What value does an FD add to any business?
Broadly, there are four things a good FD adds to any business:
1. Financial information
No business can grow profitably without solid, consistent, up to date performance information that looks at:
2. Financial controls and processes
Mostly, these are routines that happen every day, week or month and need to work like a well-oiled machine:
- Solid bookkeeping that’s right, first-time
- Frequent bank reconciliations
- Robust credit control
- Intelligent cost control
Without these processes and systems working well, the financial information required simply won’t be produced in a useful way.
3. Getting other areas of your business to be aware of financial issues and constraints
Ensuring that everyone in the business is aware of the financial dimensions of their job, particularly when making decisions.
4. Being involved in occasional and one-off decisions and projects
Investing in new assets, buying / selling businesses, promoting or recruiting senior staff, lease renewal. These are some of the issues that pop up from time to time and require experienced financial input. But they don’t arise every day.
But let’s be honest – most businesses don’t need a full-time FD/CFO
Everything listed above is a valuable contribution to your business and to many others, these are real-world financial needs.
But they’re not full-time and they don’t require a high annual salary cost to get them done.
Indeed, if you have a full-time FD – do they actually have a full-time job?
The smart alternative: Part-Time FD / Fractional CFO
A far better answer for most businesses is to bring in a part-time FD to:
- implement the financial processes and controls you need
- train and coach existing staff to do a more demanding job so you create the right finance team for your business
- ensure the right information, bespoke to your business (not the standard reports that you currently get from your accounting system), is coming out to those who can act on it
- maintain an ongoing presence in the businesses to ensure that everything continues to run as normal (this is likely to reduce as time goes by)
- pitch in to the occasional decisions as and when required
This gives your business the best of both worlds – the senior financial input you need but without a full-time cost.
It’s a solution that an FD would be proud of!
Why London businesses choose Blue Dot Consulting
We’ve taken on the part-time FD role for scores of businesses in and around London ever since we opened our doors.
We know the role and our people have all worked in finance teams in businesses like yours.
And clients say things like this about us:
“Their tailored solutions, commitment to excellence, and depth of knowledge make them an indispensable asset.
With Blue Dot Consulting, you can confidently navigate change and emerge stronger and more efficient. “
Is it time to rethink your financial leadership?
This is not an easy space to navigate, partly because bringing in a part-time FD isn’t something you do every day.
But like so many decisions, having someone to talk it over with is a really good start. So, let’s have a chat about your business and explore some ideas.
As members of the ICAEW Business Advice Service the first meeting is free.
Call Michael Austin on 020 7125 0270 or email info@bluedotconsulting.co.uk and we can go from there.
Michael
Frequently asked questions
Finance director v bookkeeper or both?
Every business needs decent accounting software and that software requires good bookkeeping. So there’s always a need for bookkeeping resources, whether they are in-house or external.
The FD/CFO helps the bookkeeper get the numbers right and get the right numbers flowing through your business to help improve financial performance.
Fractional CFO / part-time FD – what’s the difference?
There’s no difference, just a lot of different names being used for the same thing!
How long do we need the part-time FD for?
The role changes as progress is made. The smart move is for most of the finance work to be handed over to other staff as and when you know things are working smoothly. The FD will have less of a role and maybe they move on or maybe they stay involved in a much-reduced but high-level role.
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