Are you asking the right questions?

Are you a CEO or other senior member of staff who oversees the Finance function? 
Have you worked in a Finance team? or are you reliant on the knowledge and information given to you?
If your knowledge is limited to a set of financial statements and summarised reports, you may be missing out on crucial information about what is REALLY happening in your organisation,

Too often 'finance' is deemed to be 'paying the bills', 'collecting the income', and/or creating standard reports for submission to the senior leadership team or to the Board.

But there is a whole lot more to it than that.

Here are some ideas of detailed questions to ask:
 - how quickly are debts being recovered?
 - how much debt is there compared to income?
 - is it getting better or worse?
 - how many new suppliers are your staff engaging?
 - how much time is used up to set up new suppliers who are only used once?
 - is there a more efficient way of organising supplies from non-usual suppliers?
 - how many bank account details have been changed in the last 6 months?
 - are liability balances on the balance sheet increasing or decreasing?
 - why is that? is it a good thing or a bad thing?
 - who has access to override approvals in the systems?
 - how often have those approvals been overwritten?
 - are fixed asset balances growing? 
 - is there correct approval for the purchases?
 - are fixed assets being bought in lieu of current assets?
 - are budget holders accountable for their results? or are they only dealt with at a high level?
 - how many budget holders have asked questions about their accounts?
 
These are just some ideas, there will be many more.
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