Financial matters best managed by the departmental head (5)
I believe the answer is:
debts
'financial matters' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'best managed by the departmental head' is the wordplay.
'managed' indicates an anagram.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'head' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'departmental' is 'd'.
'best' is an anagram of 'ebts'.
'ebts' after 'd' is 'DEBTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for debts that I've seen before include "Amounts owed" , "They're owed" , "Liabilities" , "Outstanding sums" , "Monies owed" .)