Understanding the role of a Finance Manager

Understanding the role of each position within your department and even the company can be very beneficial. Therefore, it is important to understand a role like the Finance Manager, whether they are the person to report to or a position that will report to you. 

A Finance Manager has been known to support and aid the company's significant turnover. This position within the finance department is one aimed at ambitious employees that have a strong knowledge of numbers and analytics.

The main responsibilities of a Finance Manager are within the finance department, as well as the entire business. They oversee the end-to-end finance operations, planning and analysing reports, and balance sheets looking to make improvements where necessary. They focus on and analyse the budgets and forecasting while putting together monthly and quarterly analysis reports and presenting them to the board. 

Overall, a Finance Manager’s main objective is to see where the company's money is being spent, where additional money is needed, and if they are meeting the targets, if not why not?

Some of the key skills needed to be a Finance Manager include:

• Strong knowledge of accounting
• Experience in AP and AR
• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA)
• Produce budgets

If you are preparing for an interview for the position of Finance Manager, here are some interview questions that might help you prepare for the interview. 

It is important to know how you can demonstrate your management ability and provide examples of when you’ve displayed this. As well as provide examples of how you have demonstrated yourself to be a positive, valuable asset to your previous place of employment. 

Here are a select few examples of questions and answers that will help you prepare:

Q1. “What type of financial reports do you think senior management needs and how should they be presented?” 

A large part of a Finance Manager's role is to report to senior management. This question will allow you to show you know the basics of what the job role entails, it will also highlight if you are able to report to your superiors in the right way. As well as suggesting your understanding of what type of information is important for your superiors to see. 

All in all this question illustrates if you’re capable of supplying reports in the right format, to the right people. Are you able to complete one of the similar jobs in the position?

Q2. “Are you familiar with Oracle?” 

This question is asked to judge your abilities with the technologies involved in the position. Remember that the interviewer is asking this question to see if you understand how to use this technology, and understand its value to a business. They do NOT want a description of what Oracle is. This could be seen as a similar question, yet there is a big opportunity to show off your knowledge.

Q3. “Have you ever disagreed with senior management? If so, how did you deal with it?”

The interviewer wants to hear the answer “yes”. They want to employ someone that has the ability to make decisions and have a voice of authority over the board. They don’t want someone to always adhere to the rules when it comes to this. Show you have a voice. 

Give an example of when you did this in your professional career when you had to make a case from your professional point of view and it countered another perspective. 

Overall, ensure that you have read through this blog thoroughly, and completed additional research on the role of a Finance Manager. Whether you’re applying for or preparing for an interview for the position, or just want to brush up on your knowledge of the position. It is important to understand all the roles within your department.