First of all, I have to declare that there are many kinds of foreign companies, including European companies, North American companies, Japanese and Korean companies. Their organizational structures, management models, and corporate cultures are all different, so the functional division of labor in the financial department is also different. Larger groups (for example, ranked among the world's top 100 companies) have their own unique organizational structures and job titles that are not common to other companies. "Foreign companies" in a relatively pure and narrow sense can be called multinational companies, abbreviated in English as MNC (Multinational Company). This term is commonly seen in English recruitment notices of foreign companies. For example, job seekers are required to have past work experience in MNC. Foreign companies in a broad sense also include: the company only has foreign investment in the share capital, or the foreign company has a controlling stake, which does not mean that the foreign party participates in the operation and management decision-making. If this type of foreign company has a Chinese local management team to formulate the organizational structure, it depends on the management team. Whether to design the organizational structure according to MNC's operating system, and the CFO's idea of ????building the financial function. Therefore, I can only give a popular introduction to the financial positions in European and American MNCs among the former. I am sorry that I do not know the financial functions of Japanese and Korean companies. Netizens who know more are welcome to add.

In MNC, the financial function lines of European companies and American companies are slightly different, including the English titles.

1. Financial functions of European companies (the representative countries are Germany, France and Switzerland)

Generally speaking, in the subsidiaries of European MNCs, the daily work of the financial department is usually divided into two Line: Accounting and Financial Controlling, which can be roughly understood as the former is financial accounting, responsible for daily accounting transaction processing, settlement, issuance of financial reports and management reports, tax declaration and payment, cashier, fund settlement and banking Relationship, the latter is management accounting, responsible for budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, and decision support. So if you apply for a position in a European MNC subsidiary, you can probably tell which group you belong to from the job title. The one with Accounting belongs to the accounting group, and the one with Controlling belongs to the control group. Both have junior, senior, supervisor, and Different levels of managers.

The average headcount ratio between accounting and financial control is 6:4. That is to say, in a European MNC factory with 10 people in the finance department, there will be an Accounting department with 6 people under the financial manager. Team and Controlling Team of 4 people. In some industries, the latter has more people than the former. For example, among the financial personnel of all subsidiaries of a fast-moving consumer goods MNC in China, the ratio of Accounting and Controlling personnel is 1:2. This is contrary to most domestic companies. Many domestic companies The company's accounting personnel account for more than 80%. Some people say that this is one of the reasons why the Ministry of Finance is now vigorously promoting the construction of management accounting talents. I have reservations because I found that many Chinese-funded enterprises do not emphasize functional positioning in the division of labor in financial positions. Instead, they start from reports, by subject or Accounting elements are divided into different positions. For example, cost accounting requires both cost accounting (Accounting) and cost analysis (Controlling). Asset accounting requires accounting entries related to fixed assets, maintaining asset ledgers and inventory (Accounting), and When doing capital expenditure analysis (Controlling), their titles are all XX accountants, but it is difficult to measure how much time they spend on financial accounting and how much time they spend on management accounting. The final result that is easy to form is: financial accounting (Accounting) is a legal responsibility, so accounting entries and bookkeeping must be done. As for management accounting (Controlling), it is not a legal responsibility, so how it is done depends on the requirements of the superiors and bosses, and the person's management accounting skills. Knowledge and skills, but also his attitude. Therefore, when switching from this type of Chinese-funded enterprise to working in a foreign enterprise, the first thing to change is the division of labor according to functional positioning: those who do accounting do not care about analysis, and those who analyze do not do accounting.

2. Financial functions of American companies

The difference between the division of labor in financial positions in American MNCs and European companies is that there is no title of Controlling. It is either called Financial Analyst (financial analysis) or It's called Financial Planning Analyst (Financial Planning and Analysis, FP&A). Nowadays, many domestic companies like to call it FP&A when recruiting financial analysis positions, which is what I learned from American-funded companies. The responsibilities of FP&A are similar to those of Controlling, a European company. They are also responsible for analysis and not accounting. However, FP&A in American MNCs pays more attention to planning, that is, various short-term forecasts. In the textbook, it should be called Rolling Forecast. Some are beautiful. Capital companies call it Outlook. The frequency of these short-term forecasts is at least monthly, and some even forecast weekly. Therefore, one of the great feelings about doing FP&A in an MNC of a U.S.-owned listed company is: not only finance, but also business departments, forecasts The functions are very strong and very detailed, which also reflects from the side that the management accounting level of American companies is cutting-edge.

Some American companies like to call the accounting line Controller, which means that American companies position the accounting function not only as the recorder of economic activities, but also as the executor of internal control. Therefore, the American-owned MNC There is usually a Corporate Controller under the CFO, whose responsibilities are in charge of accounting and reporting, as well as formulating globally unified accounting policies and internal control systems, as well as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and various compliance requirements for listed companies. But the Controller of European companies does not have this meaning. As mentioned earlier, the Controlling of European companies is management accounting, while the Controller of American companies is biased toward financial accounting. What exactly is the Finance Controller (FC) that often appears in positions in foreign companies will be discussed later.

3. Accounting positions

Whether it is a European or American MNC, the internal division of labor in the accounting line is relatively similar, except that the basic incompatible separation of duties for internal control must be met The requirements are different from many domestic companies in terms of titles and job descriptions. Since MNC usually has a high degree of informatization, and the ERP system is highly integrated with business and financial modules, the division of labor of the accounting team is often based on business cycles rather than subjects or accounting elements. For example, in domestic enterprises with a relatively low degree of informatization In the financial department, there are often positions for current account accounting (or current department), settlement accountant (settlement department), and expense accountant, but they are not available in MNC, so if you belong to this type of position, you must not check it when making your English resume. Dictionary hard translation, for example, if one of your important responsibilities is document preparation and accounting for the company's expense reimbursement business, then if your English resume is literally translated into Expense Accounting, it will be directly filtered out by foreign companies because it cannot match the same position in a foreign company. According to the job description, foreign companies, whether European or American, will set up accounts receivable and accounts payable separately. The former is referred to as AR (Accounts Receivable) and the latter is referred to as AP (Accounts Payable). Everything is related to procurement to payment. Businesses related to this business cycle are accounted for by the AP group, so expense accounting is the AP accounting of foreign companies.

The accounting line also has a special organizational structure, which is the Financial Shared Service Center (FSSC). More and more MNCs adopt this management model, and even many large domestic enterprises have become popular. The characteristics of companies adopting this model are that the ERP system is mature, highly informatized, and has standardized processes. Almost all operations can be completed online, and the accounting business is therefore divided into several major groups:

1 ) From sales order to cash (Order to Cash): main responsibilities include customer file maintenance, credit review, order processing, delivery invoicing, revenue confirmation, accounts receivable write-off, reconciliation, payment collection, common in job descriptions The words are O2C /Credit control /Order booking /Billing /Invoicing /ARcollection /Revenue recognition, etc.

2) From procurement to payment (Procure toPay): The main responsibilities include supplier file maintenance, purchase invoices and Goods receipt verification, accounts payable posting, reconciliation, write-off, payment, cashier, expense accounting, bank reconciliation. Common words in job descriptions are P2P /Invoice matching /Payment /AP /T&E(Travel &Entertainment)/Bank reconciliation Etc.

3) From general ledger to report (Ledger to Report): The main responsibilities include posting in the general ledger module, entry of transfer vouchers, month-end amortization provision, accounting of fixed assets and construction in progress, inventory accounting, internal Current accounting and reconciliation, salary and benefit accounting, operating reports, consolidated reports, open and closed accounting periods, etc. Common words in job descriptions are GL /Closing /FA (Fixed Asset) / Inventory /IC (Intercompany) / Payroll / Reporting/Consolidation, etc.

4) From Production to Inventory (Production to Inventory): It is only applicable to manufacturing factories, which is the cost accounting of domestic enterprises. Note that the inventory mentioned here only refers to the inventory accounting before finished goods. , including the flow and processing of raw materials and work-in-progress. If there is no manufacturing link and it is just the entry and exit of goods, this type of trade-type inventory accounting is classified in the general ledger to reporting group

***Exclusive Service Center position It is no longer traditional accounting, and it is not universal enough in the talent market. Therefore, if you apply for a grassroots accounting position in a foreign company, you must find out from the recruitment information and interview whether it belongs to an exclusive service center. Regarding the differences between ***enjoyed service centers and traditional accounting posts, I wrote a post on this page last year. Interested netizens can read it.

4. Corporate Function (Corporate Function)

There should not be many such positions in MNC Chinese companies, and they are mainly concentrated in China or Asia-Pacific in large foreign companies in first-tier cities. District headquarters rarely appear in operating subsidiaries in second- and third-tier cities. In some American companies, it is customary to refer to these functions collectively as Infrastructure. It is difficult to translate. It literally means infrastructure. It probably means that it is not directly related to first-line business operations. auxiliary departments. These financial functions mainly include Treasury, tax planning and consulting, and internal audit (IA). The exclusive service center responsible for accounting mentioned above usually also belongs to this type of functional financial department. The China headquarters of a top 50 MNC such as Siemens will also have more bizarre financial support departments, such as specialized departments responsible for formulating and modifying accounting policies and training subordinate companies, and even risk management and compliance Positions such as Compliance Officer are because it not only has many business units in China, but also operates in a wide span of industries, involving not only various manufacturing industries, but also the service industry and financial industry, professional control and risk Management is extremely important.

Some people ask that in foreign operating entities, finance also has to do taxation and fund management work. How is it different from these corporate functions? I can only say that the taxation and capital work in operating entities is more focused on the transaction level. , for example, the tax responsibilities of subsidiaries are mainly tax declaration and payment, as well as invoice and file management, but the tax department of the headquarters is responsible for the overall tax cost savings and risk compliance consulting in the jurisdiction. For example, it must not be a foreign company to formulate transfer pricing. The tax accounting of subordinate factories can decide; the same is true for the treasurer. The financial department of the operating entity is mostly responsible for daily fund settlement and raising of working capital, but the regional-level treasurer function needs to be responsible for the allocation of funds within the group, cash pool operations, foreign exchange Risk management and the use of some financial management tools are more in line with the scope of the discipline of corporate finance.

Many of these financial positions at the headquarters of foreign companies are at the regional level, and some are even at the global level, so there are some keywords in the recruitment notices of foreign companies that reflect the internationalization of this position, such as Regional Role (Regional level) or Global Role (Global level), and some departments are even regional or global level. In the past, such departments would not be located in China, but in recent years, as foreign investment has become more familiar with China, and China’s local There are more and more international talents, so some of these cross-continental functional departments are also located in China.

Applicants for these financial positions generally take the highly specialized route, because most of them are positioned for professional control. This kind of control is different from the Controller who operates the entity subsidiary. Take the Controller of the American company as an example. (i.e. accounting department), the control role of the accounting function is reflected at the transaction level, focusing on execution according to the existing system, but the control at the regional and group levels is reflected in top-level design and planning, which requires the use of professional technology. However, the biggest career risk for this type of financial position positioned as "auxiliary management at the headquarters" is that the employment opportunities are limited to large companies of the same type, and many work skills will not be used in small and medium-sized enterprises. Of course, the headquarters of large Chinese-funded enterprises, such as state-owned enterprises and large group companies that have operated overseas, will also have these departments and positions, but many of them do not have these MNC majors.

5. What is a Controller?

Controller is probably the most confusing financial management position in foreign companies. There is no convincing Chinese translation so far, although from abroad The translated accounting textbook translates it as "comptroller", but the literal meaning is unclear. Among the foreign company positions that come up when searching for the word Controller on any recruitment website, the most common one is Financial Controller, collectively referred to as FC in the industry. Many accountants working in foreign companies have set becoming FC as their goal. So how should FC be translated as a job title? The first company I worked for was a joint venture. The foreign party was an Asian company and the investment ratio exceeded 50%, so the financial director was a foreigner sent by the foreign party. His business card said What is printed is FC, which is translated into Chinese as "Finance Chief". The signatures on the fax letters I have seen with the foreign group headquarters and brother companies within the group also refer to FC as "Finance Chief". Later, I saw that many foreign companies' recruitment notices refer to FC as financial director. I am afraid that financial director is the most common translation of FC at present. I have studied for a long time and think this translation is inaccurate.

My investigation is based on the specific responsibilities of most foreign company FCs and my understanding of the position of financial director of Chinese-funded companies. Under the governance structure represented by American companies, the top person in charge of finance of a listed company is called the CFO. So if unlisted private companies are taken into account, the chief financial officer should be the top person in charge of a company's finances. The only difference is that of listed companies. The CFO places more emphasis on managing investor relations in the capital market and is also responsible for legal affairs. The CFO and the CEO are jointly responsible to the board of directors. The financial director of an unlisted private company does not have these responsibilities and is only responsible for the financial function to the general manager. Responsible.

So the question is, what does "company" mean? I personally think that the entire ownership structure should be considered. It is the Ultimate company (the ultimate company that directly faces investors), not those operating descendant companies that are controlled by the parent company. This is why The reason why MNC calls those headquarters functions the Corporate function is that the Corporate here refers to the Ultimate company, not to the subordinate operating units, although the subordinate companies are also independent legal entities locally. Of course, if some group-controlled subsidiaries are independently listed and face investors in the capital market, such companies can also be called Ultimate companies. Then, those large and small FCs of foreign companies are not responsible to investors and the board of directors. They are not Ultimate companies, and their financial leaders cannot be called financial directors.

As mentioned before, European companies and some American companies have different responsibilities for Controller, so it is even more ridiculous to translate FC into Financial Director. I have a friend who works for Siemens, and her title is Senior Finance Controller. Her main responsibilities are the budget and financial analysis of a certain business unit. Did she describe herself as a senior financial director when she wrote her Chinese resume and announced to the outside world? I have also seen some foreign companies recruiting for the position of FP&A Controller, which means that at this time Controller refers to the person in charge of a certain sub-function in the financial department, which is equivalent to a section chief in the finance department of a domestic company. Therefore, when describing what a Controller of a foreign company is, it is best to put aside the title and look at the responsibilities. However, in many foreign companies, excluding those special departments and positions in the headquarters, the FCs who operate subsidiaries are mostly in charge of all the daily work of the financial department of the subsidiary, including financial accounting and management accounting, as well as taxation and liquidity management at the executive level. This Zhong FC also has the meaning of being the top financial person in charge of the subsidiary, but this subsidiary is only authorized by the group to conduct operating activities and has no investment and financing activities. Some people may think that these should be the responsibilities of the financial manager, but from a level perspective, the FC of a foreign company is higher than the financial manager, and the management team is larger. This is mainly reflected in the fact that the FC will oversee different managers, such as German companies, accountants, etc. Both the manager (or supervisor) and the financial control manager (or supervisor) report to FC, so FC is more appropriately called a senior manager. If we insist on giving FC a Chinese name, I think comparing it to state-owned enterprises and large domestic group companies, FC is equivalent to the finance minister or financial director of domestic enterprises, that is, the financial director or the second-in-command under the CFO who is responsible for daily financial work. So if you currently report to the CFO or financial director in a domestic company and are the finance minister or financial director who is in charge of all daily financial work of the company, you can call yourself FC when preparing your English resume.

On the other hand, I think one of the major differences between these Controllers of MNCs and the finance ministers of domestic companies is that Controllers better perform many management accounting responsibilities. The finance departments of foreign companies generally do not have positions or departments. It's called management accounting, but the management accounting function is very powerful because they have a huge team of Controllers in subsidiaries at all levels around the world. I once read a report on a German business management accounting salon held in China. There was a word in it called "management controller." I guess it is similar to the responsibilities of a controller. The meaning of a controller's existence is to ensure the accounting and reporting of its branch company. The efficiency and quality of processes, the importance and authority of business decision support, the effectiveness of internal controls, and the accuracy and forward-looking nature of planning and forecasting functions.

Many netizens asked me what position is easy to promote to FC? I can only say that it is difficult to generalize. Some foreign companies emphasize business support and plan management in finance, so it is easier for those who do Controlling or FP&A. However, I also found that some foreign companies’ requirements for FC are financial reporting and control, as well as being responsible for the overall daily work, management and taxation of the financial department. , banks, industrial and commercial finance and other government departments, then people who have only done financial analysis will not have an advantage. This is why many managers and senior managers from the Big Four audit departments are more likely to jump to MNC to become FC.

6. Senior management positions

Finally, let’s talk about the senior management positions in foreign companies. The most typical title is FD (Finance Director), which is also a confusing position, especially when there are both FC and FD in a company. Who is the senior official and who is called the financial director? According to what I have seen in the past or What I heard about foreign companies is that some companies have FC but not FD, or they have FD but not FC, so this situation is that the responsibilities of FC and FD are similar, but the names are different. Another situation is that the company has both FC. There is also FD, which generally occurs in foreign companies that have multiple operating subsidiaries in China and also have headquarters in China or the Asia-Pacific region. Usually the financial person in charge of the subsidiary is called FC, and the financial person in charge of China or the Asia-Pacific region is called FD, that is, the subsidiary FC reports to Regional level FD reports, the rank within the company is FD>FC. Of course, different professional lines also have their own FDs, such as the FD of the exclusive service center, the FD of the tax department, the FD of the BU, etc.

So I personally feel that if Controller tends to reflect responsibilities and roles, then FD only symbolizes the internal job level. In terms of responsibilities and roles, it is the same as Controller, and it is not the financial director.

There are also CFOs in foreign companies, but this CFO is more like an internal position level. It is not the CFO of the ultimate company and does not need to be responsible for investor relations, so it is not a financial director, such as the CFO of China, or The CFO of a certain BU is mainly responsible for supporting regional strategic decision-making and operational control. Therefore, if you do not plan to move overseas, then a regional or BU level CFO is the ultimate goal of a foreign company's accountant.