What is a Business Controller and what does he do for a company?
Decision -making within a business needs to be very well-founded with concrete, real and objective information. This way, managers can have a complete and general view of their organization and the market in which it operates. To this end, it is important for the company to have a Business Controller on its staff.
This is a professional whose demand has been increasing over time. This is because they are responsible for taking care of strategic issues related to the financial and accounting sector, in addition to the fact that organizations need to constantly undergo changes to remain relevant in the market. Want to know more about this subject? In this article, we explain the concept, role, functions and importance of this professional.
What is a Business Controller and what is their role?
Also called a controller, the Business Controller is a professional who is responsible for coordinating asset , economic and financial management procedures, both externally and internally.
They perform strategic activities within the business and collect, compile and analyze data from the accounting sector. At the end of their work, they issue management reports and economic studies that provide useful information for them and managers to make better decisions in the company.
This professional works in the sector known as controllership, which cooperates for optimized and efficient administration. There are generally two types of controllers within this area:
- controller analyst: collects information on revenues, expenses and costs from each area of the company to prepare financial projections;
- Controller manager: plans, controls and coordinates short, medium and long-term activities in the areas of finance, planning and controllership.
Business Controllers are generalists, which means they work in different areas with a multidisciplinary approach. However, they usually have a background in Accounting, since it is necessary to work with spreadsheets and calculations.
However, they are also capable of adequately performing their functions with related training, such as Economics and Business Administration, but it is important that they specialize in Business Management or Controllership and Corporate Finance.
Other skills that make a difference for the position are: proficiency in English and Excel, or having already worked with management systems, since companies are currently investing in corporate expense management systems to improve their administration.
What are the main functions of the Business Controller?
To help you better understand the role of a Business Controller, the topics below include the main activities carried out on a daily basis.
Consultancy
The controller works directly in the finance department, forecasting market scenarios. He makes financial projections and supervises the execution of the organization’s budget according to the predicted scenario.
For example, if positive events occur for the company, the Business Controller will provide guidance on how to use resources appropriately. If the events are negative, he will instruct how to allocate resources to minimize losses or keep the business active.
It ensures budget management in compliance with the business’s legal guidelines and guarantees the company’s financial security.
Monitoring
Another function is to monitor taxation, its burden and the processes involving direct and indirect payment of taxes. It directly assists in the preparation of Tax Planning, which involves different strategies linked to taxation, such as:
- reduce the amount that will be paid in taxes;
- avoid the incidence of a tax, fee or contribution;
- eliminate errors in calculations or collection of taxes;
- postpone the payment of an obligation without incurring fines;
- make procedures more optimized and efficient, which minimizes business bureaucracy and increases staff productivity; among others.
Reporting
One of the Controller’s responsibilities is to prepare management reports to both keep track of accounts and improve the organization’s strategies. There are different types of reports that can be created, here are some of them and what they contain:
- financial and accounting: involves different reports, such as the Cash Flow Statement (CFS), Income Statement (IS), among others;
- growth: composed of the volume of sales made by the company in the month, number of new customers, increase in MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), among other related data;
- customer satisfaction: provides information about the customer satisfaction rate, this can be done using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or other indicators;
- management and control: these are reports relating to stock, logistics, product quality and other information.
Collection, storage and analysis of information
The Business Controller collects information about the accounts of each area of the business. However, the professional also analyzes and selects the data that will be most relevant to prepare financial projections and establish budgets .
Then, he ensures that the information is accurate, transparent and easy to understand by other employees or leaders who do not have the technical knowledge to read complex data.
Study of strategies
The professional is qualified to study the economic movements of the market, predict trends for the segment in which the company operates and anticipate scenarios, as well as monitor the execution of strategies in the practical field.
This competence allows the company to maintain its competitiveness and relevance in the market in the long term, invest in the most beneficial projects for the company, better evaluate operational cycles and define more appropriate objectives and goals.
Fault identification
Often, a company makes mistakes that harm business performance. For example, the manager may be failing to consider invisible costs or investing in a project that is not as advantageous for the company.
The Business Controller will identify the failures, provide the necessary guidance so that such errors are corrected and are not made in the future.
