We talk a lot about the role a Fractional CFO can play in your business, but what should you expect of the finance team you have in place today? A quality finance staff is crucial to your business — they’re the ones handling your money and financial records day in and day out, after all.

One issue we often observe with our new clients is a finance team member who doesn’t have the right experience for the tasks they’ve been assigned. They’re checking the boxes of their tasks — but there are errors and inefficiencies, they’re disengaged from the work, or they simply haven’t been trained yet.   

If you realize a team member isn’t experienced enough in their role to do the work they should be, there’s no need to panic.  With the right mentor, they can be coached for better performance. All it takes is the right attitude on their part. A quality finance team member will:

• Be open to change and to learning a better way to perform their tasks. When we evaluate our clients’ processes and show them where they can be more efficient or accurate, the best finance team members will be eager to adopt the new procedures to add value to the organization.
• Be willing to follow standard operating procedures. Financial staff tend to have ingrained habits and their own approaches to performing their duties. But for consistent, accurate financials, your whole team needs to be unified in how they do things.  
• Be eager to focus on the next steps, not just what’s already occurred. Financial staff members are always looking back, trying to track and reconcile the numbers. Helping them look forward instead will show how doing their work as efficiently as possible means the company can make better decisions. Show them the impact they can make by helping you work strategically.

A Fractional CFO can steer your finance team in the right direction.

You’ve got a lot going on in your business, and you might not be fluent in the language of finance — meaning you might not be able to lead your financial staff the way they need.

That’s where a Fractional CFO comes in. A Fractional CFO will ensure your team is following financial best practices and being consistent and accurate with your numbers. They can set up a repeatable framework for financial practices and processes that are easy for your team to execute each day, month and year.

Most of the time, any mistakes a team member is making are unintentional. Many finance team members have “learned by doing” and haven’t been trained or mentored in these best practices properly in the past.

Your Fractional CFO will guide them in the right direction and get their buy-in, boosting their engagement and enthusiasm for their work along the way. Mentoring the staff will help them understand why processes are in place and how decisions are made.  

A Fractional CFO will also help keep your team – and your business – focused on the big picture, continuously forecasting and planning strategically for the next year, three years, and five years. Getting your finance team involved in that process will show them how they’re helping to drive the company’s growth by improving their skills and following the right processes.

Find the right leader for your finance team

If you value your finance team but are concerned you’re not getting the best results, it’s time for the help of an experienced financial leader. 

Crown CFO can help you bring out the best in your finance staff. Our Fractional CFOs are experienced financial leaders who can be the mentor your team needs – and a trusted advisor for you. Contact Angela Eberhart at angela@crowncfo.com to find out how we can help your business.