Financial Control: Importance and Practice Analysis Report

This report examines the crucial role of financial control within organizations. It highlights how financial control enables companies to assess their performance and make informed decisions, aligning with strategic objectives. The report explores the various levels where financial control is implemented, including strategic planning, investment policies, and operational perspectives. It discusses the benefits of financial control in improving business performance and reducing costs, as well as the different financial controls practiced by companies, such as accounting standards, management oversight, and accounting tools. The report also references several academic sources to support the claims and analysis, providing a comprehensive overview of financial control.

Importance of and practice of financial control in organisations
Financial control
Financial control allows a company to evaluate objectively and systematically the variations
which had taken place on earlier established strategies and on the old lines (Otley, D. and
Emmanuel, K.M.C., 2013).
This control helps in getting various insights and arguments which helps in taking major
decisions and hence would guarantee in achieving the corporate objectives of the company.
The value of financial control has potential of reaching to different levels within the
structure of the business (Clark, I., 2013) which is both, financial as well as organisational:
 The Strategic level
 Policies of investment
 Policies of business and its operations
 The operational perspective of the company
The strategic level
It refers to the evaluating process of the concurrence related to the financial plan as well as
the strategic plan of any company.
It is the one of the best way in order to detect the different variations in the budget of the
business and thus taking suitable actions for compensating, balancing and amending the
issue.
Policies of investment
Investments are important for any type of business in the world. These investments are
essential for developing and growing the business to another level and also for its viability.
Therefore this has become important as it:
o Helps in evaluating the policies include investment decisions
o Helps in differentiating between various types of investments be it immediate, short
term or mid to long term.
Policies of business and its operations
These policies of business influence the income generation capacity of the business and also
the act of cost reduction. Financial control therefore gives information in matters of:
o Fixation of prices
o Consistency of the different strategies of marketing
The operational perspective of the company
Through this perspective, a methodology of financial control being optimal is possible to a
great extent and hence control the accounts.
Therefore it is the most important perspective.

The practice of financial control
Financial control helps in ensuring the accuracy of reporting about any fraud and hence
eliminating it effectively. There are different financial controls practiced by companies
according to their size, resources, etc. Following are the various financial controls practiced
(Verhoest, K., Van Thiel, S., Bouckaert, G., Lægreid, P. and Van Thiel, S. eds., 2016):
 The staff for accounting and finance help in ensuring that effective standards of
accounting are implemented in the company so that there could be accuracy in
report of financial data.
 The management at senior level ensures that the processes of control for financial
data are efficiently and effectively involved in all the financial as well as accounting
matters of the company.
 The accounting department of the company is responsible for directly reporting to
the COO/CFO which are the members of the senior management in the company.
 The accounting tools like Comprehensive global General Ledger (G/L) frameworks
and a chart giving details about the accounts of the company are available.
 The management team of the company directly helps in reviewing and evaluating
the performances and hence provide the assurance that their finance as well as
accounting department people have the required skills and knowledge for the work.

REFERENCES
1. Otley, D. and Emmanuel, K.M.C., 2013. Readings in accounting for management control.
Springer.
2. Clark, I., 2013. Templates for financial control? Management and employees under the
private equity business model. Human Resource Management Journal, 23(2), pp.144-159.
3. Verhoest, K., Van Thiel, S., Bouckaert, G., Lægreid, P. and Van Thiel, S. eds., 2016.
Government agencies: practices and lessons from 30 countries. Springer.