KnowledgeLeader Blog

A budget is a systematic method of allocating financial, physical and human resources to achieve strategic goals. Companies develop budgets in order to monitor progress toward their goals, help control spending, and predict cash flow and profit.

 

 

 

Topics: Accounting/Finance, Cash & Treasury, Performance Management/Measurement, Budgeting

Cash flow management is the mobilization of company funds, the investment of these funds to produce income and compensation of the banks that support the process. Cash managers use most noncredit services of banks, as well as of some nonbanks.

 

 

Topics: Risk Assessment, Investments & Foreign Exchange, Accounting/Finance, Process-Level Control, Cash & Treasury

"Close the books" is a process that a corporation uses to reconcile, consolidate and report financial information on a periodic basis. Each company defines closing the books a little differently; not all companies complete an identical list of tasks in their close-the-books process.

Topics: Internal Audit, Financial Services Industry, Accounting/Finance

Inventory planners and managers today find themselves engaged in a delicate balancing act. On one hand, they strive at all costs to stay competitive in a marketplace that continues to demand more customized products and faster delivery services. On the other hand, they are still obliged to keep the actual cost of maintaining such complex inventory down to a minimum. Despite the dilemma, however, companies that apply best practices know firsthand how an efficient inventory management system can transform a business. Some have even reported improvements of up to 90 percent in throughput times and defect levels.

Topics: Supply Chain, Vendor Management, Accounting/Finance, Performance Management/Measurement, Inventory & Materials Management, Accounts Payable & Purchasing

An effective business process is built on a set of well-defined and clearly stated business objectives. These key objectives articulate the ideal performance results that a company expects from that process. To monitor a business process so it stays focused on reaching the key objectives, a company chooses appropriate performance measures. Careful selection of the performance measures takes a company a long way toward improving a business process. Thus, to build and then continually improve an effective business process, a company establishes:

Topics: Accounting/Finance, Financial Reporting, Close the Books, Performance Management/Measurement

Communicating with shareholders is about capital – the ability to access either equity or debt at the lowest possible cost. By understanding investor motivation and maintaining relationships within the investment community, companies are strategically positioned to address operational funding issues proactively and thus can exercise greater control over the capital formation process. By identifying sources of capital, world-class companies can maintain capital structures through a mix of long-term debt and equity funding options at the lowest possible cost.

Topics: Investments & Foreign Exchange, Audit Committee & Board, Accounting/Finance, Financial Reporting, Performance Management/Measurement, Mergers and Acquisitions, Communications Industry

The audit committee of the board of directors helps the board fulfill its responsibilities to the company and its current and potential shareholders, the investment community, and other stakeholders, with respect to its oversight of the following: 

• The quality and integrity of the company’s accounting and reporting practices and controls.
• The financial statements and reports of the company.
• The company’s compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
• The independent auditor’s qualifications and independence.
• The performance of the company’s internal audit function and independent auditors.

Topics: Accounting/Finance, Self-Assessment, Performance Management/Measurement

In a previous blog on Managing Mergers and Acquisitions KPIs we discussed what exactly Key Performance Indicators are:

“KPIs are generally defined as quantifiable measures used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee or process in meeting the objectives for performance. In other words, you can only really know if you did well if you know how success is measured.”

Topics: Accounting/Finance, Cash & Treasury, Performance Management/Measurement, Budgeting

What is Money?

People may say that “money is the root of all evil,” but is it? It may be best to point out that the original quote is better expressed as, “for the love of money is the root of all evil,” which more properly conveys the idea that money is just a thing and not evil itself, but greed and excessive desire for money can be judged morally.

Enough philosophy – let’s get down to brass tacks. Money is useful.

Topics: Enterprise Risk Management, Risk Assessment, Investments & Foreign Exchange, Accounting/Finance, Cash & Treasury, Performance Management/Measurement

One of our leading practices to consider for your accounts payable process is to develop strategic business alliances with suppliers and involve them in developing better ways to process accounts payable.

Topics: Supply Chain, Vendor Management, Accounting/Finance, Financial Reporting, Cash & Treasury, Performance Management/Measurement, Accounts Payable & Purchasing