Financial Manager: Qualifications and Duties

The modern market economy dictates its standards to businessmen. To withstand high competition, commercial and industrial enterprises have to constantly regulate their financial resources. The choice of tactics for managing financial flows directly depends on the accounting policy adopted by the company. Control and distribution of funds, as a rule, is carried out by the economic unit, which has a position of financial manager.

A financial manager is a specialist who fulfills the duties of developing a financial policy, as well as implements it and monitors the implementation of the introduced provisions by all divisions of the company. At present, in Russia there is no clear structuring of a position called a “financial manager." This happens for a number of reasons.

• In large commercial and industrial organizations, cash management is managed by senior management - the financial director, company manager or head of the finance department. The subordinate senior management may have a personal assistant, whose position will be called "financial manager". It is possible that there are several such managers in the company, and the tasks for them are different. As a rule, financial managers belong to the middle or lower echelon in the structural staffing hierarchy of the company. Not always such workers graduated from a higher educational institution, sometimes these people come with secondary specialized education.
• The staffing of a small company may provide for a specialist with higher specialized education, whose profession is directly related to financial activities. He is charged with the development and implementation of financial policies. In this case, the financial manager in one person is the leader and executor. He is endowed with a certain degree of independence, power and responsibility in resolving all issues related to monetary resources.

Such a gradation of the staff hierarchy directly depends on the size of the enterprise, the volume of management tasks and methods for solving them.

The requirements that a finance manager must meet consist of theoretical and practical skills. You can apply for such a vacancy only if you have completed an institute of economic profile and have at least 3 years of work experience in your specialty. As a rule, questions at the interview addressed to the applicant are aimed at ascertaining the level of his professional competence.

What a financial manager should know and be able to:

• management theory, finance and credit, management, enterprise economics;
• principles of accounting and economic statistics;
• methodology for conducting economic analysis, return on capital, financial and business risks;
• laws and legal requirements for the conduct of financial and economic activities of the organization;
• tax law;
• basics of labor law;
• standards of tax, financial and statistical reporting;
• rules for working with securities, stocks;
• Fundamentals of capital management, methods of forming working capital of the company;
• assess the development trend of markets and finance;
• organize planned work and ensure cash flow control;
• the ability to create financial plans and reporting forms for their implementation;
• know the principles of lending and attracting investments;
• fluent in specialized computer programs.

To become a true professional in their field, the financial manager is required to constantly improve the level of education, monitor changes in the law, timely learn software updates, and invest in continuing education courses. It is best to start a career as a graduate of an economic university from the post of trainee, gradually gaining experience and knowledge from a mentor. The salary for a beginner in this profession may seem too low, from 20 to 25 thousand rubles, but with the acquisition of experience and skills, its increase will not take long.

The work of a financial manager can imply a fairly extensive functionality, which develops depending on the needs of the company and the volume of cash turnover. In general, such a specialist should perform 5 main functions.

• Contribute to the capital gain of the company. This is achieved by reducing costs and finding ways to increase profits. Good managers in the field of finance should primarily act in the interests of their company, their task is not only to optimize production processes, but also to reduce the level of tax deductions. Of course, what to do is a good specialist will only be a legal way.
• Cost Compensation. Making a profit is a complex process in which many components are involved, and one of them is the correct distribution of monetary resources.It is important not only to minimize current and long-term expenses, but also to profit from the skillful investment of free capital in a direction favorable to the company. The search for this direction is the task of the finance manager.
• Analysis and control. In order for the company to flourish and develop, it is necessary to constantly monitor the financial side of any process taking place in it. But in addition to internal control, the manager is obliged to carry out analysis of the external economic environment, which affects directly or indirectly profit growth. Timely response and making the right forecasts will help save money and increase them.
• Financial management. This function boils down to the correct distribution of all financial flows of the company, taking into account its assets, finding profitable investment areas and minimizing possible financial risks.
• The introduction of innovation. Every year, a finance specialist develops a strategic development plan for the company. The direction of movement, according to this plan, depends on the level of income generation for the past period, as well as on the prospects for profit growth and the state of the economy in the industry. In addition, often such a plan also includes the modernization of certain objects, requiring new approaches to doing business and, accordingly, financial investments.

Before starting to work in the company, an experienced manager briefly gets acquainted with the balance sheet of the enterprise. He does this not out of idle curiosity, but to understand the scope of job duties, the circle of which displays a special document called job description. In each organization, it will have its own characteristics, but there are also basic points in it.

• The main provisions. It indicates to which category according to the staffing the specialist - the head or employee belongs. In the same section, the required level of education, work experience and basic skills are prescribed. The next subparagraph will contain data determining which of the managers the financial manager will report to, as well as who will perform his duties for the period of illness, departure on a business trip or vacation.
• Job responsibilities. This paragraph describes in detail the entire set of functions that an employee needs to perform. Here are some of them as an example: development of working capital standards, analysis of financial and economic activities, asset management and so on.
• Performance Criteria. To determine how effective the finance manager is in its activities, the company thinks through and fixes markers in the instructions by which the quality of its work will be reliably determined. For example, such an indicator will be the annual increase in profits at the planned level, the absence of accounts payable, an increase in production volumes, and more.
• The list of employee rights. These are the powers that an entity gives to a financial manager on behalf of the CEO. For example, the financial manager is instructed to conduct business correspondence with the tax authorities, interact and give orders to the heads of structural divisions, have the right to sign financial documents and other options.
• Norms of responsibility. This clause determines the degree and measure of responsibility that the employee will incur as a result of his actions or unreasonable inaction. For example, for a violation of the laws of the Russian Federation, a financial manager will be liable in the manner prescribed by law. For violation of labor discipline, a disciplinary sanction will be imposed on him.If material losses are discovered, the employee may be subject to legal proceedings.