IT reporting to a CFO or a comptroller has been common in my experience. Understanding the language and process of basic bookkeeping and simple accounting has

IT reporting to a CFO or a comptroller has been common in my experience. Understanding the language and process of basic bookkeeping and simple accounting has given me me immense traction with finance people. When I demonstrate even a rudimentary understanding of the metrics and reports finance uses (understanding what financial statements communicate, tax ramifications of CapEx vs OpEx, cost of money, etc) the trust level and willingness to listen goes up tremendously. Stand-offish and distant relationships became more concrete and productive when finance people realize I'm not spouting techno-bullshit for bullshit's (or techno's) sake. Anybody with serious IT management aspirations in the private sector really should have a reasonable amount of business knowledge. An IT operation, both the in-house and contracted services components, should be considered an internal business unit. It should be evaluated on the expenses it charges-back to the revenue-generating business units, and on the gains in revenue it creates by driving efficiency. Knowing the metrics that finance will use to evaluate an IT operation allows you to make a case for improving those metrics.