CFO or Chief Financial officer is the official responsible for the planning, implementation, and management of the financial aspects and activities of the company. The tasks handled may extend to investment and business planning, negotiations, budgeting, mergers and acquisitions, investor relation management, guiding and advising accounting staff, etc. Of course, a CFO is considered as a part of senior management. In fact, CFOs are supposed to be the financial strategizing partner of Chief Executive Officers and Operating officers.

But when should you actually hire a CFO service? When is the right time to hire the finance officer or a CFO service in Dubai? Hiring CFO too soon and in a haste may incur more – than- affordable expenses for the business. On the other hand, if you don’t hire a responsible financial officer on time, you may miss out on the opportunity and growth that great financial strategies can bring to a business. The further sections of this article discuss whether you should hire CFO services in Dubai and the right time to hire CFO services for startups.

Before we proceed, we have enlisted the duties of CFO for you to have a better understanding of the responsibilities that you will be handing over when you hire a CFO Service in UAE.

Role and duties of CFO

To put in a single sentence, a senior level finance officer will be responsible for the over-all finance and related aspects of a firm. Obviously, Chief Financial Officers are much more qualified and have a much responsible role. In this context, note that getting the title of ‘Chief Financial Officer’ doesn’t involve taking any competitive exams for such. So, in case you are inclined towards hiring a CFO, make sure you hire one after properly checking the experience and qualifications.

• Budget, Investment and risk management:

Some obvious duties of a senior financial officer will be budget and investment planning and risk management. And, they are responsible for doing all that while keeping the capital structure right.

• Overlooking the financial performance, accounts, and tax:

All the reports and statistics and key information from the accounts and finance department will go to the chief financial officer. It will be on the basis of this data that he proposes changes to cope with implied situations. CFO service you hire should be able to draw implications of the financial position and account statement of a firm. It would largely help management in making relevant investment plans, growth or expansion plans and cost-cutting decisions. Moreover, CFO will be able to see the departments or activities causing losses or unnecessary expenses.

• Liaison with investors, auditors. banks etc.:

CFO, at times, will also be responsible for maintaining relations with the third parties relevant to the organization, such as auditors, investors, important vendors, and even banks.

• Financial strategies and business growth:

A CFO service in Dubai will carry the obvious responsibility of making strong strategies for the survival of the business in the competitive environment of the UAE. These financial strategies and plans can go a long way in the growth and prosperity of your entity.

Should you consider hiring a CFO?

Several emerging and growing companies reach a phase where they are uncertain of whether or not to hire a CFO.

Plainly, the right time for you to hire a full-time CFO will, of course, be when your business has grown enough to need financial strategies. Basically, you need a CFO when merely keeping the accounts in check with GAAPs (with a controller or finance manager) is not really doing the thing.

Still, there are several factors to consider, after all, and it could be a tough decision to make for many. This is mostly because hiring a full-time CFO is pretty expensive for small and medium businesses. So, owners and managers often end up in a confusing spot weighing the use of a CFO against the administrative expenses involved in hiring and keeping a CFO. Thus, it is a tough guess-game.

For those who are in such tough spots, here is the good news. You have another great alternative of hiring interim CFOs or third-party accounting and CFO services in Dubai. Hiring an interim chief financial officer means hiring a CFO who works for multiple (or several ) companies simultaneously. In other words, he or she will be managing and strategizing finance and related factors for several clients. It’s more like, let’s say, hiring a part-time CFO. This won’t be as expensive since the cost gets shared among all the clients that the officer from CFO services in Dubai may be serving.

Benefits of hiring CFO services for Start-ups and small businesses

It is needless to say that CFO is a must for large-scale entities. However, by having an interim CFO or by hiring a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) service, Dubai small businesses can be in a more advantageous position too.

• No more concern about being a ‘small-scale business’

Businesses operating at a moderate level often avoid hiring chief financial officers not just because they aren’t always affordable, but also because they are considered overqualified for taking up small-business projects. Both these concerns can be overlooked when you hire an interim CFO. This is primarily because they are already at a challenging and deserved position by serving multiple businesses and companies at a time.

• Expertise and guidance of a CFO within budget

As a startup, many would be still struggling with surviving in and expanding your market and keeping it all together. At such a point, think how fruitful it would be to get a different perspective from an experienced person? And most importantly, you get all those assistance that we discussed earlier, without going too hard on your budget.