Tips Finance Directors Can Employ To Increase Profitability
Profitability and growth are at the heart of every company. Increasingly, Finance Directors are required to help drive the business forward from a strategic financial perspective. This means there is an expectation to not only report on the figures, but to use this information to drive stable growth.
There are several steps that finance directors can take to help their company reach their goals and increase profitability throughout the whole organisation.
But as finance is often one of the busiest departments in the company, could you be overlooking some simple techniques to help drive financial goals within your company?
Increase financial visibility
One of the simplest procedures you can introduce to your business, is increasing visibility across the team. If each staff member is aware of the financial state of your company, changes will begin to be made in areas that need it.
Showing where money is being lost and gained will show your colleagues where they need to be more careful with overspending or underperforming. It would also highlight areas to improve and successful areas which should be maintained. This means that it will quickly become a commercial effort to tighten the businesses finances.
Employing a plan or specific software to make each employee more accountable for their part in the business’ finance is sure to increase profitability, and make your job easier.
Use time wisely
A position as demanding as financial director will require your time to be spent as efficiently as possible.
This means that being laboured with too many distractions, such as unnecessary meetings, or chasing other team members for information, can leave less time for the key aspects of your role.
While you concentrate on your financial management tasks, you can delegate your other jobs to your co-workers, so that you can focus on increasing profitability. While it may feel as though you are working to your full potential, if you are pouring your energy into the wrong tasks, it will mean that you aren’t seeing the results that you’d expect to see.
Introducing more modern methods of sharing information with your colleagues will mean that you get any data you need, without spending ample time chasing it. Along with this, ensuring that all tasks are assigned to the relevant department will cut down on wasted time and make a noticeable difference in your productivity.
Once you are putting your time into the right tasks, profitability can begin to increase.
Use the right software
Software such as Synergist can make it much easier to drive profitability. This is due to the visibility it gives the finance team. It contains useful tools such as KPI tracking capabilities, live reporting and visibility of costs vs estimates, as well as alert functions that flag potential overruns or other financial implications before they happen.
Synergist allows financial directors to see in real-time, which jobs are under or overperforming, making it easy to inform the rest of the team as to what adjustments need to be made and in what areas. This means that profitability can be maximised extremely quickly. Another key benefit to Financial Directors of using this software, is that reporting becomes more accurate, with less errors. This is because all data is entered into one central system, rather than siloed spreadsheets.
Implementing these simple tips into your work life will make a huge difference to the daily functioning of your business and following them may be the first step to reaping in profits for your business.
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