in corporate work, the functions of the treasurer and the financial controller are identified. In contrast, treasurer and controller positions are distinguished only in large organizations with a complex management structure and a large volume of financial activities.
Table Of Contents
What Are the Treasurer’s Tasks?
Duties and Responsibilities
Required Qualifications
Often, small business companies do not have the positions of controller and corporate treasurer. Their duties are performed by the chief accountant or CFO. However, in the classical understanding of financial management standards, the functions of the treasurer and the controller are separated. Each has a different role and area of responsibility. They will be considered in the article, along with the required qualifications and specific examples.
What Are the Treasurer’s Tasks?
A modern treasurer is a specialist who interacts with financial risk management. Also, they are involved in controlling the liquidity of an organization and tracking its payments. At the same time, a treasurer doesn’t interact with real company funds — the work is carried out with financial data securities.
Interestingly, the post of treasurer is also available at the federal level. The country’s chief financial officer is responsible for tracking budget expenditures and issuing payments based on statutory regulations.
Salary level: above average. For 2020, the average specialist salary was $215,000 per year. Earnings level ranged from $175,000 to $266,000 per year, depending on the company’s size and the country of location.
Duties and Responsibilities
Top-level treasurers should:
Do the financial analysis and manage all cash flows of the company;
Control the financing of projects and track potential investors’ offers;
Manage bank accounts;
Monitor all payments;
Do the financial reporting on cash flow and accounts receivable and payable;
Form a loan portfolio;
Reconcile credit companies’ accounts;
Develop measures to protect the business from financial risks, including currency fluctuations.
In general, the spectrum of responsibility of a modern treasurer goes far beyond the limits of the “coin master” or the finance manager.
In fact, if you seek to join the ranks of corporate treasurers, then be prepared for a high degree of responsibility – money is the blood of all business activities. The role of the treasury is to maintain the functioning of this circulatory system to get enough energy not only for survival but also for development. Also, this specialist strives to raise equity capital.
Required Qualifications
The financial duties described above require certain skills from the employee in the position of treasurer. Whether it is a CFO, a financial manager, or another specialist, it is important to:
Have leadership qualities;
Be punctual;
Deal quickly and efficiently with financial matters;
Be able to conduct and document auditing work;
Maintain cash management.
Previously, these specialists may have simply been tracking financial statements, but now the treasurer should be much more advanced in macroeconomics. Also, this position involves constant cooperation with the CFO, vice president of the company, and other key analysts.
In general, becoming a treasurer or a CPA (certified public accountant — a treasurer in non-profit organizations) requires a specific training course of at least 150 hours and a four-part exam. Only then can the specialist submit requests to the company and have a chance of getting their desired financial position.
Who Is a Controller?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a financial controller is a specialist who closely maintains bookkeeping by all of the transactions conducted by a corporation. Interestingly, in large companies, the scope of a specialist’s duties is rather narrow (much narrower than treasurer’s). On the contrary, the smaller the company, the more the job description includes.
Salary level: above average. According to statistics for the previous year, the salary of a specialist ranges from $120,000 to $130,000 per year. However, the level of earnings is different, as evidenced by the Fortune 500 statistics. According to their data, a large percentage of controllers make more than $200,000 a year.
Duties and Responsibilities
When comparing treasurer vs. controller, it is important to describe the range of tasks for each specialist. If an employee joins the controllership sector, then the main duties are:
Overseeing all staff involved in the budgeting and accounting process, including accounts receivable and payable, payroll, and regulators’ compliance;
Controlling the accounting of subsidiaries;
Checking the preparation of financial reports;
Cost accounting through disbursements, purchase of goods, etc.
Sometimes a controller is identified with a tax manager if the specialist mainly deals with tax returns and risks following the local legislation. Additionally, the responsibilities of the controller include forecasting and strategic planning. The decision-making process regarding outside sources plays a huge role in the work of any enterprise. As a rule, the controllers’ sector includes several specialists at once (analysts, financial managers, and accountants) who could correctly extrapolate all incoming data.
It is essential that the main controller is not always required to perform the listed duties on his own. However, it is his responsibility to check the quality of the execution of these tasks by subordinates.
Required Qualifications
Only a totally qualified specialist with sufficiently large work experience can be admitted to financial reports. However, it is theoretically possible to become a controller even without a master’s degree. But the keyword “theoretically” is very significant — at the moment, large and medium-sized corporations still prefer narrowly focused specialists with at least 5-7 years of experience after college or university.
According to the statistics of labor companies, the greatest competitiveness is made by specialists who have come a long way:
College with a specialization in accounting, financial statistics, or financial management;
University with a similar specialty — a bachelor’s degree, and then a master’s degree is desirable;
Successful passing of the CPA exam.
It’s also worth talking about the skills that are required for the controller. As a rule, the most valuable professional characteristics are considering:
Possessing leadership qualities for fast and appropriate delegation of authority;
Self-organization and perfect time management;
An analytic mind;
The ability to select an appropriate approach to diverse tasks.
Thus, it is impossible to become a great controller in a prestigious company immediately after graduation. It is required to get an education in college and preferably at the university, as well as to constantly attend refresher courses to acquire new knowledge and skills.
Unfortunately, speaking of treasurer vs. controller, it’s worth noting that getting both positions requires a consistent climb up the corporate ladder. Typically, workers start in small positions, doing minor accounting or sector auditing. Upon successful completion of tasks and the availability of potential, the specialist gets a promotion, reaching the desired position. Source: https://studybay.com/blog/difference-between-role-of-treasurer-and/