CFO Techniques: A Hands-on Guide to Keeping Your Business Solvent and Successful is a comprehensive and instructive working manual for multitasking chief financial officers and controllers working in the fast-paced commercial environment. Every senior financial professional with an ever-broadening span of control will benefit from this complete outline of the core activities—with specific descriptions of individual tasks—comprising the daily agenda of a successful CFO or controller. It covers everything from traditional responsibilities like budgeting and financial reporting, to more innovative tasks like performance analytics and business strategy development.

While emphasizing specific guidelines on what it takes to excel as a company’s head of finance, the book refrains from overwhelming dryness by using cultural references, real-life examples, and a casual tone. With its bite-sized, easy-to-read chapters, CFO Techniques serves as both an invaluable desktop reference handbook and a good bedtime read. Whether you need a quick recommendation on treasury procedures, adhering to GAAP, keeping funds safe from embezzlers, or advice on dealing with the CEO, you will find the answers in this book.

• Guides you through CFO/controller core responsibilities, function by function
• Serves as a reference manual on financial matters specific to the small and mid-size commercial environment
• Goes beyond finance and accounting, addressing the administrative and behavioral issues all CFOs occasionally must address 

What you’ll learn

You will learn to:

• Identify best practices for each CFO/controller function
• Select tasks crucial for survival and growth of the company
• Formulate processes and procedures
• Organize daily, weekly, monthly, and annual routines
• Identify reporting and analytical requirements
• Establish internal and external working relationships
• Keep the organization on the right side of the law and regulation at all times

Who this book is for

CFO Techniques: A Hands-on Guide to Keeping Your Business Solvent and Successful is for professionals who have built their careers in accounting and finance and reached—or are nearing—the top level. It’s for chief financial officers, controllers, financial directors, and vice presidents who work in small and mid-size companies characterized by flatter organizational structures and wider scopes of responsibilities. CFO Techniques is equally useful for those charting their functions and tasks for the first time, as well as for those who have been in their positions for some time and want to make sure that nothing is amiss.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What It Takes to Succeed, or How Long Is Your Hat Rack?

1. What’s So Special About Smaller Businesses?
2. Titles vs. Job Description
3. CFO’s Mission and Aspirations
4. The Eight Balls You Cannot Afford to Drop
5. Essential Knowledge Prerequisites
6. Commercial and Financial Policies
7. Procedures Development and Documentation
8. Internal Controls
9. The Weakest Link
10. Budgeting as a Control Mechanism
11. Commercial Control
12. Variety and Nature of Capital Resources
13. Business Type vs. Financial Resources
14. Soliciting Lenders and Investors
15. Nurturing Financial Relationships
16. Essence of Treasury Function
17. Cash Flow Projections
18. Cash Position Reports
19. Receivables and Payables Management
20. Cash Management Services
21. Information Technology Needs and Decisions
22. Data Processing and Quality Control
23. Performance Analytics and Executive Reports
24. The Importance of Segmental Analysis
25. Ad-hoc Reporting
26. Find Your Applicable GAAP, FASB, SFAS, and SOP
27. Accounting Cycles Identification
28. The Most Important Statement: Cash Flow
29. Choose Your Auditors Wisely and Educate Them
30. What Guarantees Fast and Painless Audits
31. Insured Risks
32. Commercial Risks
33. Tax and Regulations Compliance
34. Strategic Planning
35. Practical Forecasting and Scenario Modeling
36. New Ventures
37. Exit Strategies
38. Human Resources Management
39. Hiring and Outsourcing
40. The Importance of Behavioral Assessment