The difference between an accountant and a financial manager. Is it possible to combine in one specialist?

Have you heard of such a specialist as a financial manager? Recently, I myself heard about this. It turns out that at the enterprise itself this position is often combined with the post of accountant. Or rather chief accountant raise, and he becomes a financial manager. But is it the same thing? Do the accountant and financial manager perform the same functions? Do they have a common goal in the enterprise? Do they have the same goals and objectives? Does the leader require the same from them?

In fact, these professions differ among themselves. The difference lies in the functions of these posts, goals, objectives, goals of the enterprise and the requirements of the head. Unfortunately, the problem arises that, often, the manager does not understand the difference between an accountant and a financial manager and burdens the accountant with duties that are not peculiar to him and which a financial manager should fulfill.

So, consider the main differences between an accountant and a financial manager.

The main difference between an accountant and a financial manager is their professional competence. An accountant is a specialist who is engaged in accounting, reporting. Its main tasks: timely and correctly assess taxes to the state budget and monitor changes in legislation that are happening too often in our country. Currently, the financial manager is a specialist who is engaged in managing working capital, planning financial flows, developing strategies for the effective functioning of the enterprise. In addition, the financial manager monitors the position of the enterprise on the market, its changes and must respond in time to these changes, optimizing the situation. The financial manager provides the manager with information about the current state of the organization, provides arguments for planning and forecasting its future activities. The accountant does not have information regarding the functioning of the enterprise in the future.

It follows that the accountant and financial manager have a different database. The accountant works with reports and current data of the enterprise, that is, deals with yesterday and today's events. Prediction of the future state of the enterprise requires further processing of these figures with the help of special techniques and approaches that are not included in the accountant's area of ​​competence.

The financial manager deals with documents of a managerial nature and receives information on the activities of the enterprise every day. He has data on cash flows, on production, sales, distribution channels, on the strategic promotion of the organization and its value in the market.

Of course, an accountant can take on the responsibilities of a financial manager and can engage in forecasting and planning the activities of the enterprise. However, this is a job requiring a lot of time to complete it. In addition to the responsibilities of accounting and reporting, the accountant will have to study the work of the financial manager, receiving additional education. Performing these functions will require the accountant to spend additional time and energy. Yes, there are such people who immediately combine both an accountant and a financial manager in enterprises, but there are too few of them.

These two specialists described above have different goals and objectives in the enterprise. The accountant is obliged to monitor the financial condition of the enterprise and, in accordance with tax legislation, calculate and pay taxes to the budget. The financial manager has a more global goal - it is to maximize the value of the organization in the market by increasing the profitability of using the capital of the enterprise.

From the foregoing, it follows that the accountant and financial manager have a different train of thought. The manager for the rational use of resources makes financial and investment decisions taking into account all possible risks. He evaluates all possible alternatives, and then inclines only to one of them. He weighs all the pros and cons and finally makes his choice.

The accountant does not evaluate alternatives, because he does not need it. The main professional qualities of an accountant are scrupulousness and punctuality. This does not mean that the accountant is a worse specialist than a financial manager. This means that these specialists have different tasks and goals in the company, so they use different means to achieve them and have a different line of behavior in their work, which is natural.

As you can see, the functions of an accountant and a financial manager should be separated. In theory, all of these functions can be performed by one person, but in practice this can cause an employee to overload and, as a result, provide insufficient information to the manager.

For the rational and effective use of specialists, everyone should do his own thing: it is better to navigate your profession, than to know everything and at the same time nothing. The accountant should deal with accounting and reporting, the financial manager with planning and forecasting, and the competence of the head is to manage the company with the help of information prepared by the financial manager for its further strategic use in order to increase the efficiency of the enterprise.

So, the separation of functions of company employees is very important for entrepreneurship. Its market condition will depend on the quality of work of all parts of the company. An accountant and financial manager, although specialists are related to each other, it is important to separate these two positions for the effective functioning of the enterprise as a whole.

Tuzhik Anastasia

Other related materials:
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