Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Finc 44
Controller
Cost Accounting
traditional core competency of controllers
Capital Expenditure Budgeting
basic accounting approach for assessing capital
expenditure projects and also management and advisory
transactions
discounted cash flows or Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
calculations
Financial Accounting
knowledge is expected of controllers and includes
familiarity with the PAS/PFRS standards
The real competency is being able to apply standards in a
focused way, based on the business conditions you find
The successful controller:
Technical Skills
Financial Accounting
Technical skills are important in the sense that they enable
the link between the internal perspective of controllers
and the external perspective of financial accounting
Financial accountants have to comply with standards such
as International Accounting Standards (IAS) when preparing
reports to external stakeholders, whereas controllers do
not.
Controllers overriding objective is to provide information
to managers that support rational decisions. Such
information may or may not comply with financial
accounting standards
In case they do not comply, controllers who are aware of
the differences given their technical skills are able to
explicate these differences and avoid confusion
The successful controller:
Technical Skills
Communication Skills
Communication skills are what allow controllers to share
their results with colleagues
controllers were often noted for their poor communication
skills in the past, instead choosing to hide behind systems,
calculations, and numbers
Nowadays, the ability to clearly present information to
management, and to argue persuasively when engaging
with colleagues, is becoming more and more important
In other words, it is not the number itself that is
important; rather, it is what the number actually means
and implies that is important
The successful controller:
Interpersonal Skills
Communication Skills
When requesting information from other departments, it
helps to be able to communicate why the information is
needed instead of just demanding the numbers
This helps to reduce resistance on the part of coworkers
and increases the probability of receiving usable numbers
supplied in a cooperative fashion
communication determines how the entire range of services
provided by controllers is perceived
SITUATION: You’ll always be vulnerable if somebody is telling
you stories. I always find that quite embarrassing. That’s when I
say: “Explain it to me in a way that I can understand!” And if he
explains it to me five times and I still don’t understand it—then
he’s not a good controller
The successful controller:
Interpersonal Skills
Team Skills
Teams generate controllership services, and as the
manager only sees the final product, it is important for
controllers to act in concert while working on their tasks
the ability and willingness to cooperate with others—play a
key role in bringing together the specialized components of
controllership
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
Findings
accounting skills are already in high demand, which partly
explains why such skills sit at the lower end of the ranking
technical skills remain important, interpersonal, “soft”
skills are becoming more and more critical
controllership role is, in fact, moving away from traditional
roles, such as “bean counter” and “corporate cop,” toward
more proactive roles
Controllers not only generate raw data; they also “play”
with the numbers, interpret them, communicate them,
and, together with managers, work on achieving an
understanding of what the numbers mean for managers in
their decision making.
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
Findings
This brings the question of how CFOs can best allocate
their resources and time in the face of the huge and
increasing responsibilities.
The challenges include prioritisation and balancing short-
term/long-term trade offs as businesses seek to reduce
cost but also plan for growth longer term
The successful controller:
Changing Role of Controllers
The successful controller
Find