Managing Costs and Profits

Financial managers are responsible for managing the company’s costs and earning a profit for the company’s owners. Financial managers rely heavily on the reports from the accounting system in their management of costs. Managing the company’s costs and profits includes the following duties:

■ Controlling project costs.
■ Monitoring project and company profitability.
■ Setting labor burden markups.
■ Developing and tracking general overhead budgets.
■ Setting the minimum profit margin for use in bidding.
■ Analyzing the profitability of different parts of the company and making the necessary changes to improve profitability.
■ Monitoring the profitability of different customers and making the necessary marketing changes to improve profitability.