Most Common Organizational Structures for Finance Function

I’m interested in hearing about different configurations of Finance functions.

In my experience, major Finance roles are siloed, with functions like FP&A, Corp Dev, Treasury/Corp Fin/Cap Markets, and Investor Relations all rolling up to separate leadership, with the FP&A team serving as a central hub that provides ad hoc support to other groups and divisions.

I’m curious if some organizations with highly technical or specialized business units have independent analysts that don’t roll up to the Head of Finance. In these structures, would these analysts dotted line report to the CFO’s organization, or would they report directly to the head of their respective business unit? If the latter, how does the organization enforce standard analysis across its central Finance function and the outside business units?

I’m working with a business head that is waffling on how best to receive support for financial analysis (with his own army of analysts, or through a centralized finance team).

Appreciate any insight or thoughts.

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I can really only speak for my company, but from job posts I think this is pretty standard:

The finance function (including corporate) all roll up to the CFO of the company. IR, Treasury/Corp Dev, Corp FP&A all roll up there.

CFOs of the BU report into the CFO of Corp and analysts in the BUs report through them. As a separate function, finance acts as "business partners" to the business heads. They are in on meetings and doing work to support the business leaders, but don't report directly into business heads.

 

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