How Executive Assistants Work with Finance on Reporting Cycles

Many CEOs and CFOs expect executive assistants to only handle administrative tasks like data entry, calendar management, and scheduling. However, experienced EAs have the skills to become the grease between moving parts, i.e., between the finance function and executive operations.

Elite EAs own the report workflow, ensuring data flows seamlessly across teams while maintaining confidentiality and accountability.

This article covers how executives can partner with their EAs to build and maintain financial reporting workflows.

TL;DR – How Do EAs Collaborate with Finance on Expense Reporting and Reimbursements?

Executive assistants can collaborate with finance in the following ways:

• Mapping finance reporting cycles into the company calendar
• Collecting and organizing source data into a format that the finance team can use
• Coordinating collaboration between the finance team and other departments to ensure adherence to deadlines 
• Planning the executive calendar so they are available for high-stakes meetings with the finance team to review the reports
• Archiving finance reports for easy retrieval in the future 

How EA and Finance Responsibilities Are Divided

In many companies, executive assistants are deeply involved in managing expenses, ensuring efficient spending, and enforcing accountability. This does not mean that they undertake CFO roles or manage the company’s accounting books.

Instead, EAs create and maintain workflows and systems so that the finance department can undertake their accounting tasks efficiently (i.e., the EA owns the workflow, the finance team owns the numbers).

When EAs Own Reporting Workflows

Executive assistants can undertake coordination roles to ensure financial reporting happens on schedule. Additionally, EAs know how to manage confidential information, including banking details, budget forecasts, employee wages, and tax filings. 

Executives can coordinate with their EAs to create timelines of when board meetings will occur and identify any data or documentation from the meeting that they should forward to the finance team for review.

Additionally, EAs plan their executives’ schedules to align with the company’s financial reporting timelines, especially where they may be required to preside over meetings. EAs may also research and compile any reports that the executives will require, and prepare and format them as briefing notes ahead of the meeting. 

Where EA–Finance Reporting Workflows Typically Lose Momentum

Even well-equipped finance teams can experience inefficiencies in their reporting cycles and find it hard to meet publishing deadlines. Most times, these inefficiencies stem from predictable friction points within the EA-finance reporting workflows, resulting in the team handling tasks at the last minute.

The primary sources of friction in many organizations’ financial reporting workflows include:

• Unclear Deadlines: The EA has communicated to the finance team that the CFO or CEO will be presenting company finances in a key stakeholder meeting at the end of the month. However, the executive has not clarified with the EA about when they need the reports for review or how much time the finance team will have after the final submission to make revisions.
• Data Pull Delays: Many executives task their EAs with providing the finance team with monthly spending reports, but then fail to grant their assistants controlled access to the information management systems. The result is that EAs receive pressure from the finance team while they must wait until the executives send them the reports or grant them temporary access.
• Decision-Making Bottlenecks: Executives who want to micromanage their EAs often create bottlenecks as their assistants must pass everything by them, including correspondence emails to the finance team. Reddit user CoffeeWithMyGiraffe shared their experience supporting a micromanager executive:

“My boss will send an email, then come into my office to tell me she sent an email, and then proceed to tell me about the email. I got it, one second ago….”

• Scheduling Conflicts: In situations where the executive assistant does not double up as the chief of staff, the executive may make commitments that the assistant is unaware of. This means they may end up scheduling meetings between the executive and the finance team when the principal is held up elsewhere, or even traveling out of state or overseas. 

How Executive Assistants Coordinate the Reporting Cycle End-to-End

Experienced EAs understand that their role in financial reporting extends beyond basic tasks like drafting emails or informing the executive about a report sitting in their inbox. Instead, executives should empower their EAs to create and own financial reporting workflows, transforming reporting into a repeatable process.

Executive assistants can streamline financial reporting workflows as follows:

Step 1: Calendar the Reporting Cycle and Lock Deadlines

Executive assistants should map the reporting cycle into the company calendar and set deadlines for essential events such as board meetings, investor calls, and financial report publishing dates.

Additionally, EAs can leverage executive assistant tools to track progress and set reminders for each milestone to ensure the finance team knows when specific tasks are due. By owning the reporting workflow, EAs take the responsibility of monitoring progress and escalating issues that need the executive’s attention to avoid a last-minute rush.

Step 2: Pull and Organize Source Data

Executives should grant their EAs appropriate system access, allowing them to pull necessary documents, such as financial reports and office expense spreadsheets, and send them to the finance team for validation.

Reddit user Three3Jane shared their experience about tracking their executive’s expenses in a recent thread:

“…Their Ubers are sent to me electronically as a receipt but also linked to Concur. We use Concur for flights and flight-related expenses (flight change upcharges, any purchases on the plane like food or drink, and wireless access), as well as more infrequent rail travel….”

This removes bottlenecks that often cause many finance teams to miss reporting deadlines as they wait for the CEO or CFO to provide the source data. 

Step 3: Draft the Reporting Package for Finance Review

Elite EAs go a step further and create SOPs for organizing the source data and templates for presenting the documents to keep the documents consistent across reporting cycles.

For example, they may label files using a consistent naming format, such as Expense Item_Department_Date (MM-DD-YYY) for easy tracking and retrieval.

Step 4: Coordinate Finance Review and Handle Revisions

Most company financial reports go through several revisions before final approval and publishing. Experienced executive assistants understand this and treat the revision phase as a project that needs tracking and oversight from beginning to end.

For example, an EA may consolidate all reviewer feedback and record who’s reviewed versus who hasn’t before creating and submitting the next report draft to the executive. Where the feedback conflicts, an EA may request a meeting within the finance team and align their executive’s schedule, so that they are available for the joint review.

Step 5: Distribute, Archive, and Set the Follow-Up Agenda

Following executive approval, the EA should handle secure distribution, implementing the company’s confidential information protocols.

For example:

• An EA may send the report through a secure portal with access controls limiting who can download or edit the documents versus view-only permission.
• The EA may follow up and flag members who have yet to review the published report before key events such as Annual General Meetings.

This five-step reporting coordination workflow helps transform a company’s finance function from being a last-minute rush to a predictable, repeatable process. However, for it to work, executives must partner with EAs who can create and maintain reporting workflows and prioritize tasks based on strategic impact without frequent oversight.

ProAssisting’s EAs have experience coordinating reporting workflows at global brands, such as Stanley Black & Decker, Pandora, and Oracle. They also bring 5 years of minimum experience supporting busy C-suites, including providing calendar management and cross-department coordination.

Book a free call to discover how executives can integrate EAs into their reporting cycles.

Core Reports EAs Coordinate with Finance

One way executives can empower their EAs to own finance reporting workflows is by specifying the documentation and tasks that fall within their scope. This reduces unnecessary input overlaps where EAs handle tasks that the finance team assumes to be their exclusive responsibility.

Below are common financial reports where EAs may coordinate with the finance team, and their likely roles:

Board and Leadership Reporting Packets

Executive assistants may build and maintain decks for preparing and distributing monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports ahead of board meetings. These may take various forms, as explained by Reddit user smithersje in a recent thread about board packets:

“Agenda, Minutes from previous meeting, executive summary and scorecard for the quarter, compliance documentation in relation to our financials, MD&A and financial statements, budget info, forecast info, and then each executive is responsible for including what they will present on, specific to their departments…”

EA responsibilities relating to executive reporting packets may include:

• Creating a master PowerPoint template with consistent formatting, slide order, and chart presentation styles that will be used across all reporting periods 
• Creating placeholder slides where the finance team will summarize the financial reports
• Align the executive schedule with the proposed board meetings and AGMs
• Distribute the draft report to relevant department heads for review, and later the final report for commentary
• Archive a copy of the final report on a secure portal with access controls. 

Expense and T&E Reports

Executive assistants play a vital role in tracking their principal’s expenses and submitting the information to the finance team.

Their responsibilities include:

• Collecting and filing payment receipts 
• Categorizing transactions, such as utilities and office supplies
• Reconciling office expenses against card statements
• Coordinating with the finance team to resolve the budget vs. expenses variance
• Scheduling review meetings where necessary 

Investor Updates and Fundraising Data Rooms

Startup founders planning seeding rounds and events to raise capital can partner with their EAs to manage investor relations. The EA is tasked with maintaining the company’s data rooms, ensuring financial reports are secure (controlled access) and up-to-date. 

Other EA responsibilities include:

• Functioning as the startup founder’s chief of staff by screening meeting requests and prioritizing them based on strategic importance
• Coordinate signing logistics for subscription documents, investor rights agreements, and closing materials
• Blocking the executive calendar when necessary so they can focus on high-impact strategic tasks with little to no interruptions 
• Upload new reports to the data room or edit existing ones based on feedback from the finance team

What Changes When the Reporting Workflow Is Fully Coordinated

When EAs own financial reporting workflows, they implement systems that help smooth out friction points involving communication breakdown and uncoordinated efforts. On the one hand, finance teams receive data at the right time and in a standard format, which helps them keep deadlines. On the other hand, executives and stakeholders receive the reports when they need them, and with enough time to digest the information ahead of upcoming meetings.

Some notable outcomes of executives partnering with their EAs to streamline reporting workflows include:

• Reporting Becomes Consistent: Elite EAs create systems and SOPs for collecting, organizing, and distributing reports at the end of each cycle. Systems such as consistent formatting and naming conventions ensure uniform reports across the company, even when the EA is not directly involved in creating them. 
• There are Fewer Surprises in Board Meetings: Reporting workflows ensure that the finance team catches and addresses issues, such as data entry errors and budget inconsistencies, during the review phase and not during live sessions in the presence of investors and stakeholders.
• Executives Have Immediate Access to Information: When companies lack reporting workflows, executives spend a lot of time chasing after information for decision support or to get clarification because of incomplete data. Elite EAs maintain a centralized data room from which executives can easily retrieve the financial reports they need, when they need them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Below are answers to common questions executives ask about involving EAs in reporting workflows.

Do EAs Need Accounting or Finance Backgrounds?

No. EAs don’t need formal accounting or finance education to be able to undertake their roles or coordinate reporting workflows. However, they should at least have fundamental financial literacy and understand basic business metrics to help them pull relevant data and organize it logically, or even spot obvious errors. 

What Is the Difference Between a Finance Executive Assistant and a General EA?

The main difference between a financial executive assistant and a general EA is that the former joins an organization with the sole purpose of coordinating its finance function and often reports directly to the CFO or CEO. In contrast, a general EA coordinates functions across multiple departments, with financial reporting being just one of them. This allows the general EA to have a more strategic impact, as they can align the executive’s schedule with the company’s finance reporting cycles where necessary.

Can an EA Approve Executive Expenses on Their Own?

Yes and No. An EA can approve executive expenses on their own, but within controlled boundaries. For example, an executive could authorize their EA to approve office expenses of up to $1,000 with the requirement to file the receipts for future reconciliation. 

Which Reports Should Stay with Finance and Never Sit with the EA?

The following reports should stay with the finance team and not with the EA:

• Tax Filings: The finance team should handle tax and compliance reports because they involve legal obligations, regulatory deadlines, and financial liability, which the EA may not be privy to.
• Payroll Reports: The finance team should maintain the company’s payroll to ensure accuracy and uphold confidentiality.

Is It Safe to Share Financial Data with a Remote or Fractional EA?

Yes. It is safe to share financial data with a remote or fractional EA so long as the executive has put in place proper safeguards, including signing non-disclosure agreements and communicating the company’s confidentiality protocol. Additionally, executives should ask candidates how they would handle the company’s financial data as one of the executive assistant questions during hiring interviews.

Conclusion

Executives, such as CEOs and CFOs, should onboard EAs to streamline coordination with the finance team, especially as they approach major company events, such as board meetings and AGMs.

ProAssisting partners executives with EAs who have experience coordinating with finance teams and supporting CEOs and CFOs at global brands like the WNBA, Comcast, and Victoria’s Secret. The agency has a rigorous vetting process that results in less than 5% of candidates qualifying for the proAssistant role. Additionally, they offer customizable support allowing executives to utilize ⅓, ½, or ⅔ of an EA’s capacity based on their support needs. 

Schedule a free consultation with Ethan Bull, the co-founder, to explore possible support options.