Bookkeeper to CFO – How to Grow the Accounts Department
A proper organizational framework and efficient utilization of human resources are pivotal to a company’s success. Be it the HR department, marketing department, or the finance department. It is essential to have a proper hierarchy and dedicated human resources to perform tasks to the best of their capabilities.
Most start-up owners do not realize the importance of having a structured team, especially in accounting and finance. Whether a start-up or a full-scale company, having a proper financial infrastructure is particularly important to keep your business operations running smoothly. 
SME owners ignore the importance of accounting functions and manage accounting all by themselves, either missing the recording of crucial data or piling up the accounting tasks until the very end, making it difficult to finalize taxation or record business projections in time for closing.
Procrastination often leads to piling debts, increasing interest rates, reduced finance optimization, and thus eventually increased losses. Adopting proper bookkeeping and accounting practices from day one is essential so that your company’s financial records remain straight and your business is forever ready for an audit or expansion.
We are not suggesting you hire a full-fledged team of accountants or a highly paid chief finance officer right from the start of your business, but it is essential to dedicate a resource or time from your schedule to the bookkeeping tasks.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to grow your company’s accounting function. 
Hire an Efficient Bookkeeper
In your company’s start-up phase, it is unnecessary to have a complete team of bookkeepers, accountants, and tax managers. However, having at least one person manage these tasks with focus and efficiency is crucial. You can achieve this either by hiring a simple accountant for your business, someone with limited qualifications but enough knowledge of bookkeeping so that they can record day-to-day transactions and maintain a regular record of your business finances, or you can outsource the task to an accounting service or hire a part-time accountant.
If you have an in-house finance manager (bookkeeper/accountant), be it full-time or part-time, it is also essential to have appropriate accounting/bookkeeping software to help you conveniently record all the transactions and minimize the risk of human error. Most SMEs utilize QuickBooks for crucial accounting functions. However, many other options are available online to help you manage your accounting functions. 
Get a Part-Time CFO or a Senior Accountant
Once your company starts growing and the revenue starts coming in, you might be able to plan your expansion in terms of products or clientele. Either way, this means increased transactions, businesses, and workload on your bookkeeper. If you were outsourcing your bookkeeping tasks until now, it is high time that you hire a full-time bookkeeper and a part-time or consulting CFO to oversee your finance management. While the bookkeeper continues to do the day-to-day job of recording transactions, the CFO will now make projections and analyses based on revenue figures. This added function will help make well-informed financial decisions and better taxation.
An Entire-Fledged Finance Department with Accountants, Bookkeepers, and a CFO
Once your company has grown and the income has become stable, it is essential to set up a proper finance department, overlooked by the CFO. Suppose the number of employees in your company has significantly grown. In that case, it is better to have multiple people in the finance department, each dedicated to payroll management, transaction and client dealing management, and company operation management. All three of these tasks are done by the full-time CFO, thus making your finance department operate like a well-oiled machine. You can choose to grow your finance team from this point onward, adding more people as needed.
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