This post provides the important skills and qualities you need to have as an assistant financial controller to be effective in your job and career.
But first, let’s get to know who an assistant financial controller is.
Who is an Assistant Financial Controller?
The assistant financial controller of an organization is responsible for maintaining accountability of the financial resources of the organization and safeguarding all investors’ assets.
So, from the explanation above, one can say that an assistant controller is one whose job is to assist the controller of the organization in directing the principles, practices and procedures of accounting of the organization.
Top 14 Assistant Financial Controller Skills
Here are some of the important skills and qualities to have to be effective in your job as an assistant financial controller:
- Excellent Accounting Skills
Being in a position to control a financial department in an organization even at an assistant level requires an impressive accounting skills.
It is a skill that can aid your supervisory ability to help you understand the basic financial processes going on in the department you work in.
Accounting skills are needed to be able to keep in touch with all the financial activities going on in the organization and to help check some operations that might go against the ethics of the organization.
2. IT Knowledge
To work as an assistant financial controller you will need a lot of the services of information technology for you to be able to keep with demands for the services accrued to your organization through your office.
You need to remain consistent in the knowledge of information technology as more technics and software are pushed into the digital market daily to ensure that people are making use of the best and most recent technology in their job.
3. Understanding of Data Analysis and Forecasting
As an assistant financial controller, you will be working with quite a huge number of data, which requires accurate analysis for you to be able to decipher the right data to work with all the time.
To be able to analyze and sort out data, you should be well grounded in the art of data analysis.
You should be able to draw a rule on the nature of data that is needed by you, the department, and the organization at large. Understanding of data analysis and forecasting is a relevant skill to have as an assistant controller.
From the point of accurate analysis of data, you should be able to make predictions of what the financial future of the department will look like.
4. Organizational Skills
The work of a controller involves a lot of processes, which are put under consideration before relevant decisions are made.
For an assistant controller who has a lot of job to do daily, weekly, or even monthly, it is important that you possess an impressive organizational skill.
Organization lightens the whole process and not present the jobs as cumbersome and near impossible to tackle.
All you need to do is to take your time and work on the various jobs based on how you have prioritized them and the amount of time required to complete each task.
When you are able to organize yourself and the jobs you have at hand to complete, it will help you to plan for the future and preserve your energy.
You know that lack of organization is both energy and time consuming.
5. Good Communication Skills
To control a group of people in the department or organization at large is not something you achieve through mere expectation on the people you are leading to do what is expected of them.
You have to stick around and make the intentions known to them from the onset.
It is through good communication that you are able to lay down the rules the other colleagues can work with and ensure that each member of the team adheres to the laid down rules and regulations of the team or department.
So, you have to find a way to keep in touch with people in the organization and put in place a working structure to ensure that communication is not hindered from your end.
6. Interpersonal Skills
The previous point above highlighted the importance of communication to the team and what role you have to play in ensuring communication continues to excel from your end.
This is down to how strong your interpersonal skills are.
Communication is one of the ways by which you can establish interpersonal skills, which is geared towards establishing a good relationship with all relevant stakeholders in the organization.
This starts with understanding the strength and the weaknesses of the different individuals in the organization.
When working with different people in the organization, particularly in your department, take note of the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals you work with and try to make them build on their strengths.
7. Problem Solving Skills
Problem solving is a must in every organization. For an organization to consider employing or retaining you, they are going to consider the value you are bringing both in the short and long term.
This value refers to the problems you are capable of solving, both now and in the future.
8. Good Mathematical Skills
Having a good mathematical skill is important for the assistant financial controller role as it is for any accounting position.
This job is a complex one, which demands a lot accounting and mathematical skills to be effective in performing its functions.
9. Good Analytical Skills
The job of an assistant financial controller demands that you have to be constantly prepared to carry out some analysis when the situation arises.
This will help you to avoid some unnecessary mistakes, which result from oversight and carelessness.
You don’t take issues the way they come but you rather should learn to analyze and look at all possible scenarios before you proceed to making decisions.
10. Management Skills
The assistant financial controller position is a leadership role; therefore, you should present yourself as someone that could be held accountable for whatever happens under your watch and preserve the interest of the people working with you.
Apart from the people working with you, you should be able to manage the resources at your disposal in this job.
You should ensure that the tools given to you to enable you to do your job should be kept in good condition always.
11. Good Leadership Skills
Good leadership qualities/skills are highly required in this job.
As an assistant financial controller, you are one of the important personalities in the organization that other colleagues can look up to for inspiration in their different jobs.
One of the leadership qualities you should exhibit is good work ethics.
This is important for you to be able to train others to know what is expected of them in their job.
You are not expected to engage yourself in unprofessional matters that could undermine your effort and the efforts of others in the organization.
So, ensure that you are not a bad influence on others in the department or organization.
12. Versatility
Versatility is one basic skill that will always remain relevant in today’s business world.
You need to have that ability to handle different jobs and activities without much struggle.
You are not bound to do the same job every day, sometimes you could be required to take up something different from what you are used to as a new dimension to your job, or merely acting in the role of a delegate of a superior in the office.
This involves building enough capacity to handle different jobs and exceling in most of them, which increases your usefulness to the organization.
13. Time Management
Time management is very important because it is a good avenue of relieving yourself of unnecessary pressure emanating from having overload of jobs, probably some of them being carryover jobs.
So, to relieve pressure from yourself in your assistant financial controller job, you need to avoid carrying over jobs that should be done as at when due.
Time management skill is one quality to have to ensure that no time is wasted on irrelevant activities.
14. Relationship Building
Building and maintaining relationships is one of the most important aspects of interpersonal skills.
It is a skill that allows you to learn from others as much as they learn from you.
The importance of having a good and workable relationship among employees in a workplace cannot be over emphasized because if employees are able to work together, they can achieve a lot within the shortest possible time.
Collaborating with other experts and employees in the organization is one sure way to boost the chances of the organization achieving both its short and long term goals without needing so much of external help.
Assistant controller Skills for Resume
If you are making a new resume or CV for the assistant financial controller position and have the skills and qualities presented above, then you can highlight some of them in your resume’s Skills Or Competence section.
This will show to the employer/hiring manager that you have the right skills and qualities to be effective on the job of an assistant financial controller, which will boost your chances of being hired for the role.
Conclusion
An assistant financial controller works together with the controller to ensure that the main principles, practices, and procedures of accounting within the organization are maintained.
This post has provided the main skills and qualities that you need to develop to be able to carry out your duties effectively.
