Role of Finance Team to Assume a Wider Scope Besides Accounting

The finance function is now taking a broader spectrum from the ordinary financial and accounting reporting functions by venturing into areas like the information technology development, business planning strategy and cyber security as per a survey conducted by the organization of American CPAs institute.

A survey conducted by a total of 1200 CEO’s together with other Accountants at senior levels revealed that there was more responsibility and increased skills that were set in the finance group. Majority of the people also reported that a bigger complexity was felt when asked to gauge the level of complexity for the three years which have passed.

In fact, about 30% of the accountants reported to have experienced more complexity. The organization’s seniors do not see the situation getting any better. Looking 3 years to the front, close to 95 % of all the CGMAs polled agreed that the complexity in the environment of the business would go up to an extra mile. About three quarter of the population made a prediction of a reasonable or modest rise in the complexity of businesses. On the other hand, there were only about 5% who showed minimal change in complexity while only less than 1 % affirmed that the business complexity would reduce greatly in the succeeding 3 years.

Arleen R Thomas, said that the rise in business complexity is now becoming the new trend and it’s no wonder that businesses are able to adapt and become used to the increasing change. Consequently, management accountants are being called upon in order to play a bigger role than ever.

The finance team together with the CFO is therefore expected to carry a bigger role. These include such roles as strategic business planning, corporate governance and management, cyber security and IT development, human resources and legal compliance. Way forward, strategic business planning has been identified by CGMAs as one of the top most crucial skills that is necessary in performing their role in the net three years or so. Communications and change management are some of the other skills identified as being necessary in carrying out their roles in the future.