Financial Management
Definition of Financial Management
Financial management includes understanding financial principles, budgets, data, and reporting. It includes identifying potential financial risks and implications of unusual transactions or behaviors, understanding financial statements and financial results, and assisting management with analysis and actionable reports. Good financial management is to be a trusted business advisor to management.
Financial Associate: Early understanding of financial principles of revenue, expense, and budget constraints of campus units. Familiarity with how to use query and reporting tools, and how to effectively review and present data in spreadsheets. Understand where report data originates and how to determine accuracy. Develop a sense of transaction reasonableness and question unusual transactions.
Sr. Financial Associate: Guide the financial behavior of others including those who may seek to improperly influence an outcome. Identify and communicate potential risks or implications associated with unusual transactions or behaviors. Review and understand the monthly financial statements within the area of responsibility. Evaluate large volumes of transaction data to identify anomalies and trends, and highlight significant issues to superiors.
Financial Professional: Evaluate systems and data to ensure effective information accumulation and reporting. Perform and/or review complex transactional reconciliations to ensure the integrity of data and processes. Effectively guide operational managers by understanding and communicating financial results. Advise on cost-benefit choices that impact the department's effectiveness. Demonstrate a commitment to remaining current with technical and business topics to properly influence business practices. Summarize data into effective reports that "tell the story" in a way that is actionable by others.
Sr. Financial Professional: Provide financial direction regarding a broad array of functions that may include accounting and reporting, budgeting, cash management, inventory, product/services costing, receivables, or capital asset management, etc. Analyze and provide actionable reports to senior management to guide decision-making. Understand, advise, and report complex accounting matters (which may include areas of the audited financial report.) Promote operational priorities.
Financial Principal: Organize and report operational or audited financial information to senior leaders. Actively participate in multi-disciplinary teams to plan, execute, and achieve business objectives. Manage budgeted resources to accomplish departmental mission. Ensure systems are operating accurately and providing actionable information. Educate and train staff in management issues.
Sr. Financial Principal: Be a trusted business advisor to senior leadership--advising in such areas as business strategy, regulatory, and reputational implications of proposed financial and operational decisions. Analyze and clearly interpret financial information to proactively and clearly advise senior leaders. Identify opportunities, propose resource allocations, and drive requirements execution. Communicate financial principles and management issues to broad audiences. Collaborate with College/Division/University, Church, industry, and regulatory leaders to achieve University objectives. Be forward thinking; plan for University needs 10+ years in the future and establish roadmaps to get there.
How to Develop Financial Management
University Courses:
- Bachelors degree-accounting, business, finance or related fields
- Masters degree-accounting, business, finance or related field
Training / Other Courses:
- Direct Supervisor training-specific courses, background, expectations
- Preparation/training in business, accounting or bookkeeping
- Y-Train and additional training for systems within responsibility
- Spreadsheet training through online or HRD courses
- HRD Critical Conversations training courses; develop and practice role play responses to challenging situations with a peer or supervisor
- Continued professional training through industry conferences, university meetings and business reading.
- Supervisor coaching on resource utilization.
Professional Associations / Certifications:
- Conferences to build industry skills, awareness and relationships
- Participate as a presenter in industry conferences and as industry association officer or leader
Books / Publications:
- Business publications (eg. NACUBO Business Officer, WSJ, Business Week, etc.)
Experiences:
- Coaching by experienced Business Objects users
- Mastery of Financial Services website information
- Review of transaction patterns (prior months/years)
- University Policy mastery within area of responsibility
- Regular attendance and participation at Controller Group Meetings
- Perform project, activity, or balance sheet reconciliations with coaching by superiors
- Collaboration with other campus financial professionals and peers at other universities
- Learn department's Resource Planning priorities
- Business problem solving discussions with Senior Leaders
- Participation in significant team projects
- Make presentations in college, controllership or industry meetings or conferences
- Relationship building across organizational boundaries
- Develop professional network, including internal peers, peers of other universities and those within sponsoring organization and demonstrate effective collaboration
How to Demonstrate Financial Management
DO: Describe what you did in completing / achieving your development plan
- Successful completion of degree
- Successful completion of advanced degree
- Share growing expertise in presentation skills
- Provide evidence of conference presentation or association leadership (eg. Powerpoints, video of presentation, etc.)
- Describe interactions with campus financial personnel including outcomes of significant issues addressed
- Demonstrate contributions and leadership within team projects
- Provide evidence of information organization to enhance management's ability to make effective decisions
- Describe collaborative efforts with various constituencies to improve ability to manage financial and operational resources
ASSESS: Share, if applicable, any assessments that were taken / provided related to your activities
LEARN: Explain what you felt that you were able to learn during your journey / experiences
- Discuss transaction review practices to identify and resolve issues; demonstrate an understanding of materiality and reasonableness
- Discuss a range of situations addressed to guide others' financial behaviors
- Understand and describe peer institutions' approach to area of responsibility
- Evidence of expanded industry awareness, relationships, and learnings benefitting BYU
APPLY: Give specifics examples where you have / plan to make direct application to your work
- Discuss Business Objects queries used and how they benefit of execution of responsibilities
- Evidence of training courses taken and explanation of their benefit; discuss and show spreadsheet functions utilized
- Discuss mastery of applicable university policy and FS website materials
- Demonstrate understanding of departmental financial reporting applicable to area of responsibility and communication/resolution of transactional concerns
- Describe nature/extent of data evaluation, reconciliation duties performed, and implemented improvements
- Provide evidence of new or improved reporting (e.g. special projects) to improve information actionable by financial or operational managers
- Discuss personnel/resource realignments to accomplish higher priorities
- Relate learning experiences from discussions with senior leadership and how those have been applied in subsequent situations
- Discuss metrics employed and how they guide departmental improvement
- Provide evidence of Resource Planning results for initiatives sponsored by the Principal
- Describe strategy development and execution efforts
REFLECT: Review / consider things you would have done differently had you had this experience earlier