Description

Corporate accountants around the world have been making the same mistakes, year-in year-out. Why is it that we spend months on an annual planning process that we know is flawed? Why is it we spend many days preparing a monthly report that is informing management well and truly “after the horse has bolted”? Why do we produce a 30+ page finance report for the senior management team? Why do we budget at account code level?

This unique implementation guide (110 page white paper + E-templates) is my latest thinking on the subject matter and is designed to help readers implement better practice methods.  I have spent around US$30,000 developing and updating this implementation guide. I guarantee that you will save many times the cost of this guide.

The PDF whitepaper is updated at the time of purchase by David Parmenter ensuring that it contains his latest thinking. The E-templates are emailed with the paper.

Look inside

Please click here to look inside the white paper.

Why you need this guide

Too many accountants fail to leave any legacy systems when they move on.  They are simply good processors, performing each month-end as slow as the one before, overseeing a long and tedious annual planning process, and producing reports that are seldom read.

Joseph Heller’s iconic 1961 book introduced a new phase into our language “Catch 22” which the Oxford English Dictionary defined as:

“A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions”

I see many finance teams in this situation. The late monthly accounts, the long, drawn-out annual planning process and annual reporting cycle leave no time to break this cycle – a perfect Catch 22.

The finance team needs to create time for change, to have more time to implement. Where do we find this time? We find it by adopting the lean processes used by our peers.

Through benchmarking and then delivering courses to finance teams I have discovered many better practices, from corporate accountants across the world.  This paper covers the top twenty practices that our clever peers have adopted. These top twenty practices are set out by subject matter rather than their importance.

This guide will answer the following questions:

1. How many account codes should we aim for?
2. How frequently and how far out should we forecast?
3. When should we set monthly budgets?
4. What frequency should we fund budget holders?
5. At what level should we budget at?
6. How quick should an annual budgeting process be?
7. What are the key features of an effective report?
8. What KPIs should we use?
9. How do you get change to work?

The guide will cover how to avoid the mistakes which include:

1. Having over 80 account codes for the P/L
2. Only forecasting to year-end
3. Breaking down the annual plan into twelve before the year starts
4. Giving budget holders an annual entitlement
5. Budgeting at account code level
6. Taking months doing an annual plan –instead of 10 working days!
7. Producing numbing monthly financial reports
8. Reporting on the wrong performance measures
9. Not producing daily/ weekly decision based reports
10. Selling change by logic
11. Allowing month-end reporting to go past three working days
12. Using Julius Caesar’s calendar as a reporting tool
13. Spending months on the annual accounts
14. Investing in a complex G/L and upgrading unnecessarily
15. Letting Excel dominate the finance system
16. Working hard but not smart
17. Not investing enough in Accounts Payable
18. Not adopting the purchase card – a free AP system
19. Not investing effort and time into leadership
20. Not celebrating enough

The E-templates include:

• Selling quarterly rolling forecasting to the executive team (PowerPoint slide deck)
• One page rolling quarterly forecast template
• Suggestive sales forecast template
• Rolling planning diagram
• Quarterly rolling forecast update
• Ten day annual plan timetable
• Business unit monthly report format
• One page annual plan report format
• Selling quick month end reporting to the executive team (PowerPoint slide deck)
• Costing out the monthly and year end reporting process
• Draft month-end rules for the finance team
• Overs and unders adjustments schedules
• Draft year-end rules for the finance team