Chief financial officer

The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financial reporting. In some sectors, the CFO is also responsible for analysis of data. Some CFOs have the title CFOO for chief financial and operating officer. In the majority of countries, finance directors (FD) typically report into the CFO and FD is the level before reaching CFO. The CFO typically reports to the chief executive officer (CEO) and the board of directors and may additionally have a seat on the board. In India, the CFO is by default one of the Key Managerial Personnel (KMPs) in case of listed entities, to be mentioned in the Annual Reports. The CFO supervises the finance unit and is the chief financial spokesperson for the organization. The CFO directly assists the chief operating officer (COO) on all business matters relating to budget management, cost–benefit analysis, forecasting needs, and securing of new funding. CFOs and FDs will often (typically) hold a professional accounting certification - the CPA, CA, CMA, or CIMA - along with its requisite bachelors and/or masters in accounting. This qualification is often specified given that responsibilities extend to tax and financial reporting. In large companies, CFOs and FDs may hold additional postgraduate qualifications, usually the Master of Business Administration or Master of Science in Finance (the CFA is common also ). These complement the accounting perspective with more general strategic, leadership, and financial market considerations. See . The federal government of the United States has incorporated more elements of business-sector practices in its management approaches, including the use of the CFO position alongside, for example, an increased use of the chief information officer post, within public agencies. The Chief Financial Officers Act, enacted in 1990, created a chief financial officer in each of 23 federal agencies.