5.1 The role of the finance function GapFill

In a large organisation, the finance function is likely to be headed by  a clerkan accountantan advertisera supervisor. Medium-sized organisations may employ qualified  bankingbook-keepingnote-takingfinance staff and retain the services of an accountancy firm. 

The finance function will be responsible for setting  paybudgetsbenefitsbenchmarks for other functional areas, and helping to  managemergemigratemonitor spending against them throughout the year. This allows the finance function to  alertconstructrecordobserve other staff to problems that might develop. They may also be approached during the financial year to  reviewauthoriserejectfind an increase in budgets, since business activity is dynamic and cannot always be predicted  wellaccuratelyin detailpoorly at the start of each year. This shows the finance function providing  guidancemoneynumbersfigures to the business owners, based on financial expertise.

If the business owners want to invest in the business, by increasing staffing or  purchasingwatchingconsideringadvertising new equipment, they will ask the finance function to provide  graphsimagescostingspictures covering the investment options. This allows the owners to make decisions based on data, instead of  geographycategoriesmotionslocation.