Financial manager: qualifications and job responsibilities

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

A financial manager is a specialist who performs the duties of developing financial policies, as well as implements its implementation and monitors the implementation of the introduced provisions by all divisions of the company. Currently in Russia there is no clear structuring of the position called "financial manager". This happens for a number of reasons.

• In large commercial and industrial organizations, top management manages cash flows - the CFO, company manager or head of the finance department. There may be a personal assistant reporting to senior management, whose position will be called “financial manager”. It is possible that there are several such managers in the company, and different tasks are set for them. As a rule, financial managers belong to the middle or lower level in the structural staff hierarchy of the company. Such workers do not always graduate from a higher educational institution, sometimes these people come with a secondary specialized education.
• The staffing table of a small company may provide for the presence of a specialist with a higher specialized education, whose profession is directly related to financial activities. He is charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing financial policies. In this case, the financial manager in one person is the leader and the executor. He is endowed with a certain degree of independence, power and responsibility in solving all issues related to financial resources.

Such a gradation of the staffing hierarchy directly depends on the size of the enterprise, the volume of management tasks and methods of 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 a graduated institute of economic profile and work experience in the specialty for at least 3 years. As a rule, the interview questions addressed to the applicant are aimed at finding out the level of his professional competence.

What a financial manager should know and be able to do:

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

To become a true professional in your field, a financial manager needs to constantly improve the level of education, monitor changes in legislation, master new software in a timely manner, and also invest in refresher courses... It is best for a graduate of an economic university to start a career as an intern, 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 be long in coming.

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 money turnover. In general, such a specialist should perform 5 main functions.

• Promote capital gains for the company. This is achieved by reducing costs and finding ways to increase profits. Good financial managers 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, a good specialist will do this only in a legal way.
• Cost compensation. Making a profit is a complex process that involves many components, and one of them is the correct allocation of monetary resources.It is important not only to minimize current and long-term costs, but also to profit from the skillful investment of free capital in a direction that is profitable for the company. Finding such a direction is the task of the finance manager.
• Analysis and control. In order for a 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 analyze the external economic environment that directly or indirectly affects the growth of profits. Timely response and making correct forecasts will help save money and increase it.
• Financial management... This function boils down to the correct distribution of all financial flows of the company, accounting for its assets, finding profitable investment areas and minimizing possible financial risks.
• Implementation of innovations. 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 over the past period, as well as on the prospects for profit growth and the state of the economy in the industry. In addition, such a plan often includes the modernization of certain objects, which requires new approaches to doing business and, accordingly, financial investments.

Before joining the company, an experienced manager briefly familiarizes himself with the company's balance sheet. He does this not out of idle curiosity, but to understand the scope of job duties, the range of which is displayed in a special document called job descriptions. In each organization, it will have its own characteristics, but there are also main points in it.

• Basic provisions. Here they indicate to which category according to the staffing table the specialist belongs - a manager or an employee. In the same section, the required level of education, work experience and basic skills are prescribed. The next subparagraph will contain data that determine which of the leaders will report to the financial manager, as well as who will perform his duties at the time 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.
• Criteria for assessing the quality of work... To determine how effective a finance manager is in his activities, the company thinks over and fixes markers in the instructions, by which the quality of his 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.
• List of employee rights. These are the powers that the entity gives to the finance manager on behalf of the CEO. For example, a financial manager is instructed to conduct business correspondence with tax authorities, interact and give orders to heads of structural divisions, have the right to sign financial documents and other options.
• Liability standards. 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 violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation, the financial manager will be held liable in the manner prescribed by law. For violation of labor discipline, a disciplinary penalty will be imposed on him.If material losses are discovered, the employee may be subject to legal proceedings.