Partner at Nawalgaria & Co.; Angel investor in 2 startups;13 years in profession; Expertise in CFO services, Internal controls setup and review, International taxation plus transfer pricing, cloud accounting, Indian legal compliances
While many have their own accounting personnel, staff turnover is a consistent problem. It is not very prudent or practical for every business to hire a seasoned, highly qualified person for this area.
For this, what we try to do is introduce a periodic review system for our clients wherein we overview the accounting and compliances. Further, we setup various checks so that any lapse or inconsistency could be highlighted fairly simply.
Hailing from a traditional business family, I have seen business management, internal controls, micro and macro factor analysis very closely. Through my education and internship, I have learnt about contemporary perspective on same and use of technology in various domains.
This combination of traditional wisdom and contemporary practices helped me start my own financial advisory firm in 2010. Since I have also invested and worked closely with a couple of startups and helped them with accounting, review of internal controls, legal compliances, liaison with investors.
I have experience on remote assistance to clients since more than 10 years now. I have worked with various ERP and cloud accounting software like Quickbooks, Xero etc.
Cloud accounting has been a blessing for businesses in more ways than anyone could have imagined.
Such software enable multiple people to access the information from anywhere at anytime. This level of access and rights could be configured as desired. This promotes mobility, save of precious time and enables real time decision making.
A very big plus about this is potential of cost saving. Cloud computing means that one could hire accounting service from anywhere on the planet. We ourselves have provided cloud computing services at half the costs to existing companies without any decrease in availability and improved quality of accounting.
Internal controls might sound complicated and many tend to defer prioritizing this domain to a later stage. It is simple if assisted by a deep knowledge of the business operations and professional help, if required.
Lets take a small example! Much of the operations is now getting captured in various software present at various hierarchies. If we could understand their data, reports and could setup correlation mechanism of reports from various sources, it would help identify areas of concern or lapse.
If there is an area of priority wherein a mechanism of capturing/ reporting information is not yet installed, it should be pursued and implemented. It would initiate review of this area through such reports.
Every business has a degree of legal formalities to comply and financial controls to maintain/ review!
Considering the scale of operations, it is not prudent at times to hire a full time CFO considering the cost-benefit analysis. For such businesses, part time CFO or outsourced CFO is right way forward. A right choice of a part time CFO brings best knowledge on table, at lower costs alongwith more stability.
I have been serving clients as a part time CFO since more than 10 years now. As I grow old in an organization, my time and effort required in that firm decreases. Thus, I am able to cater to all the needs of the firm at more sustainable cost structure.
