Time. That would probably be the most common answer if we asked a bunch of managers and business owners what they'd most like to have right now. Time to enjoy life, family, hobbies... And time to achieve greater efficiency at work. Perhaps that answer, for many of the hypothetical respondents, would have been different if they had been asked when they were studying. At that time, money might have been the most popular answer. But once you reach a position of high responsibility in business, time becomes a treasure, whether you are a a CFO, CEO, or head of a company or an important department.
Chief financial officers in today's business world
As we often say in other articles on this blog, money is necessary and vital. Not only on a personal level, but also in the business world. Any business, no matter how old, has needed to have more income than expenses to survive. That is why the role of a person who manages a company's accounts has always existed, as has someone who plans strategies to maximize the profitability of economic movements.
Accountant, financial director, chief financial officer, finance manager, CFO... The title of this position has changed (and will continue to do so over time), but its functions have not. And we say that it will change further because with this new digital paradigm, everything is evolving and new avenues and working models are opening up. But first, let's ask ourselves several questions about contemporary financial directors to put ourselves in context.
What is a chief financial officer?
This is the position held by the person responsible for making decisions regarding the finances of any company. Depending on the size of the organization, the chief financial officer (especially in small and medium-sized organizations) may combine this position with that of owner or chief executive officer of the company.
What does a chief financial officer do?
The chief financial officer is responsible within a company for deciding what to do in all matters related to finance. Therefore, he or she is in charge of analysis, management, and planning of the organization's financial actions and strategies of the organization.
Are CEO or chief executive officer and chief financial officer the same thing?
Chief financial officers and chief executive officers are not the same thing. In fact, in terms of hierarchy, chief executive officers are usually the only positions above financial officers. However, in small and medium-sized companies, it is common to find that the chief financial officer is also the CEO or chief executive officer of the company.
What are accounting managers?
The accounting director, also known as the accounting manager, is not exactly the same as a financial director. Normally, the accounting director's duties are more closely related to account analysis. In other words, they have more specific and, therefore, more limited responsibilities. For their part, the duties of a financial director may include, in addition to these tasks, others more focused on strategy and planning, which means they have slightly more responsibility.
Once we have answered the main questions about what a CFO does , we can delve into how they currently perform their duties and what their objectives tend to be.
The roles of chief financial officers or CFOs
As we mentioned, the responsibilities of a CFO have not changed much over time. The main objectives remain the same: to maximize the return on the company's financial resources. For this reason, the responsibilities of the chief financial officer remain, broadly speaking, as follows:
- Plan short-, medium-, and long-term financial strategies in the short, medium, and long term for the company's viability.
- Manage annual, quarterly, monthly, and overall accounts to draw conclusions and make decisions. annual, quarterly, monthly, and, ultimately, general accounts to draw conclusions and make decisions.
- Represent the company in any financial transaction (mergers, acquisitions, etc.).
- Control the flow of financial communication both between departments and staff and with partners, suppliers, and customers.
- Establish indicators and goals to pursue for the entire company.
- Optimize the organization's resources in terms of time, personnel, and money for the organization.
The day-to-day life of a CFO (which is another term for the financial director due to the English acronym for Chief Financial Officer) could include many more specific and less significant tasks. However, on a large scale, the main function of the financial manager and, in turn, what has changed the most is how these tasks are performed.
That's the thing about the digital world. The internet is here to stay. Not only that, but it has also burst onto the job market with such force that it has radically changed the way we work. What company doesn't have its own website these days? Do we know how many apps there are today? How many companies are left without offering digital products or services? Well, in the field of finance, exactly the same thing is happening.
Advantages of electronic invoicing for the CFO
At this point in the article, we can tie together everything we have discussed above about the role of the CFO with the digital world. With him and with the concept of time, that divine treasure we referred to in the introduction and which many busy executives now crave, even more than higher financial remuneration.
It is precisely this saving in hours and hours of work and processes that is one of the many advantages of digital transformation of the world of work. A simple but very representative example is the classic Excel program, which every company currently uses. Online stores, systems, platforms, and digital tools of all kinds with multiple features and functionalities are now as necessary for millions of companies in their day-to-day operations as eating.
At easyap, we have long been aware of this new socio-economic landscape. Why? Because of the experience of our team, which is made up of financial and IT executives who have been offering electronic invoicing services to companies of all kinds. That is why we are aware of the many benefits of implementing digital solutions such as ours:
- The delivery of the invoice to the customer is automatically guaranteed, and there is traceability delivery of the invoice to the customer and .
- The invoicing process itself is much faster from issuance to delivery to the customer.
- The financial outlay in printing and postage costs is much lower than in the past.
- There is an increase in productivity among those involved in billing processes, as they can devote more time to more important matters. With this calculator, you can discover the savings and productivity gains your company could achieve.
- Given the fluidity of the processes, the relationship between clients and suppliers tends to be more relaxed and, at the same time, productive.
- All invoices are automatically recorded and registered. automatically account for and record all invoices that are issued.
- The service offers a direct interconnection with FACe and TicketBAI and Peppol, which provides security.
Therefore, and ultimately, if we consider all these advantages, we can see how the savings in resources and costs are enormous. In other words, the CFO of any business or company gets what they want most: time. Time to invest in other issues that require greater human involvement.
However, the scope of a finance director's responsibilities is very broad and goes beyond electronic invoicing. Managing company expenses and employee expenses are other aspects that, in many organizations, also have to be managed by the CFO. Once again, given our extensive experience, at easyap we are aware of this and that is why our services also offer solutions for this. Our goal? To save resources and offer the possibility of achieving what sometimes seems unattainable: time.
