Senior Controller
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The Senior Controller oversees the activities of the junior Controller, ensuring proper execution of his functions. He is tasked with the implementation of appropriate financial controls in order to ensure compliance with accepted accounting processes and legal requirements.
He is also responsible for budgeting, financial data analysis, record-keeping, and financial reporting to senior financial management. The Senior Controller is involved in all aspects of financial management, inclusive of corporate accounting, budget and forecast preparation, internal regulation, and financial reporting.
Objectives and Responsibilities of the Senior Controller
Management: The Senior Controller plays a managerial role in overseeing the activities and efficiency of the junior controller. In this position he also validates all financial controls and procedures within the business, ensuring the adequate maintenance of proper policies and procedures in the areas of finance, accounting, and tax in order to maintain suitable internal controls that lead to complete, accurate, and timely financial reporting. The Senior Controller also manages audits of the business by working closely with external auditing firms at all stages for the purpose of guaranteeing accuracy in reporting.
The Senior Controller additionally prepares the business’s annual budget in his managerial role and oversees financial reports from accounting teams in order to confirm precise reviews of the business’s current and projected financial position, hence, ensuring integrity of information.
The Senior Controller also evaluates current policies and practices within the financial department and strives to drive continuous improvement, research, and analyses in all accounting matters. Finally, the Senior Controller has been charged with establishing and implementing accounting procedures and policies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and the state law of the business’s jurisdiction.
Financial Analysis & Reporting: The Senior Controller has been tasked with analyzing, recommending, and implementing necessary improvements across the finance landscape of the business in order to ensure integrity. In this capacity, he generates periodical consolidated financial reporting that is timely, accurate, and usable by the business in assessing its financial position.
The Senior Controller personally reviews financial issues that directly impact the business’s financials inclusive the business’s expenses that have to be reimbursed to the business and all deductible and non-deductible tax items. At the direction of the Head of Controlling and Senior Finance Leadership, the Senior Controller also analyzes the financial impact of major business operational issues and decisions affecting the business and delivering timely reports as requested.
Financial Management: The Senior Controller will also perform and direct treasury functions within the business specifically including banking relationships and management. He supervises the business’s process in order to select weekly/monthly/quarterly payments in accordance to the financial obligations and liquidity levels of the business.
He also coordinates periodical closing process and prepares supporting schedules and work papers for the periodical financial review and financial audits. In this capacity, the Senior Controller further reviews accounting entries on a regular basis in order to ensure that there is accuracy and timeliness, maintaining a strict confidentiality of operational, financial, and business information.
Collaboration: The Senior Controller’s role is a very collaborative one and in that capacity, he works hand-in-hand with senior control management and the executive team to uncover potentially adverse finance issues early enough to react. The Senior Controller also works directly with the IT department in ensuring that appropriate financial management technology systems and platforms are in place to expand and sustain growth-oriented business and to ensure financial success.
The Senior Controller also conducts audits and avails the realized information to external auditors who then compare them with their own financial analyses. He acts as the primary liaison for external auditors during operational and financial audits. The Senior Controller will also work closely with the legal team, recommending appropriate structures of business or aiding in merger and acquisition financial activities.
Knowledge: The Senior Controller works to maintain knowledge and awareness across the finance department, where he ensures that there is compliance with all state and local regulatory requirements and that the department is up to date on all existent and developing accounting/financial principles.
Other Duties: The Senior Controller also performs similar duties as he deemed fit for the proper execution of his duties and duties as delegated by the Head of Controlling, Chief Finance Officer, or the Employer.
Required Qualifications of the Senior Controller
Education: The Senior Controller must have a bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred) in Finance or Accounting. The equivalent of the same in practical experience is also acceptable. CPA certification is also desirable for the position.
Experience: A candidate for this position will have at least 5 years of working experience in a Control position within a fast-paced and dynamic environment, preferably as a junior Controller. The candidate must have had vast proven and successful experience in progressive management and financial/accounting analysis experience in a managerial position.
He must also be highly familiar with dynamic accounting softwares and have a demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality of financial information. A suitable candidate must also demonstrate knowledge and experience in general accounting principles and practices.
Communication Skills: The Senior Controller must have exceptionally good communication skills both in written and verbal form. The Senior Controller will need communication skills in his extensively collaborative role. His clarity in communicating of sensitive financial information and instructions to collaborating personnel and junior controllers will greatly determine the accuracy with which financial tasks are executed and the efficiency with which these tasks are executed.
The Senior Controller will also need exceptionally good communication skills in drafting reports and recommendation for senior finance management and leadership, reports that will be used in critical decision-making that will affect the business’s direction. These reports must, therefore, be accurate, clear, unambiguous and easy to understand, which will demand good communication skills on his part.
Ms Word/Software: The Senior Controller must also be highly skilled in technology and possess exceptionally good computer skills. He must display exceptionally good Ms Excel, Ms Office, Ms Outlook, and PowerPoint skills, necessary for the creation of engaging and easy-to-understand financial documentation, reports, and recommendation for senior finance management and leadership. He must also be highly familiar with the use of financial software such as NetSuite, SQL, lSSI, SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Quickbooks among others.
Interpersonal Skills: A candidate for this position must be result-oriented, have a passion for change implementation and management, work comfortably in a fast-paced and fast-evolving environment, be open and welcoming to change, have strong analytical and organizational skills, be self-motivated and proactive requiring minimal supervision, have strong leadership capabilities, work comfortably in a highly collaborative setting, and remain calm and composed in times of uncertainty.
People Skills: A candidate for this position must be capable of forming strong and meaningful relationships with others. He must be a people person who is likable and approachable and who inspires trust and confidence in others who are then more willing to trust in his insights and follow in his directives.
