Why is Virtual Chief Financial Officer growing in recent times?

Ashish M. Shaji

16 Sep, 2024

Growing the revenue of a company is one of the primary financial goals for anyone. In order for you to manage the financial affairs of your business, you will need a financial executive. A CFO would be the one you are looking for but if you can’t afford to hire a CFO, then hire Virtual Chief Financial Officer.

What is Virtual CFO?

CFO stands for Chief Financial Officer. A CFO is a senior executive who looks after the financial matters of a company. His leading role is to track cash flow and present accurate and timely reports. They also analyse data and identify the strength and weaknesses of the company.

The concept of VCFO is a new one that allows businesses of any size to make use of the CFO services without hiring a full-time employee. A VCFO operates remotely and on a contracted and part-time basis. As some businesses lack resources to hire an in house CFO, they go ahead with VCFO service. 

What do Virtual Chief Financial Officers offer?

Virtual CFOs may offer the following services:

• Assistance with vision casting and creation of strategic goal;
• Financial planning, which includes the following-
• Cash flow management and forecasting;
• Scenario modelling;
• Opportunity analysis and budgeting.
• Preparation of financial statement, reporting and evaluation;
• Financial risk management that may involve the following-
• Cost-benefit mapping;
• Contingency mapping.
• Cost management which may include-
• Productivity and talent assessments and suggestions;
• Supply chain review;
• Capital investment analysis and due diligence.
• Opportunity identification;
• Funding evaluation and administration;
• Debt reduction^[1];
• Organizational transformation.

The scope of the work of a virtual CFO depends upon the size of the organization and unique financial needs.

Why are the services of Virtual Chief Financial Officer growing like never before?

Start-ups and businesses are looking for opportunities that allow them to work smoothly. Where required, there is a pressure to make reduction to personnel and outsource. This has led to a pattern in employing automated CFO providers instead of more conventional full-time CFO in house.

Some of the prominent reasons for the growth of VCFOs in recent times are as follows:

• Flexibility

When you employ a VCFO, you set the conditions for time and expense that suits well for your company. It means working full-time hours for few weeks for the VCFO and then part-time or on fractional basis. In case of alteration in specifications, you may scale up or down. Without any loss to the type of skills and knowledge you require, you pay for the time and deliverables that your business requires.

• Expertise in Accounting

An automated CFO who is a designated accountant may be selective. You realize that they have sought strict standards and their experience is current, and they are still practising.

• External Stakeholder and professional services liaison

A VCFO is a liaison with stakeholders, lenders and specialist bodies from beyond. They give reporting and review further assurance, and the due diligence and competent supervision of an appointed accountant provide the third party confidence.

• Rapidly work out things

An automated CFOs life leaps into a scenario and rapidly works out things. They have the experience of joining mid process dialog and quickly assessing what is to be achieved from a financial viewpoint, whether it’s collection of data, improvement in the financial statements or introducing better accounting procedures. 

Future of VCFO in India

The VCFO services are booming. We just came to know the reasons for it. There are many start-ups as well as businesses that are seeking these services who can’t afford to hire a full time in-house CFO.

When we contemplate on its future in India, we can see its bright future as India heads towards a season of entrepreneurship. Start-ups would look out for people who can manage their finances and get regular insights of their business. VCFOs can be the game changer for numerous businesses in the future and is expected to take the business to a different level altogether.

How to know if I need the services of a Virtual Chief Financial Officer (VCFO)?

Your company should evaluate the following questions in order to determine if hiring VCFO is the way forward:

• Are you aware of the actual production and labour costs?
• Are all necessary financial data being recorded in the right place?
• Is your accounting software functioning as it’s supposed to work?
• Are you able to accurately and precisely track, analyse and measure your profit margins?
• Are you able to utilize your financial data to make better business choices?
• Are you utilizing the information such as profit margin to make better informed decisions resulting in higher profitability?

If you have a doubt in answering to any of the aforementioned questions, then you should consider hiring a VCFO service provider.

Conclusion

Hiring a Virtual Chief Financial Officer is an excellent choice to explore as it will help you to ensure that everything functions smoothly when it comes to financial matters. As stated above, we may see VCFOs growth to continue going north in the near future.

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