Finance Management and The Duties of a Finance Manager

Finance Management is a wider term that deals with accounting, economics, and financial matters. To manage finance is to have a clear vision of all financial matters involved in the job, to be able to foresee and plan things, to keep accounts and statistics of all figures involved in the project, to economise applications and resources, and to be able to create funds and project the results through budgets and forecasts. All these capabilities, in a nutshell, are known as financial management.

Finance Manager
A Finance Manager is one who is entrusted with the financial matters of an organisation. He guides the management in resolving all financial issues of the company, besides complying with all statutory & financial requirements of the Company Law Board.

Duties and Responsibilities of a Finance Manager

• A Finance Manager is the head of the finance department, including accounts, costing, and budgeting departments of a company.
• He is to oversee and guide the accounts officers of all the above wings and act as a coordinator and head of them.
• The Finance Manager is directly under the management of the company and is responsible for all functions of the wings under him.
• He is expected to ensure that all funds are utilised properly for the benefit of the company.
• He takes financial decisions in consultation with the management and board of directors of the company.
• He supervises all the accounts and gets the Balance Sheets and Profit and Loss Accounts prepared regularly by the due date.
• He will oversee internal auditing and is responsible for timely and proper auditing of accounts by Statutory auditors and AG auditors.
• He scrutinizes the monthly Cash Flow Statements and Budget Reports and provides the same to management.
• He is required to provide all managerial information statements and reports as and when required by the management.
• He guides the management in all financial matters and keeps them in touch with the progress of the company.

Important Functions of Finance Manager

Understanding Industry
A Finance Manager must, first of all, have full knowledge of the activities of the industry or business in which he is dealing. He should know the processes involved in the business and their financial implications on the business. Unless he is fully aware of the dealings, he will not be able to manage the financial activities of the business.

Procurement of Funds 
Financial management requires timely procurement and the creation of funds for business activities. He should be well-versed in the various options available for raising funds and should be able to make sound decisions regarding arranging funds either through the issue of shares and debentures or through loans from banks and financial institutions, etc.

Allocation of Funds with Prudence
The procured funds need to be wisely distributed among the various requirements of the business. He should be able to assess the importance and urgency of the situation among the various demands placed before him and allocate the funds carefully and wisely so that all requirements are met and the operations of the business are not affected by a lack of funds.

Profit Maximisation

Profit maximization is one of the most important functions of a finance manager. A finance manager should aim to earn or increase the business's profit. To this end, he needs to minimize production costs by identifying points of excessive expenditure and waste in the processes. Further, he should study the markets regarding supply and demand conditions and efficiently manage stocks and sales to meet the circumstances.

Capital Management
The Finance Manager should be well acquainted with the capital market, its swings, and the factors that cause them. He needs to stay in touch with the latest trends in stocks and manage the company's stocks and shares accordingly by engaging in buying and selling activities strategically. His decisions can affect the capital involved very sensitively. So he needs to be very careful and smart. Distribution of dividends may sometimes be shifted to investing in new stocks and shares instead of paying dividends, so as to increase share capital and thereby returns to the shareholders.