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Finance for Non-Financial Managers
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a policing activity, making sure others don’t damage the
company through their actions.
• To organize all the data that it collects from company
transactions and to present that data in a form that every-
one in the company can use to more effectively manage
their own functions and the company as a whole. In this
sense, Finance provides information to help other depart-
ments—its customers—do their jobs.
While these functions should generally carry equal impor-
tance to the management of a company, they are not always
carried out with equal enthusiasm by financial departments. In
some companies, financial departments are more recognized
for assertive policing than for serving the users of financial
information. Policy constraints and procedural labyrinths seem
to be the predominant preoccupation of these accountants, to
the frustration of many outside the Finance Department. Yet, in
other companies, the strong direction of operationally driven
management can result in a financial department that is totally
occupied with servicing a continuous flow of requirements for
ad hoc information, at the expense of the protection function. In
these companies, folks outside of Finance get their needs met,
but auditors and others outside the company may be concerned
about the safety of the company’s assets and the efficient use of
its resources.
In a perfect world, then, these functions would be balanced
in a way that serves the best interests of the company’s owners.
A financial department that implements adequate internal con-
trols and then enforces them with appropriate levels of enthusi-
asm would have time and resources to serve the reasonable
information needs of the enterprise as well. However, in reality,
finding this balance is one of the most challenging management
jobs in the company.