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finance
Department
Mark McDonald
senior finAnce Director
Finance and accounting are key facets to any business organization, as they involve the whole process from balancing the books to protecting the bottomline. This
is a far cry from the days when that functionality generally encompassed bookkeeping, a recording of business transactions, when Tom, Dick and Harry would largely match their expenses against receiv- ables in their shop’s daily business.
For this venture, the finance and accounts depart- ment, in a nutshell, provides guidance “in meeting its overall long-term objectives, while ensuring that the business remains financially viable,” notes Senior Finance Director, Mark McDonald.
A host of variables influence the decision-making, but in layman’s terms, money must first be available to satisfy the requirements for any endeavour. “We have to ensure that we have the adequate cash or financial resources to meet our obligations,” explains McDonald.
“We make sure that we satisfy the stakeholders in that payments are on time, in terms of people’s expectations to be paid,” he emphasized.
McDonald notes, “We make sure that statutory requirements are met, that we’re tax compliant [and] employee benefits are paid over.
“We also play a role in the [entire] sales cycle to ensure that monies come in, that our cash flow is adequate,” he continued. The Senior Finance Director further explained the department’s advisory role and its importance in supporting priority decisions that assist precedence on projects.
“We go from sales and marketing in helping with the understanding of the whole dynamics of product proposition to PSC in terms of delivering the goods. We try to push the organization to increasing efficiency in every area so as to ultimately deliver the goods at a competitive cost,” McDonald outlined.
“It’s a very broad role. It’s very critical in increasing shareholder value and in determining the optimal use of resources.”
24 in high sPirits