I was talking with a colleague the other day about his desire to change jobs. He was asking for help on interviewing techniques, concerned about how to answer questions about relevant experience and the like. As we were talking, I said to him, “From an accounting perspective, for the most part, it’s the same no matter what company you’re in. Debits are debits and credits are credits.” Sure, there are some subtle differences in processes, or systems, and certain industries have specific rules to follow. But, overall, if you know the business or the industry, you’ll do just fine.

So the natural question he asked was, “How does one differentiate oneself from the competition, especially in a down economy when there are 100 applicants for one job?” The answer: demonstrate that you bring value to the organization. What can you do for the company that others can’t or won’t do? The accounting function is a necessary cost to the company. But there is no reason that it can’t be valuable as well.

• Turn mounds of data into useful information. There is data flowing all throughout the company, from system generated “reports”, pages of data output, complex BI databases that need maintaining, etc. Executives don’t need a pivot table that they can swizzle around to figure out sales and costs. They need the result of your efforts to make sound decisions.
• Make the complex simple. Business leaders should have some grasp of the numbers. But they aren’t accountants or analysts. Their job is to run — and hopefully grow — the business. As the value-adding CFO, your job is to give them the financial information they need in a way that they can understand and use to do their job.
• Understand the business processes. Why are there so many touch-points for a document between the front-office and back-office? Are there ways to streamline those to reduce inefficiency (i.e. cost) or improve order-to-invoice time? Can you eliminate paper or reduce errors? If the business triples in size, does the staff have to as well?
• Be the financial conscious for the company. Early on in my career, I had a habit of saying, “It’s not in the budget.” Aside from irritating many mid-line managers, I realized that we may have missed out on opportunities to implement long term cost cutting or grow sales that also weren’t in the budget. Being the financial conscious means being able look beyond the black and white of the now and see the benefits of the future.

At the end of the day, whether the company is a Fortune 100 enterprise or an entrepreneurial startup, the value-adding CFO helps make money, save money, drive efficiency, and make the boss look good.