Founders typically know what they want from a fractional F&A team, but don’t always know how to put it in actual accounting terms. For example, “handle Accounts Payable,” means something different to them than it would to an accountant.
Worse, the sheer chaos complexity of scaling your brand means that even without an external team, there’s a risk of things falling through the cracks…
- An ad account gets frozen because nobody checked the CC balance
- A payment is missed because everyone thought someone else was handling it
- End of month inventory count is late, the books aren’t closed, and you can’t make good data-backed decisions
You get the picture.
Dave Ramsey says this all the time: “To be unclear is to be unkind.”
So we created the Responsibility Map – a one page document that defines who owns, participates in, and supervises every key finance & accounting deliverable.
I love this doc, and encourage all founders to use it, even if they’re not our client. It’ll instantly free up your mental bandwidth and give you clarity.
Here’s how it works…
- There’s a row for each task in your F&A routine
- And a column for each person that touches F&A
- Each task gets ONE owner (and must be assigned)
- Tasks can also have people who “Participate” or “Coach/Supervise”
If something doesn’t get done, you and your team know exactly who catches hell. (The more accurate but less politically correct way to say that is, “One throat to choke”).
For example… We typically handle most of the month-end-close tasks for clients, and you’ll see in the example below, we’re in the “Ownership,” category. If something doesn’t get done, it’s fully on us.
But purchasing is typically more collaborative. Clients are responsible for inputting PO’s, and we’re in more of a coaching/supervisory role. If you’re dropping the ball there, well, we know whose fault it is, and I better not see an angry email about it.
Purchasing is an interesting one. When we first get involved, there’s typically no dedicated system for centralizing PO’s. They’re spread between WhatsApp, Alibaba, a random Google Drive, etc.
Getting that system in place is a heavy lift. But once it’s there, the clarity frees up a bunch of bandwidth for the founder immediately.
Other common challenges basically fall into two buckets:
1. Items that require a lot of conversation/clarification to assign: For example, Accounts Payable. We define this as, “anything you actually receive an invoice for.”
Sounds simple, but there’s nuance. Payroll, for example, you don’t get an invoice for, so it’s not managed as part of this bucket. But you do get invoiced by contractors (who many founders think of as part of the “payroll”).
The responsibility map forces you to discuss and clarify how all these things are defined and assigned, and once you do, you rest assured that they’re handled.
2. Items that end up being way more work than people expect: This often includes things that are more in the CFO role, like managing your 13-week cash flow file. The tighter a client is on cash, the more frequently we need to update things (and the more critical payment dates become).
My favorite part about this whole thing – aside from the clarity it offers – is how simple it is to customize as you evolve:
- Add a row for each new task
- Instant clarity for you and people on your team
- The classification – own, participate, coach/supervise – is simpler than other models (like DARCI)
I’ve even seen people take this beyond F&A, to areas like marketing.
The Big Takeaway: Hope is not a strategy. Clear ownership is.
This puppy gives you clarity, and peace of mind, knowing things are going to get done (and to your spec). You can copy the template here. And if you have questions about implementing this, of course, grab a spot on my calendar any time.
