How to Implement Your Finance Team Structure the Right Way

The right finance team structure can improve your financial decisions, cash flow, and even productivity. After all, it’s one of the most crucial teams of your business. The performance of your finance team can make or break your business and affect your bottom line.

So, here is a guide to help you structure your finance department like a pro.

How to Structure a Finance Team

The size of your business will determine the best way to structure your finance department. Additionally, you will have to consider the roles you want your team members to perform. They can even include advanced roles like financial strategist apart from regular accountants.

Below are a few departments for a finance team structure:

• Accounts receivable (AR): Handles payments from clients and customers
• Accounts payable (AP): Manages payments to suppliers, vendors, and services
• Bookkeeping: Maintains day-to-day accounting and financial statements, creates reports
• Expense management: Controls and manages all employee expenses and reimbursements
• Tax: Prepares and handles all tax implications for the business
• Payroll management: Manages all payments to employees like wages and bonuses
• Internal audit: Ensures the company’s books comply with applicable laws
• Budgeting & forecasting: Sets and controls budgets, guides the business on financial decisions

Enterprises generally have a big finance team spread across several department. In comparison, a few employees may handle all the financial responsibilities of a startup.

Therefore, you should structure your finance team based on your business scale and requirements.

How to Implement Your Finance Team Structure

Below are the steps you can follow to structure your finance department. Start with the basics as it will be difficult to step back and rectify your errors later.

1. List all the work performed by the financial department.

Get familiar with all the tasks that your finance team performs. You can ask your team members to write down all the responsibilities they handle.

Make sure you don’t forget to include any workflow.

2. Determine the skills every task requires.

The finance department handles a wide range of responsibilities. Each role needs specific skills that not all employees in the department may possess.

Therefore, determine the skills required to carry out the tasks you listed in step 1. For example, your accountant will need basic bookkeeping skills to maintain your daily accounts.

After you are done, group the tasks based on the skills required to perform them.

3. Identify the skills of each member of your finance team.

You need to know where you stand before you can implement your finance team structure. Start by assessing the skill of every person on the team, including administrative and communication skills.

Additionally, some tasks may require traits like time management or creative thinking. As a result, assess each employee carefully to make an accurate evaluation.

4. Assign team members based on your group of tasks.

You will now have a group of tasks and corresponding skills you need to fulfill them. Along with that, you also have a ready list of the skills each of your finance staff possesses.

All that remains is to match your employees with the right tasks. So, if a task group requires basic accounting knowledge, you can assign it to your bookkeeper.

Additionally, empower your team with the right tools to work productively. Along with an accounting solution, you can consider additional tools to streamline workflow and automate processes.

The list can include resources like spend management software or SaaS payments tool. Some companies also use a standalone travel payment tool for more efficiency.

Best of all, you can integrate the tools with your accounting solution, ERP, or CRM to achieve interoperability.

5. Outsource repetitive or low-impact tasks. (Optional)

Businesses can choose to outsource finance processes to save time and cost. You may outsource your bookkeeping or payroll processing to cut costs.

Outsourcing is also suitable when you lack adequate in-house talent.

Final Thoughts

Focus on the responsibilities of your finance team and assess the skills required to complete them. Next, find the right member to perform the said task. You can also structure your team based on the common roles mentioned above. However, don’t forget to provide the right tools to your finance team to excel at their work. You can always choose Mesh payment solutions for reliability and peace of mind.

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