Defining the CFO

      What Is a CFO?

      A CFO, or chief financial officer, is the highest-ranked financial figure in an organization who is responsible for the financial stability of a business. A CFO has several responsibilities, including (but not limited to):

      • Building a top-notch accounting and financial team
      • Overseeing financial planning and analysis
      • Keeping expenses and revenues in balance
      • Getting funding
      • Proposing recommendations on acquisitions
      • Consulting with the CEO and board of directors for developing strategies
      • Tracking the financial planning and cash flow along with evaluating financial strengths and weaknesses

      CFOs help in setting up the technology trends and bring recommendations on everything from supply chain to sales and marketing based on financial insights and industrial knowledge. CFOs are futurists who work closely with the leadership to propose strategic moves by keeping the future in mind.

      As a top financial position in any organization, CFOs are accountable to CEOs, as well as regulatory authorities and the organization.

      What Does CFO Stand for?

      CFO stands for Chief Financial Officer.

      What Does a CFO Do?

      The role of the CFO in an organization is to oversee the organization’s financial operations by being responsible for the accounting and finance professionals to perform operational tasks and serve the role of strategic advisory.

      A CFO helps the skilled staff for finance and works with the departments to allocate and manage the budget for managing human capital. CFO has the responsibility to put the complex data from the past, present, and future in perspective to help the CEO to make better decisions.

      From a broader perspective, CFO responsibilities include overseeing:

      1. Liquidity
      2. Return on investment (ROI)
      3. Forecasting
      4. Reporting

      Here’s a closer look at each of these CFO responsibilities and how a chief financial officer manages them

      CFO Responsibility #1: Liquidity

      Liquidity is an organization’s ability to pay off short-term liabilities with readily available funds. It is stated as a percentage of what the company owes against what it owns. CFOs make sure that customer payments are made on time and control expenses so that the on-hand cash is enough to meet the financial responsibilities.

      CFO Responsibility #2: Return on Investment (ROI)

      A CFO is required to make sure a strong return of investment (ROI) for the organization. ROI measures the possibility of receiving a return on the invested money. ROI is a comparatively basic KPI, and it does not bring in all the variables, so the CFOs add perspective for evaluation to see if a project can deliver robust ROI to become worth the investment.

      CFO Responsibility #3: Forecasting

      CFOs play an important role in an organization with the ability to predict future outcomes accurately. This includes the financial modeling and forecasting not based on the company’s past performance but on the external and internal factors that can affect the expenses and revenue. CFO is responsible for making sense of the department-level forecasting for creating a profit estimate for shareholders and the company’s CEO.

      CFO Responsibility #4: Reporting

      CFO is the Incharge of attesting the financial reports according to the accounting principles like balance sheets and cash flow statements that help the stakeholders and internal leadership to understand the financial condition of the business.

      How Much Does a CFO make?

      The average yearly income of a CFO varies due to multiple factors. The average CFO salary in the U.S. is around $400,000, but it typically falls between $200,000 and $500,000. Many factors like education, certifications, experience, and additional skills can impact a salary package.

      How to Become a CFO: 5 Steps

      Achieving the knowledge, skills, and qualifications to effectively serve as chief financial officer usually demands years of careful planning, diligent work, and dogged follow-through. Specifically, most CFOs get to these elite C-suite positions by completing five key steps, which entail:

      1. Earning the right degree
      2. Getting extensive financial experience
      3. Considering roles that enhance their skillset
      4. Joining career networks
      5. Undergoing board-readiness training

      Here is a closer look at each of these steps to becoming a CFO.

      How to Become a CFO Step #1: Earn the Right Degree

      Getting a bachelor’s degree accounting or finance is important. You may also have to attain an advanced degree such as an MBA to move forward. Paying attention to your studies to get good skills in accounting and other financial tools is essential if you are targeting to become a CFO.

      How to Become a CFO Step #2: Get Extensive Financial Experience

      Getting jobs that can broaden your financial experience is important. Additionally, in accounting, you can consider the positions that focus more on risk management, budgeting, analysis, investing, and more. The more you are well-rounded in all these sectors, the stronger you will get as a candidate for CFO.

      You can make your way through one company or switch jobs to get the experience. It is important to stay in the same field for deepening your experience.

      How to Become a CFO Step #3: Consider Roles that Enhance Your Skillset

      For becoming a CFO, you need to know more than finances. Go for the roles that can widen your customer base experience, technological literacy, leadership skills, and business expertise.

      How to Become a CFO Step #4: Join a Career Network

      When you are on the road to becoming a CFO, joining career networks is important to link with the right people. Joining one is important to building up the connections.

      How to Become a CFO Step #5: Undergo Board-Readiness Training

      When you are done with all the above things, think about getting a training program. Sharpen your skills with the board-readiness program. Professionals who are looking for an executive-level opportunity should attend the training to develop a deep understanding of the things coming their way.

      What Is the CFO Dashboard?

      The CFO dashboard serves as a central hub for a host of financial information. It has financial KPIs and other interactive and insightful analytical tools. It helps in consolidating the data in a better and digestible way and helps in improving the decision-making process.

      This dashboard tool offers a full-fledged view of all the information that any CFO would need to perform their job responsibilities. It also offers reports for the CEOs with string financial dashboards. So, in a nutshell, a CFO dashboard is an analytical nervous system for all the financial data with efficient tools.

      What Does the CFO Do?

      A CFO has complete insight into an organization’s financial strategies and is responsible for:

      • Overseeing overall performance
      • Developing and overseeing effective revenue streams
      • Devising and driving business strategies
      • Creating innovative funds and strategies for driving expansion
      • Determining risk controls

      Consequently, a CFO needs to be competent and highly capable of integrating technology strategies into the business. A CFO works closely with the CEO for influencing and driving the business strategies and becomes a board member who is responsible for any corporate investments.

      What Does a CFO Know?

      • Operations
      • Product
      • Customers
      • Shareholders
      • Employee Relations
      • Vendors and Suppliers

      What Qualities Make a CFO Great?

      • Ethics
      • Self-assurance
      • Viewing themselves as a team member
      • Delivering good news and attributing the credit
      • Delivering bad news with solutions
      • Natural leaders

      Top CFO Search Firm | Cowen Partners Executive Search

      The nationally renowned CFO executive recruiters at Cowen Partners have deep experience working with private, public, pre-IPO, and non-profit organizations. Clients are typically $50 million in revenue to Fortune 1000’s or have assets between $500 million to $15 billion.

      CFO Executive Search Firm | CFO Recruiters
      National CFO Search Firm

      Through our proven retained executive search process, Cowen Partners delivers 3X more qualified candidates than the competition. In fact, we find, vet, and deliver the top 1% of candidates for CFOs across all industries, including financial servicescredit unionstax and accounting servicesprivate equitytechnologyhealthcaremanufacturingretailreal estate, and more.

      Cowen Partners is proud to be the nation’s top CFO search firm, driven to create maximum value for our clients.

      Read more of our industry-leading retained search resources to see why Cowen Partners is a top CFO search firm in Anchorage, Boston, New York CityChicagoSeattle, Atlanta, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Dallas, Los Angeles, and beyond:

      Cowen Partners Executive Search provides CFO recruitment services to all major and minor industries including:

      Accounting, Advertising, Aerospace & Defense, Biotechnology, Banking, Credit Unions, Board and CEO Services, Computer Hardware, Construction, Consulting, Consumer Products, Computer Software and Hardware, Education, Energy & Utilities, Entertainment & SportsFinanceFinancial Services, Food Products, Government, Human ResourcesHealth Care, Hospitality & Tourism, Insurance, Industrial, Internet & New Media, Legal, Tax, Crypto, Bitcoin, Private Equity, Journalism & Publishing, MarketingManufacturing, Medical Device, Non-Profit, Pharmaceutical, Private EquityReal Estate, Retail & Apparel, SalesTechnology, Telecommunications and Transportation.

      Get in Touch.

      Fill out the email request form to learn more about our approach.