation is a complex process, it helps to detect fraudulent transactions and reduce errors. So outsourced financial controller experts will surely help you with accurate reports of reconciled statements.

5. A financial controller can ensure regulatory compliance.

Tax and financial regulations in the United States can be complicated and overwhelming, and many business owners lack the technical knowledge required to ensure they are compliant. A central component of a financial controller’s role is to maintain compliance with both state and federal regulations, as well as meet requirements set by financial institutions. While small businesses may think they can manage without this type of support, the reality is that noncompliance penalties can be devastating to your bottom line.

Attributes Outsourced Financial Services will Bring to Your Company

• Experience

When hiring outsourced financial controller services for your business, always make sure they have a lot of experience in the field, so they can represent your needs well. If you run a growing business it can be a great asset to have a part-time financial controller on your team, as they can apply their vast experience to your business, and give you great advice on how to expand or accelerate growth. They will know the ins and outs of regulations and laws and will always be up to date with the latest changes.

• Professionalism

Having an outsourced or part-time financial controller working for you can be very valuable as your business expands and you have to make and maintain strong external connections with banks, investors, lawyers, and auditors. A well-respected financial controller with experience and a great reputation in the industry will be able to represent you in a professional manner. They will immediately give your business more credibility through their professionalism and expertise.

• Team Leading Qualities

A good financial controller will not only have strong accountancy skills but he/she will also have soft skills, which are extremely important given that teamwork is such a crucial part of this role. It can be a great advantage to have a controller with strong leadership and teamwork skills on your team as they will be competent enough to take care of many of the tasks you had to take on when first starting out. This will free up a lot of your time that you can then use to focus on other areas of your business such as product development, sales, and marketing.

Limitless Investment & Capital Outsourced Controller Services

Financial controllers are fundamental to many finance teams’ operations. Limitless Investment & Capital’s outsourced controller services are capable of increasing efficiencies in the accounting department and streamlining processes, as well as offloading tasks bogging down CFOs or business owners. Take your accounting to the next level and contact our team TODAY!