Your first finance hire: bookkeeper, controller or finance director?
As a business grows, the finance work changes from recording to controlling to steering. Hiring the right level at the right time saves money and stress.
Owners often try to solve a finance problem with the wrong hire: a senior person to fix data entry, or a junior to give strategic advice. The work comes in three layers, and each needs different skills.
Three layers of finance work
- RecordBookkeeping: invoices, bank, payroll inputs, receipts. Accuracy and routine.
- ControlMonth end, reconciliations, VAT, management accounts, controls. Judgement and checking.
- SteerBudgets, forecasts, funding, pricing, board reporting. Insight and challenge.
Matching the hire to the stage
A business with a few hundred transactions a month usually needs part-time bookkeeping and an outside accountant. As it grows past ten or twenty staff, or takes on investment, it needs someone controlling the numbers each month. A finance director becomes valuable when decisions get bigger: raising money, buying a business, or preparing for sale.
Part-time first
Each layer can be bought part-time before it is hired full-time. An outsourced team can cover recording and control, with a part-time finance director for the steering. When a full-time hire makes sense, the routines are already in place for them to take over.
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This insight is general information, not advice for your circumstances. Talk to us before acting on it.