WHAT DOES A CFO DO?

Published: May 20, 2025 - The Chief Financial Officer leads strategic planning, business development, and digital transformation initiatives to drive long-term value creation and scalable growth. This position oversees financial reporting, risk mitigation, and cross-functional alignment with a focus on compliance, technology integration, and stakeholder engagement. This role cultivates high-performing teams across Finance, Accounting, and IT while fostering strategic partnerships and enhancing corporate governance.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Chief Financial Officer

1. Chief Financial Officer Duties

  • Record Keeping: Maintains the records of the company in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
  • Strategic Decisions: Participate in pivotal decisions as they relate to strategic initiatives and operational models with a strong focus on revenue growth and profitability
  • Cross-Departmental Alignment: Interact with and bring departments and subsidiaries into line with CEO’s plans, initiatives and recommendations
  • Performance Management: Continuously monitor and develop the performance of the organization as a whole, and take corrective action
  • M&A Leadership: Proactively lead M&A opportunities, negotiation, due diligence, execution and post-acquisition integration
  • Stakeholder Partnership: Partner with key stakeholders to aid the company in continuing its current growth path
  • Commercial Review: Rigorously review and improve the company's commercial activities
  • Contract Management: Support development, negotiations and monitoring of client and vendor contracts
  • Business Execution: Monitor and direct the implementation of the strategic business plans and the development and execution of supporting tactical initiatives
  • Business Analysis: Identify, develop and execute analysis of business initiatives and/or new service offerings

2. CFO Details

  • Budget Support: Consistently support management team to achieve budget, revenue and EBITDA goals
  • Accounting Supervision: Supervise all accounting and reporting control processes to ensure the integrity of financial statements and the safeguarding of assets
  • Staff Management: Maintain and manage a lean staff of finance and infrastructure professionals
  • Financial Evaluation: Provide support in the evaluation of potential acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, new market entry, and direct financial integration of new initiatives
  • Executive Partnership: Partner with the CEO and other members of senior management on performance against plans and budgets
  • Data Analysis: Provide useful and objective analysis to other executives to assist in evaluating results and in driving a greater level of accountability throughout the organization
  • Technology Upgrade: Upgrade technology utilization in the financial processes to ensure that financial systems are maintained
  • Communication Preparation: Prepare communications on internal control statements and representations
  • Fund Oversight: Oversee a portfolio of existing real estate funds and other co-mingled investment vehicles
  • Fund Management: Responsible for the management of fund accounting, reporting, capital calls, and distributions
  • Team Supervision: Supervise the accounting team on day-to-day operations and activities (4 individuals)

3. CFO Responsibilities

  • Finance Management: Manage finance and accounting functions
  • Business Analysis: Provide business analysis on the company's operations and product results
  • Accounting Direction: Direct all accounting functions, including payroll, accounts receivable/collections, expense processing, taxes, and revenue recognition and reporting (working with a Senior Accountant)
  • Profit Leadership: Provide leadership needed to plan and grow profit efficiently, including developing budgets and providing accurate projections in support of business strategy
  • Results Presentation: Present a timely and valid interpretation of operating results
  • Fiscal Operations: Responsible for overall fiscal operations including directing internal financial programs and procedures, and maintaining useful relationships with outside partners and vendors
  • Financial Modeling: Provide ongoing financial analysis and modeling to a range of company leaders in support of key business decisions
  • Compliance Leadership: Provide sound leadership in complying with financial and legal requirements
  • Financial Planning: Develop short-range and long-range financial plans to achieve established corporate goals
  • Strategy Definition: Define the financial strategy, present to executive leadership on a regular basis, and conduct meaningful proactive analysis to improve key financial decisions
  • Tax Management: Manage annual tax and audit reporting procedures
  • CEO Reporting: Report directly to the CEO, closely collaborating with other divisions of the company

4. CFO Job Summary

  • Executive Alignment: Align the executive team around financial objectives and serve as a resource in achieving business goals
  • Budget Planning: In conjunction with the CEO, build and maintain a rolling budget/business plan and associated annual and quarterly Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s)
  • Goal Setting: Set financial goals and establish effective performance metrics (KPI’s)
  • P&L Management: Drive profit and loss accountability including standard costs, product-level gross margins, brand P&Ls, and functional SG&A targets
  • CapEx Management: Drive CapEx decisions to fuel aggressive growth in manufacturing and distribution capabilities for imminent investments
  • Sales Incentives: Work with the COO to develop, track, and administer a Sales incentive program that incentivizes margin-accretive top-line growth ahead of the Company’s annual growth target
  • Accounting Management: Manage the accounting systems, processes, and procedures to record, monitor, and report on the organization’s assets and liabilities in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles and all regulatory requirements
  • Financial Reporting: Provide a timely monthly close and provide regular flash reports internally and externally to key stakeholders
  • Reporting Accuracy: Ensure completeness and correctness in all financial reporting
  • Finance Oversight: Oversee all matters related to accounting and finance

5. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Functions

  • Financial Control: Implement and maintain a financial control system that ensures the ssets of the company are protected and financial reporting is accurate
  • Accounting Management: Manage and support accounting personnel for all accounting and accounting-related tasks
  • Control Procedures: Ensure that control procedures and financial systems are in place and functioning as designed
  • Organizational Structure: Provide for the necessary organizational structure and personnel to perform accounting tasks in alignment with control procedures in a timely and accurate manner
  • Payroll Management: Manage payroll process and related employee compliance, including all payroll tax reporting and other payroll compliance items
  • Compliance Assurance: Ensure that all accounting activities are performed in accordance with GAAP and regulatory requirements
  • Debt Management: Manage debt and financing activities, including debt payment and related accounting and financial reporting required by any loan agreements
  • Cash Management: Manage daily, weekly and monthly cash requirements and develop best uses of cash and other financial resources for recommendation to other management
  • Finance Representation: Participate with company management as a finance representative
  • Financial Reporting: Provide financial statements to management and the board
  • Performance Reporting: Provide useful management reporting for monitoring the company’s performance both financially and operationally

6. CFO Job Description

  • Accounting Development: Continue to build and scale an outstanding accounting function
  • Control Development: Develop internal control guidelines, policy and procedure. Implement proper financial controls
  • Month-End: Oversee month-end close. Design, implement, and maintain appropriate processes and policies to enable accurate and timely financial reporting
  • Technical Leadership: Provide technical accounting leadership and guidance on significant and complex accounting matters, especially those related to revenue recognition in the dynamic and evolving medtech space
  • Systems Strategy: Set the strategic direction for the financial systems team to ensure the proper automation, auditability and controls on underlying data sets and records
  • Financial Statements: Prepare timely and accurate consolidated financial statements for investors and Board of Directors
  • Chart Management: Work closely with FP&A on developing and maintaining the ideal chart of accounts that allows for closing speed and detail for management reporting needs
  • Audit Liaison: Liaise between external auditing firm and internal financial operations and PE firm
  • Governance Collaboration: Work with the CEO and General Counsel on corporate governance matters
  • Tax Treasury: Oversee tax and treasury, assist and support outside counsel on all required tax filings and optimize treasury and transfer pricing
  • Compliance Assurance: Ensure compliance with state and federal regulatory requirements and professional standards

7. CFO Overview

  • Cash Management: Improve the cash conversion cycle through better management of and reporting on inventory, accounts payable, and credit and collections
  • Cash Projection: Develop a cash flow projection process and reporting to ensure adequate capital for operating needs
  • Internal Controls: Ensure internal controls and related processes
  • Process Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve processes and increase profitability
  • Staff Development: Recruit, train, and mentor staff
  • Operations Oversight: Oversees all operational and administrative functions and ensures that the core operations of the client
  • Transformation Leadership: Drive transformation initiatives, modernize technological infrastructure, identify, develop, and launch new capabilities and programs that are both technical and people-driven
  • Budget Planning: Set clear priorities and measurable budgets and goals in order to optimize the delivery of high-quality services on time and on budget with data-driven decision making
  • Partnership Management: Preserve and expand partners, donors and knowledge base and further enhance the client as a leader in providing social services to the Jewish Community and the public at large in Broward County
  • Mission Commitment: Passionate about social enterprises, and committed to the client's Mission and Vision

8. CFO Tasks

  • Finance Leadership: Lead and manage the finance and accounting function to ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and compliance of financial reporting, budgets, and tax planning and preparation
  • Financial Analysis: Prepare and provide analysis on cash flow forecasts and summaries, revenue forecasts, sales by SKU, monthly financial statements, and market data and insights
  • Model Preparation: Prepare and update financial models to support business growth initiatives
  • Budget Management: Manage the annual budgeting process and facilitate approval by the Board of Directors
  • Strategic Planning: Inform strategic decision-making by participating in Quarterly and Annual Strategic Planning Sessions
  • Project Analysis: Provide specific financial analysis including special projects and detailed analysis regarding certain trends
  • Audit Management: Manage any financial and compliance audits or reviews which are required annually
  • Tax Filing: Manage filings of federal and state tax returns and quarterly payment of these applicable taxes
  • Tax Compliance: Ensure financial compliance reporting for sales tax, property tax, and any other tax compliance areas
  • Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with any other non-tax federal, state, or local filing obligations that involve finance, payroll, or human resources
  • Law Compliance: Ensure compliance with any new federal and state laws involving tax, payroll, or human resources

9. CFO Roles

  • Financial Leadership: Provide leadership, direction for the financial department
  • Business Planning: Establish and administer business plans and budgets, along with goals and deliverables, to align with the business strategy
  • Acquisition Financing: Design creative ways of financing acquisitions
  • Strategic Advising: Provide strategic recommendations to the CEO/President and members of the executive management team
  • Financial Planning: Advise on long-term and short-term business and financial planning
  • Growth Support: Assist the management team in driving aggressive growth
  • Forecast Management: Manage the processes for the financial forecasting and budgets and oversee the preparation of all financial reporting
  • Stakeholder Relations: Establish and develop relations with senior management and external partners and stakeholders
  • Tax Oversight: Oversee the preparation of all tax compliance reporting
  • Treasury Management: Oversee treasury and banking functions
  • Compensation Management: Provide insight and be part of the management of compensation, fringe benefits, and commercial insurance lines

10. CFO Additional Details

  • System Development: Lead the development of financial systems/structure/processes to ensure quality and drive uniformity and efficiency
  • Accounting Practices: Make sure Ryan managers are practicing both cost and managerial accounting practices in managing departments
  • Field Oversight: Spent enough time in the field with managers to see that this is actually happening
  • Accounting Responsibility: Responsible for all accounting and financial activity of the corporation, which adheres to company policy
  • Credit Management: Responsible for all credit and collections
  • Corporate Governance: Responsible for all Corporate Governance and Corporate Secretarial duties for the LLC and its subsidiaries
  • Tax Compliance: Responsible for ensuring compliance with all local, state, and federal tax regulations and filings
  • Staff Development: Develop, train and manage an effective staff
  • ERP Implementation: Hire and direct staff for the implementation of ERP system
  • Policy Management: Establish and maintain all finance and accounting policies and procedures
  • Team Leadership: Lead and mentor the finance and accounting teams

11. Chief Financial Officer Essential Functions

  • Strategic Leadership: Provide strategic financial input and leadership on decision-making issues affecting the company and evaluate and advise on the impact of long-range planning (i.e., growth, markets, strategies, and investments)
  • Financial Strategy: Lead strategy and execution across all financial functions including accounting, finance, treasury, tax and strategic planning
  • Process Implementation: Implement processes, frameworks and systems that allow MIG to capture and utilize timely and accurate data across the business to make better decisions as we grow the development and construction divisions
  • FP&A Leadership: Leadership for all financial planning & analysis, including ownership of annual budgeting, periodic forecasting, KPI/dashboard management and operational analytics processes that inform the CEO and senior management on company performance in real time
  • Partner Relations: Develop and maintain relationships with external partners that support the finance, debt, acquisitions and development infrastructure
  • Opportunity Analysis: Develop organization prospects by studying economic trends and revenue opportunities, projecting acquisition and expansion prospects, analyzing organizational operations and identifying opportunities for improvement, cost reduction, and systems enhancements as well as strategic deployment of capital to fund further investments
  • Tech Innovation: Build MIS, AI and data analytics infrastructure while assessing emerging technologies and promoting the use of new technology systems and processes to streamline business functions and reporting
  • Cash Optimization: Cash flow optimization, through cash forecasting, working capital management and investment analysis
  • Reporting Execution: Execute a timely monthly close of all financial reporting and publish regular flash reports internally and externally to key stakeholders
  • Banking Administration: Administer banking arrangements, loan agreements, covenant compliance and maintain adequate sources of capital for the company’s current borrowings from commercial banks and other lending institutions

12. CFO Role Purpose

  • Value Creation: Lead value creation efforts including strategic planning and business development
  • Business Development: Lead business development activity including mergers and acquisitions
  • Digital Transformation: Lead digital transformation efforts including the development of information technology architecture to support anticipated business growth
  • Accounting Leadership: Lead the Accounting team in providing accurate, timely and useful financial and management reporting in compliance with GAAP
  • Risk Management: Lead risk assessment and mitigation efforts including setting direction on commercial terms and conditions
  • Team Mentoring: Mentor, coach, and develop the Finance, Accounting, and Information Technology teams
  • Professional Relations: Act as the company lead in relationships with Professional Services firms such as Accounting, Banking, Legal and Insurance
  • Executive Partnership: Partner with the other senior executives across the company to continue developing a forward-looking company strategy and building a culture of strong ethical standards, cohesion, accountability, and teamwork
  • CEO Partnership: Partner with the CEO on financing strategy, board communications, and corporate development, utilizing existing relationships and building new ones across the real estate finance community
  • Strategic Partnership: Partner with all members of the senior management team and other company leadership on short, medium- and long-term business strategy

13. CFO General Responsibilities

  • Process Consistency: Drive consistency amongst processes, policies and operational discipline throughout the business
  • Leadership Influence: Act as an effective leader with the ability to connect with and inspire a high-performance culture that drives positive changes and executes swiftly
  • Operational Performance: Ensure predictable operational performance is achieved in terms of customer service levels and asset availability/ condition
  • Strategy Translation: Assists in the translation of the CEOs vision into operational strategy, and priorities
  • Operational Strategy: Set the strategic direction for the operational functions that will drive bottom-line growth, whilst creating a robust and effective business
  • Global Efficiency: Drive global efficiency and effectiveness
  • Execution Support: Deliver the organizational structure, tools, data, measures and processes to support rapid execution and growth
  • Performance Reporting: Oversee reporting for operational performance, and ensure improvement against key indicators
  • Offshore Management: Ensures offshore services are efficient and are being leveraged globally in an effective and efficient manner
  • Talent Development: Hire, develop and help train key talent across all teams
  • P&L Leadership: Work alongside the CFO to lead the business with full global P&L responsibility and take ownership of a number of divisions in the company

14. CFO Roles and Details

  • Finance Management: Reporting to the CEO and Managing Director, manage the finance and accounting function for the business, including tax and treasury
  • Admin Leadership: Lead administrative programs such as IT, HR, Purchasing and Insurance
  • Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that the company complies with all relevant SEC and governmental regulations
  • Risk Management: Proactively manage all risks to the business
  • Investor Support: Support the senior executive team with fundraising, investor relations and other key activities
  • Corporate Leadership: Providing corporate leadership
  • Strategic Planning: Business planning, accounting and financial strategy
  • Treasury Management: Funding and Treasury Management
  • Performance Management: Performance and Organisational Management
  • Company Secretary: Company Secretary, compliance and assurance

15. CFO Responsibilities and Key Tasks

  • Team Leadership: Lead the current finance team of 4, comprised of FP&A and Accounting functions
  • Strategic Planning: Determine both short-term and long-term business strategy based on deep foundational knowledge of business, competitors, and the model
  • Capital Management: Maintain relationships and shepherd future capital raises from start to finish
  • Financing Structure: Develop a robust financing structure for the company to meet near-term and long-term needs
  • Financial Oversight: Oversee financial planning during a time of significant investments and doubling in budget and headcount
  • Accounting Oversight: Oversee the accounting function as growth brings us into more complex auditing requirements and taxation and regulatory compliance internationally
  • Reporting Compliance: Ensure the business is reporting effectively to auditors, the Board, and internal constituencies
  • Corporate Development: Build Corporate Development capabilities for any future potential acquisitions
  • Investor Relations: Develop an equity story and prepare presentation materials for investors in preparation for raising funds and listing
  • Business Development: Business plan development and correspondence with investors, banks, auditors, securities companies, etc.
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