A successful finance director has the combination of analytical dexterousness and an aptitude for number crunching for the accomplishment of tasks. Finance directors work closely with department heads assuring the accuracy of the accounting data. If you want to embark on a career as a finance director, you should have the educational qualifications and fulfil other requirements.
Educational Qualifications
A financial director should have a bachelor’s degree in finance or business. This is the minimum educational qualification required to become a finance director. Pursuing additional course-works on financial analysis, securities markets, economics and investments can be an added advantage. Finance directors holding senior position are entrusted with crucial responsibilities. Their resume consists of master’s degree in a finance or business discipline.
Professional Certifications
Many companies and organizations give financial managers the opportunity to evaluate their skills and knowledge regularly. These organizations fund designations that have a professional weight like a certified financial manager and certified public accountant. Several professionals are interested in pursuing these professional certifications to improve marketplace visibility and develop strong networking opportunities. Most companies prefer to employ candidates having any of these professional certifications to verify whether the aspiring financial directors have the desired technical knowledge.
Technical Knowledge
A financial director must possess proficiency in working in different work streams. The finance director plays the role of the supervisor of the bookkeepers’ work, ensuring that they maintain the records of the corporate transactions accurately. The financial director makes sure that the accountants submit performance data according to the standard accounting principles. He offers guidance and coaching in operational activities; reviews profit data and advise the department heads regarding how to allocate resources to drive sales.
Skills
Finance directors require various skills for the accomplishment of their tasks. Leadership skills, multi-tasking ability, problem-solving capacity, prompt decision-making and judgement skills are desired in a finance department head. Other qualities that are required in a finance director are inductive reasoning and social insightfulness. Inductive reasoning is the capability to relate general rules to particular problems to deliver sensible answers.
Tools
Finance directors make use of various tools and equipments to overcome the challenges posed by financial trends nowadays. The most important tools are accounts receivable and payable management application programs, project management software and information recovery software. Apart from these, credit settlement and lending management system software, financial accounting, analysis and reporting software and document management software are also used by the finance directors.
