1. Financial analysis and planning, including project analysis (“ad hoc” tasks as requested), financial modeling, and budgeting.

2. Accounting and tax planning.

3. Management accounting and reporting.

4. Process automation and BI-reporting, supervision of financial IT-systems.

5. Treasury management, including liquidity management, payment processing, and maintaining a payment calendar.

Corporate IT systems usually fall within the CFO’s area of responsibility, and therefore they play a crucial role in selecting and enhancing not only financial systems, but also overall management and automation systems (ERP), customer relationship automation systems (CRM), working closely with heads of production and leaders of commercial departments. The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for system support, data storage, cybersecurity, user system support, maintenance of computer and office equipment, and access organization.

In North and South America, a CFO serves as a general manager with broad responsibilities, including investor relations, corporate governance, reporting, liquidity control, risk management, and authority in representing the company and signing documents. In the United States, functional department heads are often referred to as Vice Presidents.

Notably, in the United States, when a company goes public, the CEO and CFO bear full legal responsibility (up to criminal liability with sentences exceeding 20 years) for the organization’s activities and the information provided to investors. It is not the business development director or CTO, nor the Vice President for legal matters, but rather the financial leader, who is also the Vice President for finance. The CFO and the CEO share full personal responsibility for the company’s activities and accurate representation of its affairs in public documents. Consequently, the CFO is essentially the second most important leader in the organization, with the same level of responsibility to shareholders as the CEO.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the functionalities of financial directors vary from country to country. Historically, European, American, Chinese, and Japanese style of management and business culture have had varying degrees of influence on the development of general management principles, or approaches, in different countries.

No matter what area of responsibility you take on as a CFO, you need to structure responsibilities, authorities, and resources within the various department. Consider the workload of line managers: every manager should have some unallocated time, free from current operational tasks and requests, to invest in process improvement, mentoring their team, and professional self-development. Also, remember the golden rule of management: the optimal number of direct subordinates for any manager does not exceed seven people, though this may vary based on functionality and tasks. Some leaders require an expert team of two or three assistants for maximum efficiency, while others may need a team of five to seven people.

The contemporary world is too dynamic for rigid long-term plans. If predicting events a month ahead is challenging, making year-long or multi-year strategies futile, if not counterproductive. You’ve probably heard something similar. Perhaps you are also an advocate of adaptable management and, consequently, flexible planning.

In a world where «black swans» have become increasingly common in recent years, accurately forecasting the future becomes exceedingly difficult, as does constructing reliable forecasts.