In today’s marketplace, sound financial management is the foundation for a successful business. At Accenture, we would not be able to increase our growth and success as a large public company without financial integrity.
Not surprisingly, there are many different areas of focus within the Finance Business Practice, including:
In Corporate Controllership, our corporate accounting people co-ordinate the activities of country controllers, while other teams are responsible for: the preparation and filing of external financial reporting; equity and minority interest accounting, partner retirement and executive compensation programs; defining financial policies, reviewing major proposed transactions for US GAAP compliance, financial system security and developing controllership training; and designing globally consistent end-to-end efficient financial processes and adequate internal financial controls.
Another part of Corporate Controllership is Client Financial Management. As part of this team, you would be expected to provide financial operations and management support for client-facing work, collaborating with Accenture engagement and client teams throughout the lifecycle of an engagement. This includes implementing the financial elements of the engagement, ensuring compliance with Accenture finance policy and US GAAP, and predicting financial results.
You could join our Tax or Treasury teams where we provide tax planning advisory services for Accenture engagement teams, address the tax implications of moving people across borders for both short- and long-term assignments, develop and implement strategic tax structuring and planning to prepare the company for the future, and take responsibility for reporting legal entity tax information. Working closely with other Accenture teams, the Treasury team maintains a strong balance sheet, debt structure and liquidity position. We establish and maintain commercial and investment banking relationships, including relationships with ratings agencies. And we support secondary offerings and stock buy-back programs.
As a Finance person working with one of our operating groups or capability groups, you are likely to be involved with business development, project reporting and cash receipts reporting. In addition, there are cross-operations activities such as corporate reporting and analysis, and corporate financial forecasting and planning.
Other members of the Finance Business Practice work on Corporate TransactionServices, particularly on shaping deals for consulting and outsourcing engagements, but also building new businesses such as joint ventures and operating companies, alliances and equity investment transactions. We also have specialists working in Internal Audit, identifying and assessing risks associated with critical financial and business processes. You would be responsible for ensuring the integrity of financial data and mitigating the risk of asset loss through internal control and substantive reviews.
In the Strategic Planning and Analysis team, we measure, analyze, plan and model. That means designing, developing and implementing various metrics; analyzing key client and economic indicators and using the analysis to forecast results; tracking competitors, analyst models and ratings; and building integrated financial models for long-range projections. Our work extends to managing the quarterly financial results and related reporting, and preparing CFO executive presentations.
We also have an Investor Relations team that maintains an ongoing relationship with the investment community. You work could include informing, educating and updating analysts, professional and individual investors, and prospective investors, about our business, finance performance and growth prospects.
In all cases, we look for individuals with strong financial management, analytic and strategic skills. But it’s not just about accounting and accounting principles. Our people are first-class program and project managers, who understand teamwork and communicate well with people at all levels.