In today’s age of real-time reporting, small-to-medium enterprises can greatly benefit from having a virtual CFO.
First, what is a CFO and what do they do?
A “Chief Financial Officer”, or CFO for short, is generally the head of the financial, accounting and commercial roles within a business.
Using financial information, the CFO is traditionally tasked with:
• Reviewing past;
• Maintaining present; and
• Maximizing potential future
financial performance and positions of the business.
A CFO must juggle the strategic goals of the business, keeping in mind the needs of various stakeholders, including shareholders, financial institutions, the Australian Taxation Office, the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) or a corporate board.
The CFO will sometimes be as far involved with the business as reviewing the risk of investments, making capital decisions on limited resources (cash, staff, machinery output etc), insurances, process improvements and systems administration.
Above all else, a CFO must be able to drive profitability by improving the ongoing operations of the business without detriment to the medium to long term performance.
OK, so what is a Virtual CFO?
The adoption of technology by businesses has allowed most business owners access to “cloud” services. This can be as basic as having your iTunes account linked to various Apple devices.
This same technology has allowed CFO’s to “go mobile”, with enough time and resources to be employed by several businesses simultaneously.
A Virtual CFO is essentially a part-time CFO, operating on your business according to your individual requirements.
Alright, what can they do for me?
Today’s golden age of instant information means that business owners are never short on financial data. Your tablet, laptop or mobile are all devices screaming at you with figures, percentages or buzz words like “Profitability”, “Debtor Days” and “Cashflow Management”.
These details are significant in running a business. But what can we do with all that information?
A cloud-based accounting system such as MYOB Live, Xero or QuickBooks are useful tools in this regard, allowing:
• You, the business owner, to generate efficiencies across processes which are historically painful and time consuming (think of the pain of going through your last box of receipts); and
• A Virtual CFO, to review real-time information from their accounting system so that the best decisions can be made at the right time
A Virtual CFO will break down the myriad of financial data into useful, bite sized portions. A CFO will then work to ensure the information is best used to attain better results for your business.
That all sounds expensive. How much will it cost?
The reality is that a six-figure salary for a full-time CFO is out of reach for most Start-up or Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SME’s).
That’s understandable.
An Outsourced or Virtual CFO has the capability to fly in, fly out of businesses, assisting them where they are needed, and at a fraction of the cost of a full time CFO.
Interested? We can help.
From time to time, a business just needs a helping hand.
We won’t tell you how to run your business, but we will challenge you to do it better.
Please contact our office if we can be of assistance.