Question

What is the role of the controller in an organization? Describe some of the activities over which he or she has control.

Answer 1

Role: This is the supreme position is accounting department, also called as head of accounts. The role in this post is to take responsibility on all sorts of accounting work like, preparation of financial statements, payroll activities, general and subsidiary ledgers, tax-related work, etc.

Activities:

Point 1) Financial statements: This includes income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings, and cash flows statement; these are prepared at the end of an accounting period, say 1 year. A controller must have active part in it; such as he/she should instruct accounting staffs how to do these, should monitor the proceedings, should correct the things when required, etc.

Point 2) Cost accounting: It includes preparation of cost sheet, flexible budget, variance analysis, etc. These are not formal course of activities like financial statements, but prepared at the demand and discretion of organization’s top management.

Point 3) Payroll activities: Staff salary and worker wage fall in this category. A controller should ensure that all necessary deductions out of gross pay are done as per law. This is very sensitive act because it concerns employee grievances if payments are not done properly.

Point 4) Tax compliance: It includes calculation of tax amount based on net income and tax slab, liasoning with tax authorities, etc.