In many business owners, finance is not an area of strength but instead it’s bit of a blind spot. They see the finance people as a different breed and don’t really understand what’s going on in the area and that’s okay.

Just because someone may not know some of the more technical parts of finance or accounting doesn’t mean they have to totally back off. They can still keep your finance area accountable. Here’s some ways to consider holding their feet to the fire:

1. Reporting. Understand what time table they’re committing to to get your numbers done each month. Find out some of the key steps in particular, perhaps, the flow of the month end journal entries. This will tell you what pieces of information are the most difficult to get in.

2. Payables. Get a sense on what the velocity is for when payables are getting paid. How soon are bills getting in? What will they do when a bill appears to be missing? How would they know if the bill happened to be missing at all? This is a good area to know something about because it does affect your vendor relationship.

3. Accounts receivable. Now, we have the flipside where instead they’re dealing with your customers. How are they treating the collection process? When do they send out a letter? When do they follow-up with a phone call? When, if ever, do they have to lay down the hammer and send it out for collection? What customers are being the most difficult?

So those are a few areas. Have your finance department be accountable for how soon the numbers are produced each month, timing of vendor payments and collections. Understand what parameters they’re following and what key trigger points are taking places. Have specific guidelines whether days to close the books, days of open accounts receivable or average days payable. It’s too important an area so keep them accountable.