Financial Reports, Scaling, and Fleshing Out the Finance Team

When it comes to scaling, you might be wondering if this means that you will likely need to have additional financial reports. Thankfully, this is not likely going to be the case. However, what is more likely is that you will most likely find the reports become somewhat more complicated. If part of your scaling involves an acquisition where you now have a subsidiary (or subsidiaries), then you have to worry about consolidated reports.

With this level of complexity that scaling brings, the focus that you should have is expanding your finance team so that they can quickly and thoroughly analyze all of the data that is present. They will look at all of the reports (and other data) differently, having specific insights about your company. Here is the main list of people who make up your finance team along with their job descriptions:

CFO/VP of Finance: This is the General of the team. From putting together and maintaining budgets to developing relationships with bankers to secure funding, this is a must have when it comes to scaling your business effectively.

Controller: The Controller is tasked with making sure that all of your accounting is accurate. They are more involved in the nitty gritty than the CFO/VP of Finance, focusing more on what has happened as opposed to looking forward.

Analyst: This role is all about crunching numbers and trying to delve as deep as possible. While finances are areas in which they will look, the analyst could also look at other data that is tied to the corporate finances.

Accountant: This is the person who handles the bookkeeping. While not necessarily a CPA (or needing to be one), their job is to make sure everything is recorded properly in the software.

Billing: For companies that handle a large volume of invoices with customers, having a billing specialist who can make sure that invoices are submitted timely to customers (as well as paid)is likely a role that you should have.

Payable: Likewise, for companies that have a large number of bills and vendors, a dedicated payables specialist is something that will be very helpful to have.

Payroll: The larger the team, the more paychecks that need to be processed. Having someone who can handle this, the payroll taxes, and tracking the benefits is crucial. Of course, with a team this size, there is a good chance that you might have multiple individuals handling the different duties pertaining to payroll administration.

Obviously, this list is not intended to be exhaustive, but it outlines the key roles that you will likely have. While there will be some variation depending on industry, these are the likely roles that you can expect to find in a company that is preparing to scale.

You might be looking at this list and realize that there are multiple roles that your company does not currently have. If this is the case, what you need to do quickly is to assess what impact scaling will have on your company in terms of creating a need for these positions. Most people who have functioned in small businesses recognize that several of these roles can be combined and handled by one person (I know, because I did that.) However, if the customer volume is about to expand significantly, then that person could be on the verge of working incredibly long and busy days, falling behind no matter how hard they try.

Obviously, this is not an optimal situation, and it needs to be avoided. Consider then the likelihood that you should very carefully study the impact of scaling on your team and try to prepare accordingly. Even though initially workloads might be light, getting the right people in place and making sure that everyone has the proper training will enable the growth to not be as overwhelming as making the decision to hire someone when everyone is overworked and people are contemplating leaving.

Likewise, do not look at the above list as must haves. It is possible that you will need to have them at some point. At this point I want to say that even if some of the roles you do not get, I strongly recommend getting an analyst for the team. Because of the power of analytics in the modern business setting, having a dedicated analyst will go a long way.

There you have it. At the end of the day, you need to consider your finance team looking like this in some way if you truly do want to scale as a business. While your financial reports will likely remain the same (albeit substantially more complicated), you will require having a larger team capable of giving you the analysis that is necessary.