WHAT DOES A FINANCE HEAD DO?
Published: Mar 18, 2025 - The Finance Head ensures close integration of finance with business operations, enhancing support across all managerial levels to boost revenue, profitability, and efficiency. Coordinates with the management team on strategic planning for markets and customers, integrating financial insights essential for tactical developments. Oversees robust financial controls, business case reviews, and talent development within the finance team, driving process improvements and operational optimizations.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Finance Head
1. Finance Head Duties
- Finance Leadership: Act as the Finance lead and expert for SME businesses, sitting on the SME senior leadership team and driving financial performance through the P&L, whilst also delivering outstanding customer and commercial outcomes
- Business Co-Piloting: Co-piloting the business through day-to-day trading environment, providing the right MI and analysis to deliver against revenue and profit plans
- Performance Accountability: Accountability for driving the performance management agenda into the business, making stakeholders aware of the commercial implications of actions and performance
- Strategic Support: Support the execution against wider UKGI strategy, collaborating with the wider UKGI team, including Finance, to deliver commercial plans and actions to support delivery of said strategy
- Change Management: Accountable for the successful delivery of change agenda, including growing & converting significant sentiment advantage with brokers, as well as ensuring a future-proof tech stack, which will support digitalised interactions with brokers
- Financial Tracking: Ensure that financial metrics are tracked against targets and that key risks and opportunities are being called out and optimised
- Management Accounting: Deliver all management accounting and analysis of the SME business
- Financial Innovation: Leveraging financial thought leadership to generate innovative ideas that transform the Museum and providing advice that supports executive decision-making
- Risk Management: Implementing frameworks, policies, and standards to safeguard the Museum from financial risk and lead the adoption of good practice
- Financial Systems Management: Providing finance systems, transactional services, and expert capacity to enable the Museum to meet its financial obligations, including the implementation of an ERP system
- Financial Process Management: Managing all financial processes, reporting on Investment portfolio, advising on mitigating strategies for any inherent financial risks to the Museum
2. Finance Head Details
- Presentation Preparation: Assist in Business Review monthly preparation/presentation
- Financial Leadership: Responsible for the entire Finance, Tax & Accounting department and issuance of financial statements in line with Group reporting deadlines
- Risk Management: Internal Control and risk management including treasury and foreign exchange
- Performance Analysis: Performance Analysis and interpretation of monthly management accounts for reporting to the group
- Capital Management: Banking - maintain existing relationships and develop sources of capital for all operations and capex.
- Financial Reporting: Provide Financial reports and financial analysis to help decision-making
- Financial Planning: Put in place adequate operational planning and financial control systems
- Tax Oversight: Responsible for tax matters, direct and indirect
- Financial Coordination: Work with the Global Finance Team to define trading limits and closely monitor the operating and financial results against plans and budgets
- Stakeholder Representation: Represent the company to major customers and professional associations
- Managerial Reporting: Ensure accurate managerial reporting to the global CFO
- Budgeting: Prepare budgets, forecasts, and business cases to support management decisions
- Professional Collaboration: Work closely with company accountants, lawyers, and other advisors
- Audit Management: Manage external audits and ensure compliance with local and international accounting standards (Big Four companies)
- Stakeholder Management: Control and lead external stakeholders including banks, tax advisors, external auditors, service providers, and consultants
3. Finance Head Responsibilities
- Finance Leadership: Act as the primary finance leader for the division
- Support Integration: Ensure that finance is at all times closely integrated with and positively supports the business, providing managers at all levels with the necessary information to maximize revenue, profitability, and efficiency.
- Strategic Finance: Work with the management team in the development, coordination, and implementation of short and medium-term strategic and tactical plans for customers and markets and provide the financial input required for that process
- Business Development: Coordinate Business Development Finance team in building business cases and reviewing new opportunities
- Team Setup: Set up FP&A team responsibility for Brazil Business
- Financial Modeling: Financial modeling, providing analytical support, and validating financial and operational results of process improvement efforts for business optimization.
- Financial Controls: Ensuring a high level of financial controls are followed, maintaining data integrity.
- Talent Development: Developing exceptional talent, and encouraging team to challenge assumptions.
- Finance Management: Managing and participating in finance activities across Customer financing categories.
- Financial Analysis: Perform monthly P&L analysis for assigned lines of business compared to forecast and budget
- Budget Leadership: Led and guided the annual budget process for all business lines
- Forecasting Assistance: Assist businesses with developing accurate and timely monthly forecasts
- Financial Reporting: Ensure timely and accurate monthly financial results with line-item reconciliations and budget variance review
- Process Improvement: Identify areas of process and systems improvement and work cross-functionally to implement solutions
- Budget Preparation: Assist in the preparation of budgets and forecasts
4. Finance Head Accountabilities
- Process Implementation: Create and implement company-wide processes in the areas of finance, planning, and controlling
- Finance Operations: Take overall finance operations such as, but not limited to, month-end closings, billing, and cash-flow management
- KPI Infrastructure: Create an infrastructure to set up and monitor goals/KPIs and help all teams by providing them with the right data to set and understand KPIs
- Investor Relations: Responsible for investor relations, building presentations for board meetings, and creating financial reporting for the Group
- Closing Assistance: Assist the VP of Finance with the end-of-month closing procedures for both the Group and the subsidiaries
- Reporting Optimization: Help prepare and optimize the monthly, quarterly, and year-end internal and external reporting
- Board Preparation: Assist in the preparation and review of Board materials
- Compliance Support: Assist in legal, tax compliance, and complex accounting matters across the Group
- Cashflow Management: Preparation of cashflow forecasts and cashflow statements
- Audit Coordination: Assist and coordinate audit activities across the Group, including preparation of the Group consolidation files and intercompany transactions matrix.
5. Finance Head Functions
- Sales Leadership: Head Car Finance Sales team, which works closely with Partners, the NF Fleet company as well as Bank to secure the best financial offers for the customers
- Portfolio Growth: Develop and make profitable growth of the current portfolio
- Relationship Building: Build and develop strong relations and be in close contact with car dealers and car importers
- IT Implementation: Contribute to the implementation of new IT systems, which support the digital execution of sales and administration of car finance
- Workflow Implementation: Implement workflow based on the opportunities coming from new IT solutions
- Strategic Coordination: Work closely with Nordic Head of Car Finance and the Company Head of Finance Sweden, in order to secure the strategic good development of Car Finance in Sweden
- Business Partnering: Business partnering with demand and supply planning and ensure financial implications are considered and communicated effectively at global and regional level.
- Process Evolution: Evolve and strengthen Inventory Management Processes, KPI reviews, and reporting to C-suite.
- Finance Partnership: Finance business partner to Regional Finance CFO and Supply Chain Leaderships team
- Financial Analytics: Be responsible for delivering best-in-class financial analytics to support decision making
- Metrics Establishment: Establish financial metrics, being one single source of truth to ensure all due financials implications are considered as part of integrated business planning process.
- Networking: Build a network across the Global Finance organization to leverage relevant finance expertise in long-term planning of product supply.
- Leadership Development: Lead and develop a new finance organization
- Talent Management: Grow, attract, and retain talent.