I was doing a webinar for one of the accounting bodies a while back.
After the webinar I had someone reach out to me via my website.
One thing they said was that in 10 years in Finance functions they had never really thought of themselves as having customers or clients.
Now if you run your own accounting practice, the fact that you have clients is crystal clear,
Perhaps less so if you are working in the Finance function of an organisation.
Yet if you stop and think about it, every member of the finance function has clients or customers.
Those who work in payroll have employees as their client.
If you work in accounts payable suppliers are clients. Procurement may well be an internal client.
If you work in accounts receivable or credit control you may have internal clients like sales and external customers.
If you have a role in management accountant, budget holders, your boss and the management team of the area you support are all clients.
If you are in a project accounting role, all of the project and programme managers are internal clients.
You might be wondering why being aware of this matters.
Think about it.
If you see those that you support as client it:
- Changes your mindset. It’s no longer just about doing tasks.
- Encourages you to build relationships.
- Drives you to look for ways to better serve your client.
- Leads to greater job satisfaction as you can see how you directly contribute to others success.
- Results in you moving and been seen as an asset rather than an expense.
Start making that list of internal clients. Build the relationships and proactively look for opportunities to help make things easier or improve the service.
You might just be surprised how much difference it makes to your career.