Question

Focusing on interactions of the CFO and Controller with the management team:

Do you believe that the positions of Controller and CFO are interchangeable? Are their responsibilities the same and do they require the same skill sets?

Answer 1

CFO and controller role are not interchangeable. Responsibility and skill requirement of CFO is higher compared to controller.

Controller can be defined as progression of account role which involve activities like book closing, compliance with regulatory requirement, reporting actuals etc.

CFO responsibility should include knowledge of business, forecasting planning and variance analysis, cash management, management reporting relating to not only actuals but also future growth strategy.

Controller is more of compliance related job and they are expert in accouting rules & regulation and impletemen the same in corporation, while CFO drive business, regular interation of CFO with business leader and board of director is higher compared to controller.

In typical organisational struture Controller head roles up to CFO. CFO has vast more accountability and responsibility as compared to controller .

Hence, CFO need vast skills set and knowldge as compared to controller.