The objective of the Financial Controller and his/her team is to:

• account for all of the transactions of the organization on a periodic basic,
• aggregate and disseminate financial data within the organization,
• aggregate and report financial data to the SEC and shareholders,
• maintain a system of internal control over these transactions to assure as much as is possibile that reported financial information is accurate at the time of reporting

To a great extent the controller’s role is dictated by the calendar and the financial reporting process:

• Controllers manage the closing of the books on a monthly basis, and report that information internally to management.
• On a quarterly basis that information populates public financial filings to the local regulators (SEC, FSA, BaFin, AMF, CONSOB, CNMV…) which the controller is responsible for.
• At the end of the fiscal year the controller is responsibile for financial statements and filings covering the entire year.

Any project that a controller and their team need to complete (any improvements to the above routine process, any hiring, technology implementations, mergers, or restructurings) take place in the margins of these routine activities.

While private company controllers do not report financial results publicly on a periodic basis, they do go through a rollup and aggregation of all transactions on a periodic basis to report to internal management to help support internal decision-making.


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