When & Why Should You Hire a CFO? Job Duties & Benefits to the Business

In today’s competitive and ever-changing market, your business often needs top-notch talent on an interim or project basis to complete critical internal initiatives, optimize financial operations and maintain your strategic advantage.

If your business is running into issues surrounding market changes, restructuring or rapid growth, it might be a signal that it’s time to hire a CFO.

What does a CFO do?

CFOs will act as an essential partner to your business, working closely with other C-level executives, marketing departments, sales teams and strategists in order to identify the financial ramifications of a decision being made, evaluate the overall “financial health” of your business, as well as implement strategies to help you fill in the gaps.

What are the job duties of a CFO?

A CFO’s job duties include but are not limited to:

• Overseeing accounting department, budget preparation and audit functions
• Collaboration with department heads to monitor and implement new strategies
• Analyzing operations to identify areas in need of reorganization, downsizing or elimination
• Reviewing planning process and suggesting improvements to methods

When should a company hire a CFO?

Determining when you should hire a CFO depends largely on your company’s stage of growth and individual needs. If your company is experiencing growing pains, transitions or restructurings, it can be beneficial to bring a CFO on ahead of time to help close the gaps and drive strategic initiatives.

What are the benefits of hiring a CFO?

1. Access to years of experience and industry expertise
2. Ability to predict & forecast instead of reacting
3. Improved processes & internal systems
4. Better data & accurate reporting

What qualities & skills matter when hiring a CFO?

• Strong technical & analytical abilities
• Risk assessment expertise
• Leadership, communication and collaboration skills
• Strategic yet innovative mindset
• Business experience & savviness
• Ability to learn & adapt quickly
• Excellent storyteller
• Ability to communicate, earn trust in an organization & set expectations

What should a CFO should focus on? What’s on the agenda in the first few months?

The CFO must discover who does what and who the important players are and establish their comprehensive view of the company, including all employees (from managers to clerks), vendors, consumers, board members and lenders.

If a CFO spends their day poring through management reports, reviewing and studying financials and paperwork, it’s not a good sign.

It’s vital to remember that generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) simplify businesses to a few figures. It’s critical to keep in mind that GAAP reduces a tiny corporation to a few numbers. The company is more complex than GAAP requires.

As a result, the CFO must communicate the company’s strategic goal to all stakeholders.

The numbers must be precise, but you must also be familiar with the culture and people to understand the business.

Should you hire a CFO or an Interim CFO?

Full-time CFO’s can be expensive, but a good CFO can easily justify their existence within an organization by helping implement thoughtful growth and fiscally responsible strategies.

Ultimately, it depends on the growth and trajectory of your business to decide if you should hire a CFO or an Interim CFO.

Interim CFOs: Definition, Job Duties & Benefits of Hiring

Why Hiring a CFO is Important

Hiring a CFO can be instrumental in identifying what is needed to sustainably grow your business. Whether you decide you need an interim, full-time or fractional CFO, they’ll do everything they can to financially support investments, track progress, bring the right people onto your team and bring your business to the next level.