Finance Manager Job Description: 6 Templates
Free finance manager job description templates: general, first hire, fractional, senior, operations, and FP&A. FLSA and compliance notes included.
Finance Manager Job Description Templates
6 free templates: general, first hire, fractional, senior, operations, and FP&A. Download as DOCX or copy-paste.
The finance manager job description carries a hidden decision for a small business, because almost every template online is written for a company that already has a finance team and a CFO, with the finance manager owning one slice under them. For a growing company of twenty to fifty people making its first dedicated finance hire, that is the wrong shape: the person you hire will build the finance function, not join one, and report to the CEO, not a CFO. None of the template farms address that, or the question that should come first, whether you even need a full-time finance manager or a fractional one.
At FirstHR, we build for small teams that hire without an HR department, and this page covers the role the way growing companies actually staff it: six templates, general, first finance hire, fractional, senior, operations, and FP&A, including the first-hire and fractional versions that no competing template offers. Each names the variation and writes duties to match. Fill in the brackets and post. For the principles behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
What Does a Finance Manager Do?
A finance manager owns a company's financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow management, and gives leadership the numbers and analysis to make decisions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies the role within financial managers, who plan, direct, and coordinate an organization's financial activities, typically requiring a bachelor's degree plus several years of experience, and the O*NET profile details the task range. It is a growing field: federal data projects financial manager employment to grow 15 percent over the decade, much faster than average, with about 74,600 openings each year.
The scope depends on company size. At a large company, a finance manager owns one part of a finance team under a CFO. At a small business making its first finance hire, the same title means a generalist who builds and runs the whole finance function alongside an external CPA. That difference drives which of the six templates on this page fits.
Finance Manager Duties and Responsibilities
Finance manager duties and responsibilities span four areas: reporting and accounting, budgeting and forecasting, cash flow and analysis, and controls and compliance. The variation shifts the emphasis, but the four hold across general, operations, FP&A, and first-hire roles. These are the responsibilities grouped the way the templates use them.
A strong posting selects the duties that match the variation rather than listing every possible task, and names the systems and the reporting line. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Finance Manager vs Controller vs CFO vs Director
Before writing the posting, make sure a finance manager is the role you actually need, because it is easily confused with a controller, a CFO, or a finance director, and the four differ in focus and seniority. Here is how they compare for a small business.
| Role | Focus | Outlook | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | Accounting, the books, close, GAAP | Backward: what happened | Accuracy and compliance |
| Finance manager | Reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow | Present and near future | First finance hire at a small business |
| Finance director | Leads finance function, broader strategy | Department-level direction | Mid-to-large company |
| CFO | Financial strategy, fundraising, capital | Forward: strategy | Larger or funded company |
At a small business, one person often combines several of these, and a finance manager is frequently the right first hire, handling controller-style accuracy and finance-manager-style planning at once, with strategic CFO work staying with the founder or a fractional CFO until the company is larger. The related controller and CFO templates cover those adjacent roles when you need them.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by variation and stage; all six share the same structure, but the matched version reads more credibly to the candidates who fit that specific role. Use this guide to choose.
6 Free Finance Manager Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: company context, job summary, responsibilities, qualifications, salary range, FLSA status, and how to apply. Fill in the brackets before you post.
Template 1: General Finance Manager
The mid-level baseline: reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow management, with the FLSA classification handled, for any company hiring a finance manager.
Template 2: First Finance Hire (Small Business)
The generalist version for a company without a finance department: owns finance end to end, reports to the CEO, and works alongside an external CPA and bookkeeper.
Template 3: Part-Time / Fractional Finance Manager
The fractional version for a company not ready for full-time finance: reporting, budgeting, and cash-flow oversight on a limited schedule, with a classification note.
Template 4: Senior Finance Manager
The senior version: FP&A ownership, strategic input, and managing finance staff, with the executive-exemption note for a role directing two or more employees.
Template 5: Finance Operations Manager
The operations version: the month-end close, accounts payable and receivable, financial systems, and process improvement, the operational backbone of finance.
Template 6: Corporate / FP&A Finance Manager
The FP&A version: driver-based modeling, forecasting, board and investor reporting, and the runway and burn metrics a scaling, funded company tracks.
Requirements and Skills to Include
Finance manager requirements scale with the variation, but a common core runs through all of them. Weight a first-hire or small-business role toward breadth across finance and accounting; weight senior and FP&A roles toward depth and leadership.
| Requirement | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Education | Bachelor's in finance or accounting | Equivalent experience for a first hire |
| Experience | 5+ years (7+ for senior) | Breadth over depth for a small-business first hire |
| Technical | Reporting, budgeting, forecasting, Excel / ERP | Match the systems you actually use |
| Credentials | CPA, CFA, or MBA | Preferred, not required, to widen the pool |
| Leadership | Team management for senior roles | Triggers the executive exemption analysis |
List credentials as preferred rather than required unless one is genuinely necessary, since requiring a CPA or MBA narrows the candidate pool. Keep every requirement job-related and neutral, since the EEOC rules on job advertisements prohibit postings that express preferences based on protected characteristics, and lean on SHRM job description guidance for structuring the posting.
FLSA, Background Checks, and Bonding
A finance manager hire raises three compliance questions that generic templates skip and a small business without an HR department often misses: the exempt classification, the background-check authorization, and bonding for someone with access to money.
None of this requires a large HR operation, but all of it should be handled deliberately at the offer and onboarding stage rather than discovered later. Getting the FCRA disclosure wrong, padding it with a liability waiver, has cost companies multimillion-dollar class-action settlements, so keep the disclosure standalone. The exempt vs non-exempt guide walks through the FLSA classification in detail.
Finance Manager Salary
Finance manager pay scales with scope, experience, and company size. Anchor on federal data, then adjust for a small-business or first-hire scope and your local market.
Because the federal median spans senior and enterprise finance roles, a small-business or first-hire finance manager typically falls below it, adjusted for experience and local market, while a senior finance manager leading a team sits higher. A part-time or fractional role is priced per hour or as a monthly retainer. Publish the range, both because pay transparency laws increasingly require it and because finance candidates skip postings that hide pay.
How to Write a Finance Manager Job Description
A strong finance manager posting takes about twenty minutes once you settle the variation, the requirements, and the compliance points. Here is the process the templates are built around. If this is an early hire, the small business hiring guide covers the steps around the posting itself.
Hiring a Finance Manager for a Small Business
For a small business, the finance manager posting is usually about a first finance hire or a fractional one, the moment when finance has outgrown a bookkeeper and an external CPA. Because that hire is consequential and the templates online are written for companies with finance teams, getting the posting right matters: the generalist scope, the full-time-versus-fractional decision, and the compliance the role raises all shape who applies and how well it works. Here is how to approach it.
After You Hire: Onboarding a Finance Manager
Onboarding a finance manager carries specific steps beyond the standard paperwork, because the role handles money and sensitive financials. The paperwork track comes first: the offer with the salary and FLSA classification in writing, the I-9, tax forms, and state reporting. Then the finance-specific layer: because finance managers often undergo a background check, handle the FCRA standalone disclosure and written authorization correctly before the check, and put any fidelity bond coverage in place, especially if the company sponsors a 401(k). Set up systems access deliberately, a finance manager needs accounting and banking access, so apply controls and document who can reach what rather than handing over blanket access. Walk through the reporting, the close, the external CPA and bookkeeper relationships, and the internal controls the manager will own, and clarify what stays with the founder or a fractional CFO.
The documents around the hire follow the usual sequence: the offer letter template for the terms, the employment contract template for the agreement, and the onboarding plan template for the first-week controls and systems ramp. The adjacent finance roles use the same structure when you staff them: the controller and financial analyst templates. FirstHR connects the paper and onboarding layer, e-signature for the offer, the standalone background-check authorization, and policy acknowledgments, document management for financial policies, bond certificates, and employee records, an HRIS and org chart showing where finance sits in the structure, training assignments with completion records, and the onboarding checklist, in one place built for teams without an HR department.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a finance manager do?
A finance manager owns a company's financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow management, and gives leadership the numbers and analysis they need to make decisions. The work spans four areas: reporting and accounting, producing financial statements and overseeing the close; budgeting and forecasting, leading the budget and modeling scenarios; cash flow and analysis, managing liquidity and tracking performance; and controls and compliance, maintaining internal controls and coordinating audit, tax, and banking. Federal data classifies the role within financial managers, who plan, direct, and coordinate an organization's financial activities, with a typical entry requirement of a bachelor's degree plus several years of experience. The scope depends heavily on company size. At a large company, a finance manager owns one slice of a larger finance team under a CFO. At a small business making its first finance hire, the same title means a generalist who builds and runs the entire finance function, working alongside an external CPA. A strong job description selects the duties that match the company's size and stage.
What are a finance manager's duties and responsibilities?
Finance manager duties fall into four areas. Reporting and accounting: producing monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports, overseeing or coordinating the close process, and ensuring accuracy and compliance with accounting standards. Budgeting and forecasting: leading the annual budget and ongoing forecasts, analyzing variances, and modeling scenarios to support decisions. Cash flow and analysis: managing cash flow, working capital, and liquidity, tracking KPIs, and giving leadership analysis for decisions. Controls and compliance: establishing and maintaining internal financial controls and coordinating banking, audit, tax, and the external CPA. The emphasis shifts by role and company. A finance operations manager focuses on the close, accounts payable and receivable, and systems. A corporate or FP&A finance manager focuses on modeling, forecasting, and investor reporting. A senior finance manager adds team leadership. A first finance hire at a small business covers all of it. A strong job description selects the duties that match the specific variation and the company's stage rather than listing every possible finance task.
What is the difference between a finance manager, a controller, and a CFO?
These three finance roles differ in focus and seniority, and understanding the distinction helps a small business hire the right one. A controller is tactical and accounting-focused: they own the books, the close, financial statements, and GAAP compliance, and are often a CPA. A finance manager sits between operational accounting and strategy, owning reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow, with more forward-looking analysis than a controller. A CFO is strategic and executive: they set financial strategy, lead fundraising and capital decisions, and sit on the leadership team. The cleanest way to think about it: the controller looks backward at what happened and keeps it accurate, the finance manager looks at the present and near future through budgets and forecasts, and the CFO looks forward at strategy. At a small business, one person often combines several of these functions, and a finance manager is frequently the right first hire, handling controller-style accuracy and finance-manager-style planning at once, with strategic CFO work staying with the founder or a fractional CFO until the company is larger. Industry guidance commonly places the need for a full-time CFO around the twenty-five-million-dollar revenue mark.
Does a small business need a finance manager?
It depends on size, complexity, and stage, and it is worth being honest about the options. Many small businesses run finance with a bookkeeper for day-to-day transactions and an external CPA for tax and compliance, and that combination works until the business grows enough to need ongoing reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow leadership, which often happens somewhere in the twenty-to-fifty-employee range or as a company takes on investors. At that point a dedicated finance manager makes sense, typically as a generalist first hire who builds the function and reports to the CEO. Before committing to a full-time hire, many growing companies use a part-time or fractional finance manager, which provides finance leadership on a limited schedule at a fraction of a full-time cost, a sensible bridge for a company whose finances have outgrown a bookkeeper but do not yet justify a full-time executive. The first-finance-hire and fractional templates on this page are written for these exact small-business situations, which generic finance manager templates, written for companies that already have finance teams, do not address.
Is a finance manager exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
A finance manager is frequently exempt from overtime, but exemption depends on the actual duties and the salary basis, not the title. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the executive exemption applies when an employee's primary duty is managing the business or a department and they customarily direct the work of at least two or more full-time employees with authority over hiring and firing, while the administrative exemption applies when the primary duty is office work directly related to management or general business operations, which the regulations specifically describe as including finance, accounting, budgeting, and auditing, exercising discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. A finance manager who leads a team likely qualifies under the executive exemption; one who does high-level financial work without managing people may qualify under the administrative exemption. But the role must also be paid on a salary basis at or above the federal threshold, and the analysis always turns on the real duties, since job titles do not determine exempt status. Run the duties test against the Department of Labor's guidance before classifying the role and making the offer.
Do I need a background check or bonding for a finance manager?
For a role with access to company finances, both are worth considering, and each carries specific rules. A background check is common for finance roles, and if you run one through a third-party screening company, federal law under the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that you give the candidate a clear disclosure in a standalone document and obtain their separate written authorization before the check. The disclosure must consist solely of the disclosure: padding it with liability waivers or extra language is a violation that has cost companies multimillion-dollar class-action settlements. Bonding is the second consideration: an employee dishonesty or fidelity bond is commercial crime insurance that protects the company against theft, forgery, or embezzlement by an employee with access to money, and it is sensible for a finance manager. Separately, if your company sponsors a 401(k) or other retirement plan, federal law requires that anyone who handles plan funds be covered by a fidelity bond, generally for at least ten percent of the funds handled. A small business should handle both the FCRA authorization and the bonding question deliberately at the offer and onboarding stage.
How much does a finance manager make?
Federal data puts the median annual wage for financial managers, the category that includes finance managers, at $161,700 as of May 2024, with the lowest ten percent earning under $86,490 and the highest ten percent above $239,200. That figure spans a broad range of finance management roles, including senior and enterprise positions, so a finance manager at a small business typically falls toward the lower-to-middle part of the range depending on experience, location, and scope, while a senior finance manager leading a team or a finance manager at a large or high-cost-market company sits higher. Pay scales with team leadership, specialization in FP&A or operations, and credentials like a CPA or MBA. A part-time or fractional finance manager is priced per hour or as a monthly retainer rather than an annual salary. The practical guidance for a posting is to anchor on the federal figure, adjust downward for a small-business or first-hire scope and for your local market, and publish a salary range, both because pay transparency laws increasingly require it and because finance candidates compare openings and skip those that hide pay.
What happens after I hire a finance manager?
The standard paperwork comes first: the offer in writing with the salary and FLSA classification stated, the I-9 with documents verified, the W-4 and state tax forms, and state new hire reporting. Then onboarding, which for a finance role carries specific steps a small business should handle deliberately. Because finance managers often undergo a background check, handle the FCRA standalone disclosure and written authorization correctly before the check, and put any fidelity bond coverage in place, especially if the company sponsors a 401(k). Set up access deliberately: a finance manager needs access to accounting and banking systems, so apply appropriate controls and document who can reach what, rather than handing over blanket access. Walk through the financial reporting, the close process, the external CPA and bookkeeper relationships, and the internal controls the manager will own, and clarify what stays with the founder or a fractional CFO. FirstHR handles the paper and onboarding layer for small businesses: e-signature for the offer, the standalone background-check authorization, and policy acknowledgments, document management for financial policies, bond certificates, and employee records, an HRIS and org chart showing where finance sits in the structure, training assignments with completion records, and the onboarding checklist in one place, built for teams without an HR department.