What is a finance director?
Finance directors are members of a senior executive team with responsibility for their company’s financial health. They oversee all financial activities, reporting on revenue, training accounting staff, budgeting, disbursing funds to departments, managing risk, implementing policies, and improving financial processes.
How to become a finance director?
You could take a degree before applying for a management trainee scheme. Although a specific subject is not needed, particularly relevant degree subjects include management, accounting, economics, finance, law, marketing and maths.
You could join a bank as an apprentice and work your way up to management positions. Apprenticeships relevant to this role include:
- Level 3 Financial services administrator
- Level 3 Senior financial services customer adviser
- Level 6 Financial services professional
- Level 6 Chartered manager degree apprenticeship
Finance director duties
Finance director duties are diverse and depend on the employer and specialty, but some responsibilities are common to most:
- Analyze and report on financial performance
- Develop and implement accounting policies
- Prepare forecasts and comprehensive budgets
- Train accounting staff
- Provide financial advice and guidance to the company’s managers and staff to enable them to achieve their objectives
- Oversee the preparation of the company’s financial accounts to ensure that these are presented accurately and on time
- Build and manage monthly, quarterly, and annual forecasts
Finance director skills
To be an effective finance director, you’ll need certain skills and competencies. The following are often cited in job vacancies:
- Strong leader
- Possess excellent analytical skills.
- You possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- Strong aptitude for math
- Good communication skills
- Computer literacy
- Broad knowledge of accounting principles
How to find a finance director job
These jobs are advertised online, in local newspapers and at your local jobcentre. To find all the finance director jobs near you, you need to:
- Search for finance director jobs on popular job websites such as; Indeed, Total Jobs and CV Library
- Use the DWP’s Find A Job Service
- Check local newspapers and local Facebook groups, especially groups dedicated to local jobs
What does a finance director do?
The job of a finance director varies depending on the job role and the company you’re working for. Check the duties and responsibilities of finance director job advertisements to find jobs that best suit your skills and experience.
The day-to-day tasks of a finance director include;
- Communicate and put into practice, business, marketing and sales plans
- Monitor sales targets and budgets, and produce figures and reports
- Assess lending risk
- Motivate staff to meet targets
- Learn about the needs of individual and business customers
- Make sure that staff follow rules and procedures
- Develop relationships with the local community and businesses
- Deal with customer complaints