Your finance and accounting team positions your business for success. They’re more than just professionals who balance the books; they provide financial insights and develop ways to achieve scalable, sustainable growth.
It’s important to nurture your finance and accounting professionals and build a high-impact team that can thoroughly support the business.
Tips for Building a Finance & Accounting Team to Fuel Long-Term Success
Here are 6 tips to help you grow an effective team for your business.
Tip #1: Understand growth goals
Before making any hiring decisions, ask yourself, “What does growth look like for our business?” You need to figure out if you are looking to expand into new markets, scale production, or prepare for an acquisition and then align your finance & accounting function with these goals in mind.
The accounting team you build is not just processing data but will be your partner in strategy. Therefore, the roles and the experience you hire for should match where your company is headed.
Tip #2: Hire for today’s needs
Bookkeepers and accountants are essential roles you will need to manage daily transactions and reporting.
However, as your business grows, you will need more specialized roles like a financial analyst, a controller to oversee compliance and eventually a CFO to drive high-level strategy.
Tip #3: Invest in technology and training
Make sure you invest in the right tools for your team to thrive. Tools such as cloud-based accounting software, automated expense tracking and real-time reporting tools will help improve accuracy and efficiency to give time for more strategic work.
Along with technology, offer ongoing training so your team can keep up with the fast-moving market. Tax laws constantly change, compliance requirements shift, and financial strategies keep evolving. Continuous learning within a team can help grow your business successfully.
Tip #4: Encourage collaboration
Finance and Accounting teams don’t perform solo – they regularly communicate with operations, sales, HR and leadership teams to keep everyone in the know and on the same page.
This way, businesses can be at the top of their game consistently and be guided by financial insights in real time, versus just every quarter. Encourage open communication and collaboration between departments to create opportunities of growth for the entire business.
Tip #5: Stay flexible
Don’t forget to stay flexible as you build your team. Finding the right people is important. Don’t just hire more people to fill gaps – make sure you hire the right people.
You can even outsource or hire temporary roles for payroll or audits as you work to build these roles in-house.
Tip #6: Leverage data
Financial data is your friend. Your team should not only produce reports but also help interpret them. Numbers should be turned into insights to understand why profit margins may be shrinking or what the ROI is on a recent campaign.
A team that understands your business and speaks the language of growth is one of your biggest competitive advantages.
