A Finance & Accounting Department is the team that executes the functions required to enable management to run the business well, from keeping the books to planning and analyzing the company's financial future.
Its work splits into two groups, detailed in 📝Functions in a Finance & Accounting Department: accounting, which records what has happened, and finance, which plans and analyzes what comes next.
Departments are traditionally organized by job title, from chief financial officer down through controller, staff accountant, and AP/AR clerk, as listed in 📝Traditional accounting titles. Those titles were designed before the internet and say little about where a new hire will land. The 📝Financial Organization Responsibility Matrix instead organizes the department by function (FP&A, accounting, controller, payroll, and financial engineer) and by four skill sets: operations, engineering, strategic and analytical insight, and communication and storytelling.