I cannot disagree more strongly with this. It is essential for a small business owner and/or startup founder to understand the fundamentals of business finance

I cannot disagree more strongly with this. It is essential for a small business owner and/or startup founder to understand the fundamentals of business finance -- at a minimum the basic accounting equation (A = L + OE). Outsourcing that knowledge to someone in finance is a recipe for the "accountant" to steal all the money in the corporate bank account. Only once they understand how to do it, should they then proceed to outsource the work to someone else to minimize the distraction to the core business.