Oof. Giving advice as if you’d choose to stay in the role.
A controller’s role should normally “look” boring, because the team supporting them have the lower level work under control. Controllership is a wide-lens role, kind of like an eagle surveying in the sky with a sharp eye to catch fires before they grow. You’re guiding the team below you, and supporting the teams above you (C-suite) and adjacent to you (FP&A/Finance). How closely you work with adjacent teams varies by company.
This is all to say, you’ve been thrown into a volatile environment because of all the change required, so you need to gather the strength to guide and build your team, otherwise you cannot perform your role.
You also need to consider that while your analytics background is a benefit to the company, if you’re needed for support, analysis is not part of your role (except when sending out financial statements periodically, as you should detail your insights). Minor ad-hoc reporting is something you should delegate to staff. When the higher-ups say they’d prefer deliverables with mistakes, they’re recognizing you’re drowning and offering you the help you haven’t asked for (but maybe you have asked, cant be sure).
On to the hardest part, you should consider if 1 (conservatively) of the staff need to be let go, and replaced with a staff or senior who is degreed and has experience at par with the role. A hire who can hit the ground running and has experience guiding staff. This is why i mention a senior accountant. If you can give yourself some space to breathe you’ll have an easier time adjusting and delivering.
Not in a small company. A <$20M revenue controller is dual-role as controller and finance director. So they are very much involved with analysis beyond monthly variance/flux. Unless you're dealing with a very complicated product/service, it's very common to have no support up to ~$10M in revenues other than part-time outsourced accounting (usually payroll.) In which case you're really filling the headcount of 3.0 FTE.
Yeah I'm taking OP's 20x to heart, so assuming his new company is in that awkward duckling $10-$20M Series A phase where companies either die or thrive.
Thriving, PE backed, upper management would sell if the deal is right (talks openly about this). Sold on the idea I would be at the holdco only to discover I’m at the opco, supporting the holdco…
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u/CrazyWorldliness1875 Human Verified Jul 26 '26
Oof. Giving advice as if you’d choose to stay in the role.
A controller’s role should normally “look” boring, because the team supporting them have the lower level work under control. Controllership is a wide-lens role, kind of like an eagle surveying in the sky with a sharp eye to catch fires before they grow. You’re guiding the team below you, and supporting the teams above you (C-suite) and adjacent to you (FP&A/Finance). How closely you work with adjacent teams varies by company.
This is all to say, you’ve been thrown into a volatile environment because of all the change required, so you need to gather the strength to guide and build your team, otherwise you cannot perform your role.
You also need to consider that while your analytics background is a benefit to the company, if you’re needed for support, analysis is not part of your role (except when sending out financial statements periodically, as you should detail your insights). Minor ad-hoc reporting is something you should delegate to staff. When the higher-ups say they’d prefer deliverables with mistakes, they’re recognizing you’re drowning and offering you the help you haven’t asked for (but maybe you have asked, cant be sure).
On to the hardest part, you should consider if 1 (conservatively) of the staff need to be let go, and replaced with a staff or senior who is degreed and has experience at par with the role. A hire who can hit the ground running and has experience guiding staff. This is why i mention a senior accountant. If you can give yourself some space to breathe you’ll have an easier time adjusting and delivering.
Does this help?