How to get the most out of your financial manager

Getting the most out of your financial manager often depends on the quality of the financial manager that you have engaged or employed to safe guard your company’s financial future. Excellent, educated and highly experienced financial managers come at a price, but with good reason.

You wouldn’t let a first year medical student conduct an organ transplant that could save your life, so why don’t you treat your company with the same respect? Using an underqualified, inexperienced financial manager to control and manage your company finances because they are ‘not as expensive as the other guy’, could be setting a path for your company’s financial ruin or even liquidation. Why? Because you get what you pay for.

Before you worry about how to get the most out of your financial manager, perhaps the real question should be, “how do you work together with him / her to get the most out of their experience and skill set?” For those businesses or entrepreneurial endeavours that require an excellent financial manager but don’t believe the scope of work necessitates employing a financial manager full time, there are companies that can provide solutions. This is a phenomenon known as The Rise of the SuperTemp.

The rise of the part time financial manager or SuperTemp

This term refers to the rise of the independent financial contractor, who outsource their skills on a part time or interim basis. The Harvard Business Review labelled them “SuperTemps”. These top level financial managers have been trained at esteemed institutions and are alums of well respected and successful companies. The trend of using these SuperTemps has been growing in popularity internationally and is now a trend that is featuring prominently within the South African business landscape. South African companies are moving towards a more streamlined and results driven approach to hiring individuals for key financial manager positions.

The current South African labour landscape has created an unusual pool of highly talented and experienced professionals, who can’t get back (or don’t want to get back) into the corporate work space and are now available on the independent market. They are making a career of providing part time financial management services – not just providing this service as a stop gap until they can find a permanent post. Companies like The Finance Team specialise in providing companies with trusted part time financial managers that are able to fulfil a company’s financial management needs.

Using an experienced part time resource will allow you to get the most out of your financial manager

Experienced and trustworthy part time financial managers have all the necessary skills for the job. They are naturally self-starters who are able to assess the state of the financial wellbeing of the company, streamline processes and set up systems that will benefit the company both in the short and long term. They are used to dealing with company management and shareholders and are able to provide financial reports that are accurate and understandable.

More and more companies are beginning to realise that it is more cost effective and productive to hire the best possible part time financial manager for the job at hand rather than to employ a sub-standard full time financial manager that could end up costing the company in the long run.