What is a financial committee meeting?

Depending on the size of a business or, in the case of government, statutes that might be in place, meetings can happen at varying regularity. Often, these meetings will take place at least once a month or quarterly, but sometimes they might only happen once a year. 

Unlike other senior-level meetings, a financial committee meeting will be chaired by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or board treasurer. It’s also likely that everyone from the finance department will be required to attend. 

Typical tasks for these meetings include budgeting, financial planning, financial reporting and monitoring accountability policies.

Why do they do this? Well, a finance committee must provide accurate and up-to-date financial logs. They also need to draft the annual budget and sets long-term financial goals. Accounting experts can then review and audit all the projects to see if the expenditures are justified. 

Ahead of the meeting, everyone in attendance should be sent an agenda of what’s going to be discussed and any other necessary information.

In the meeting, committee members must ensure all decisions they make align with the company’s wider goals and policies. They should ensure that in every meeting they come away with the necessary recommendations for the board. 

The board will then decide whether to implement or reject what the committee suggests. With both the CFO and CEO likely members of the finance committee, hopefully, acceptance happens in most cases. 

As well as setting the budget and making financial recommendations to the board, the committee should also check if all the necessary risk-management policies are in place. This not only includes company policies but federal and state rules too.