Annual Finance and Budgeting Duties
Overseeing business finances and budgets requires a combination of planning and management skills to help get and keep a company on track throughout the year. In addition to being able to help set up accounting systems, you’ll need to know how to update, manage and modify them to react to changes in internal and market conditions. Knowing the duties of a finance professional will help you determine the skills you need to excel at this position.
One of the first duties of a finance professional is to help create budgets. In addition to a master budget for the company, department and project budgets are necessary for businesses to help set goals and meet targets. In addition to manufacturing or production costs, a financial professional will help a company determine its overhead costs, which includes non-production expenses such as rent, marketing, office staff, insurance and contract services. During the year, the accounting or CFO will monitor budgets to help management determine if the company needs to cut spending, raise prices or use excess cash for accelerated debt reduction, investment or increased marketing or production.
Accounts Receivable and Payable
Throughout the year, a finance person will ensure that bills are paid in a timely manner to avoid penalties and take advantage of discounts for early payment. In addition to sending invoices and recording payments, an accountant will age receivables -- or set them in order by the date billed -- to look for ways to get cash in sooner.
Finance officers oversee the payroll of a business, handling employee payments, taxes and benefits deductions. The finance department of a small business might contract this function to a payroll service, working with the contractor to ensure employees are paid correctly, taxes are properly withheld and submitted and all benefits deductions are made and sent to the benefits provider.
Annual finance duties include preparing and paying annual taxes, as well as making any quarterly payroll taxes and benefits contributions. At a small business, the finance person often works with a CPA or tax attorney to set up tax payments to avoid fines, penalties and possible liens place against the business.
Finance departments should provide regular financial reports to management, including monthly profit-and-loss statements and detailed department performance reports. This allows management to spot problems or opportunities before it’s too late to do anything about them.
Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He is an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and on websites such Smart-Healthy-Living.net, SmartyCents and Youthletic. Edmunds has a bachelor's degree in journalism.