The picture in Canada: finance roles are changing there, too.

• Author: Farquhar, Carolyn R.

The picture in Canada: finance roles are changing there, too Head office financial functions in Canada have evolved considerably in recent years, responding to changes in business environments. Changes in the specific market segments in which firms operate and the structural transformations in the general business environment have altered the roles and responsibilities of corporate financial managers. The automation of accounting systems and the advantages afforded by information technology have shifted the patterns of responsibility and decision-making.

These changes have resulted in financial management roles that are at once more "fully fledged" and less concerned with the minutiae of financial reporting. The environmental changes that have yielded more involved divisional managers and automated accounting systems have at the same time given rise to financial managers with more complex and complete policy roles. This expansion of responsibilities and the accompanying devolution of authority is referred to here as "professionalization."

Of the 110 companies that took part in a Conference Board of Canada survey, nearly half consolidated responsibility for the controllership and treasury functions at the chief financial officer level. However, more than one-third of the chief financial officers delegated prime responsibility for both functions to the appropriate corporate managers. Another one-sixth delegated responsibility for controllership and retained the treasury function.

Three-quarters of the CFOs in the survey had senior managers in addition to the controller and treasurer reporting to them. On average, CFOs had three such managerial subordinates at the head office. There was great variation in the functions performed by these managers, but management information systems and taxation were the two specialties most frequently cited. The breadth of responsibility of CFOs today is illustrated by the range of non-financial, general management functions reporting to them. These include corporate secretaries, corporate counsel, managers of external relations (e.g., corporate affairs or public affairs), and human resource managers.

The size of the financial management group in the sample firms varied greatly. Typically, the group consisted of between 30 and 150 individuals, with 44 to 87 percent of them working in the controllership function. Half of the companies in the survey employed four or more employees on the treasury side, to a maximum of 148.

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