CFO Techniques

A Hands-on Guide to Keeping Your Business Solvent and Successful

Marina Guzik

Publisher: Apress, 2011, 366 pages

ISBN: 978-1-4302-3756-3

Keywords: Finance

Last modified: July 3, 2016, 12:56 a.m.

CFO Techniques: A Hands-on Guide to Keeping Your Business Solvent and Successful will help you and your small to mid-size company to find success. This book offers functional recommendations and practical advice specifically tailored to address your day-to-day challenges. It also goes beyond finance and accounting, addressing the administrative and behavioral issues all CFOs must occasionally face.

With bite-sized, easy-to-read chapters, CFO Techniques serves as both an invaluable desktop reference handbook and a good bedtime or commuter read for multitasking chief financial officers and controllers working in fast-paced commercial environments. This book:

  • Guides you through CFO/controller core responsibilities, function by function
  • Offers best practices for each CFO/controller function
  • Explains how to formulate processes and procedures
  • Helps you to organize daily, weekly, monthly, and annual routines
  • Identifies reporting and analytical requirements
  • Explains how to keep the organization on the right side of the law and regulation at all times.

No matter how many hats you need to wear throughout your workday, CFO Techniques has you covered! From traditional responsibilities like budgeting and financial reporting to more innovative tasks like performance analytics and business strategy development, it will help you master all that you need to do to make your company a success.

  • Part I: Scouting Your Surroundings and Defining Your Mission
    1. What Is Special About Smaller Businesses?
    2. Titles vs. Job Descriptions
    3. The CFO’s Mission and Aspirations
    4. Eight Balls You Must Keep in the Air
    5. The Essential Knowledge Prerequisites
  • Part II: Enforcing the Law: Policies, Procedures, and Controls
    1. System of Internal Control and Company Policies
    2. Generally Accepted Fiscal Policies
    3. Procedures for Quintessential Tasks
    4. The Weakest Link
    5. Budgeting as a Control Mechanism
    6. Controlling Commerce
  • Part III: Deep Pockets: Your Capital Resources
    1. Options for Capital Financing
    2. Business Nature vs. Financial Resources
    3. Soliciting Investors and Lenders
    4. Nurturing Financial Relationships
  • Part IV: Cash Must Flow: Treasury Management
    1. The Gist of the Treasury Function
    2. Cash Flow Projections
    3. Daily Cash Position
    4. Managing Receivables and Payables
    5. Treasury Management Services
  • Part V: Data Mining: Information Management, Analysis, and Reporting
    1. Information Technology Decisions
    2. Ode to Excel
    3. Executive Reports and Performance Analytics
    4. The Importance of Segmental Analysis
    5. Ad Hoc Reporting
  • Part VI: Accounting by the Book
    1. Clean Books and Compliant Statements
    2. Accounting Cycles and the Structure of Financial Statements
    3. The Most Important Statement: Cash Flow
    4. Choose Your Auditors Wisely
    5. What Guarantees Fast and Painless Audits
  • Part VII: Risk Management
    1. Insurable Risks
    2. Commercial Risks
    3. Tax and Regulations Compliance
  • Part VIII: Ensuring Your Going Concern: Strategies, Plans, and Forecasts
    1. Principles of Strategic Planning
    2. Practical Modeling and Forecasting
    3. New Ventures
    4. Exit Strategies
  • Part IX: Administration: The Organization of People
    1. Acquisition of Human Resources
    2. Managing Human Resources
    3. The Behavioral Approach