accounting-finance-controller

name	accounting-finance-controller
description	Use when coordinating accounting and finance implementation reviews, doctrine routing, control evidence, remediation priorities, and release decisions across a software system.
metadata	{"portable":true,"do_not_use_when":"Do not use for accounting doctrine alone or for a narrow posting implementation owned by accounting-engine.","required_inputs":"Provide system scope, finance risks, doctrine sources, implementation evidence, and release decision.","quality_standards":"Require traceable doctrine, balanced postings, controls, reconciliation, auditability, and explicit gaps.","anti_patterns":"Do not approve from prose claims, mix doctrine with unverified implementation, or hide unresolved control failures.","outputs":"Produce the controller assessment, routed workstreams, evidence gaps, remediation priorities, and release verdict.","compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

Accounting Finance Controller

Inputs

Artefact	Required?	Purpose
System scope and finance risk register	yes	Select doctrine and controls
Implementation and reconciliation evidence	yes	Determine actual readiness
Release decision and owners	yes	Assign remediation and approval

Outputs

Artefact	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Controller assessment and routed work plan	Engineering and finance owners	Evidence-backed findings, owners, priorities, verdict

Capability contract

Default to read-only coordination. Ledger mutation, migration, close, filing, or production correction requires separately authorised execution through the owning skill and finance approver.

Degraded mode

Fallback without doctrine or implementation evidence: issue Needs Evidence; do not approve the system or fabricate compliance.

Decision rules

Finding	Route	Release effect
Doctrine uncertainty	External accounting doctrine	Hold affected decision
Posting or reconciliation defect	accounting-engine	Block affected financial flow
Evidence complete and controls effective	Controller approval	Proceed with recorded residual risks

Domain anti-patterns

• Approving from design prose alone. Fix: require implementation and reconciliation evidence.
• Mixing policy ownership with code ownership. Fix: route doctrine and implementation separately.
• Treating an unreconciled balance as immaterial by default. Fix: quantify and approve thresholds.
• Hiding unresolved findings in a narrative. Fix: record owner, severity, due date, and release effect.
• Performing production corrections during review. Fix: use a separately authorised remediation workflow.

Use When

• Designing or implementing financial modules for POS, ERP, SaaS, school fees, healthcare billing, inventory, payroll, project accounting, fixed assets, procurement, or mobile-money-heavy systems.
• Reviewing business plans, proposals, dashboards, spreadsheets, or systems where accounting accuracy, financial controls, investor confidence, or management reporting matter.
• The user wants outputs that feel credible to CFOs, accountants, auditors, lenders, investors, or senior executives.

Core Rule

Every money movement must have a business event, source document, accounting treatment, posting rule, control, reconciliation path, and report destination. If any link is missing, the system is not finance-ready.

Workflow

1. Identify the entity type, industry, reporting basis, currency, tax context, transaction volumes, user roles, and whether IFRS/statutory reporting is required.
2. Map business events to ledgers: sales, receipts, purchases, payments, inventory, payroll, tax, fixed assets, loans, owner equity, journals, adjustments, accruals, prepayments, and reversals.
3. Define the chart of accounts, accounting dimensions, control accounts, subledgers, fiscal periods, document numbers, posting rules, and period-close workflow.
4. Build management accounting: cost objects, cost drivers, cost centers, profit centers, contribution margin, CVP, budgets, flexible budgets, variance analysis, and responsibility-center reporting.
5. Add controls: segregation of duties, maker-checker approvals, immutable audit logs, period locks, role permissions, exception queues, reconciliation evidence, and reversal-only correction.
6. Design reports: trial balance, general ledger, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, aging, inventory valuation, tax schedules, management accounts, dashboards, and board packs.
7. Validate with accounting gates: balanced journals, subledger-to-GL reconciliation, tax timing, inventory costing, cash/bank proof, period close, and model checks.

Accounting Coverage

• Financial accounting: double-entry, accruals, revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, equity, financial statements, disclosures, consolidation where relevant.
• Cost accounting: direct/indirect costs, fixed/variable costs, cost drivers, job/process/hybrid costing, ABC, standard costing, CVP, margin of safety, transfer pricing.
• Management control: budgets, responsibility centers, KPIs, performance measurement, incentives, project controls, decentralization, and management reporting cadence.
• IFRS-aware design: accounting policies, estimates, errors, events after reporting date, inventories, PPE, leases, impairment, provisions, financial instruments, cash flow, fair value, and disclosure readiness.
• Advanced accounting: business combinations, goodwill, non-controlling interests, intercompany eliminations, equity method, foreign currency, and group reporting where relevant.
• Quantitative finance: NPV, IRR, payback, effective interest rates, discounting, sensitivity analysis, scenario modelling, risk-return logic, and data-driven forecast checks.

Quality Gates

• No posted transaction can be edited or deleted; corrections use reversals and adjustment entries.
• Debits equal credits at transaction, batch, period, tenant, and consolidated levels.
• Subledgers reconcile to GL control accounts: AR, AP, inventory, fixed assets, payroll, tax, loans, and bank/mobile money.
• Reports must be reproducible from source transactions, not manually typed summaries.
• Financial projections must connect to operational drivers, not arbitrary growth percentages.
• Budgets compare actuals to flexible budgets, not only static targets.
• Investor or lender numbers must reconcile across narrative, tables, cash flow, balance sheet, funding request, and appendices.

References

• references/professional-accounting-systems-gate.md - detailed checklists for system requirements, IFRS-aware reporting, management accounting, projections, controls, and review.
• Companion skill: saas-accounting-system for double-entry implementation patterns and schema-level design.