Business Ethics – What CFOs & Controllers Need to Know

The CPA profession requires its members to protect the public interest. This places controllers and CFOs between the requirements of laws, regulations, standards, and rules, and the demands made by their leadership team and boards. The demands of the leaders and owners can sometimes contradict the rules and regulations. Thus, controllers and CFOs must perform a balancing act between these two forces.

In this course, we demonstrate that ethical values and business practices are essential to balance these forces and to grow and succeed in any business organization. The course will help controllers and CFOs consider actual ethical dilemmas they face. It will prepare them for dilemmas they may encounter in the future, regardless of the size of the organization or the role they play within the organization.

We provide a step-by-step approach that will help controllers and CFOs navigate through complex and sensitive ethical issues. We demonstrate how to take a risk-based approach that considers the probability and impact of ethics-related risks occurring. We examine the risk related to the owner-managers, staff, customers, suppliers, lenders, and regulators. Then, we consider prevention, detection, and mitigation strategies for each type of risk.