What Kind of Services Does an Accounting Controller Provide?

Top Services Accounting Controllers Provide

Controllers help create financial processes that protect the company from financial harm. They're your trusted resource to take ownership of accounting, bringing expertise that bookkeepers and accountants don't have. These strategy-driven financial pros bring specific benefits to the table to push your financial health and business potential to the next level, creating opportunities.

Day-to-Day Financial Operations

An accounting controller is akin to your "lead" accountant, capable of managing the entire accounting process. They oversee your recordkeeping to keep your finances in check at all times. 

One of the biggest duties an accounting controller has is overseeing financial reporting. Controllers work with bookkeepers and accountants to ensure that key reports are generated at the right time and reflect accurate figures, including:

• Income statements

• Profit-loss statements

• Balance sheets

Controllers also manage business ledgers, ensuring they reflect the money coming and going from the company. As part of this, they verify that cash flows are balanced and invoices are approved and accurately coded.

Budgetary Oversight

How can you determine how much money you can realistically spend? Create a budget, of course. Your controller creates a well-reasoned budget with historical insights to back it up. As part of that process, they set up key bank accounts and make sure money is coming in as efficiently as it's going out by monitoring payment receipts from customers and other debtors. 

Accounting Compliance

It's hard enough to keep up with the nuances of business accounting without having to worry about dotting your i's and crossing your t's for compliance too. But when you team up with a controller, they take care of it for you. Controllers perform compliance audits and ensure your business maintains compliance with:

• Local laws

• Taxes 

• Industry

• Financial regulations

Deadline Management

"Where is that invoice? Did we pay this bill?" Someone has to keep track of the myriad of paperwork and deadlines swirling around your office. A controller can do that. They ensure that your financial data is collected and reported on accurately, on time, and within company rules. Their key function here is to keep the business sharp, ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of the books.

Financial Accountability

Sometimes accounting requires someone like Sherlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, or Poirot. It can be a mystery that's tough to crack, and only the best investigator can unravel it. 

Controllers take on this challenge, analyzing and determining what happened when a financial discrepancy occurs. Through their sleuthing, they provide businesses with decision-making insight guided by data gathered through investigating the books, 

Accounting Process Design

Organizing your finances wouldn't be possible without effective strategies. Accounting controllers are devoted to streamlining this for your business, creating internal policies and spending controls to ensure your business completes the right transactions.

Example: Your controller creates spending controls to safeguard company assets and reduce fraud. If your company wants to keep a closer eye on how and when team members spend company funds, the controller could create and hold teams accountable to an expense policy.

A qualified controller focuses heavily on creating and implementing systems and expense management strategies, ranging from company policies to internal controls. 

Hire an Outsourced Controller

Financial management is hard if you don't have the mind for it, but accountants and controllers eat it right up. Do you need an accounting controller? The right pro can be your strategic partner, taking on your daily financial operations, ensuring compliance, managing key deadlines, and more. 

Explore our e-book, Should I Outsource My Accounting Services? [With Checklist], to learn why outsourcing controller services could be the right move.