The Strategic Controller: Adding Value to Your Organization

Quick Learning Outcomes:

• Learn the four primary areas of a controller's job and their responsibilities.
• Protect your company's financial health in fluctuating market conditions.
• Become a more valuable strategic partner in your company's decisions and direction.

The controller position has expanded significantly across organizations of all sizes, and responsibilities continue to grow. To succeed as a controller and maximize your contribution to your organization, you must understand how your position is changing and what new expectations you face. Controllers today must manage four distinct areas: working with financial data, ensuring compliance and protecting assets, examining information to guide decisions, and partnering with business leadership.

This course enables both new and experienced controllers in small, mid-sized, and large organizations to understand these changes. You will learn how to improve your capabilities in all four key areas. The course includes a realistic case study in which you will address real-world controller situations related to each responsibility area. You will gain the specialized knowledge, practical abilities, and hands-on training needed to perform confidently in increasingly difficult circumstances.

Program Participants:

Financial controllers in corporate departments, operating divisions, or facilities, plus assistant controllers, will benefit from this training by increasing their effectiveness in the four areas of the controller role.

Important Note:

Please bring a calculator to class for hands-on exercises.

Program Advantages:

• Clarify the responsibilities and recognize the four areas of the controller position in contemporary organizations.
• Controller as Number Manager: Confirm financial statements are accurate and timely.
• Controller as Guardian: Put in place organization-wide safeguards to guard company property and guarantee adherence to regulations.
• Controller as Financial Reviewer: Establish targets and measures to evaluate the company's financial standing.
• Controller as Organizational Partner: Support the financial advancement of the company.
• Use the functions of all four controller areas to analyze and solve the case study scenario.

Major Program Topics:

The Four Areas of the Controller Position in Contemporary Organizations

• Understanding how a controller fits into business operations.
• Recognizing the controller's role in management decisions.
• Understanding the outcomes that a business must accomplish.
• Examining high-level controller functions, area responsibilities, and how they connect to the organization.
• Addressing staff requirements and necessary expertise.
• Describing the major controller responsibility categories.

Area 1: Financial Data Management: Guaranteeing Accuracy and Speed of Financial Statements

• Building a thorough accounting structure.
• Finding where information comes from for financial documents.
• Recognizing the necessity of safeguards over financial data.
• Using analytical approaches to check and verify account amounts.
• Applying standardized methods for creating quick financial records.

Area 2: Asset Guardian: Implementing Organization-Wide Safeguards and Ensuring Rules Compliance

• Building an internal control system for organization-wide risk assessment.
• Creating strong safeguards to defend company property.
• Finding what compliance matters apply and when they're due.
• Understanding control system strengths and limitations.

Area 3: Financial Reviewer: Establishing Targets and Measures for Financial Assessment

• Checking that financial documents are reasonable and accurate.
• Identifying what outside readers of financial information need to know.
• Reviewing the components and types of financial budgets.
• Recognizing different internal information requirements.
• Building measurable standards for items, product families, departments, areas, and regions.
• Understanding how to review budget variations across identified standards.
• Planning what will happen based on historical data or financial analysis.

Area 4: Organizational Partner: Supporting the Company's Financial Objectives

• Reviewing and assessing the organization's promise to stakeholders, business direction, and outcomes.
• Identifying efforts that strengthen the company's position.
• Finding cost-saving options in areas outside of finance.
• Speaking with and developing partnerships with organizational leadership.
• Applying all four controller areas to work through the case study scenario.