Process improvement for effective budgeting and financial reporting

The budget and financial reporting processes are well known sources of frustration for most CFOs. Seeking a quick fix to the problem, the common solution is to pour more money into new and better software. This leaves the root cause, the inefficient and dysfunctional underlying processes and routines, unaddressed. As this book shows, substantial and sustainable improvements are only achieved through an holistic approach to process improvement, technology, strategy, and people.

Tom Henry KnudsenExecutive Vice President, Telenor Eiendom Fornebu AS

Proven methods for improving efficiency

Corporations face a high turnover among financial managers, rapid changes in technology, lack of time and process redesign skills, and ongoing ambiguity about primary objectives behind the budgeting and financial reporting processes. Amid this frenzy, it is the fundamental efficiency of these processes that dramatically impact overall business performance. Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting provides financial managers with a compelling blueprint for increasing efficiency and eliminating waste of time and energy. Four operational experts lay out an 80/20 plan-improving 80% of processes in 20% of the time it would take to improve 100%-and explain a Business Process Improvement (BPI) plan that incorporates:

• The emerging trends affecting financial managers today
• Step-by-step process implementation
• Interviews with industry leaders, consultants, and managers who have successfully instituted BPI plans
• Appraisals of the available software that can help or hinder the process

There is no substitute for improved efficiency. CFOs, controllers, budget managers, and financial analysts will significantly benefit from adding this authoritative guide to their professional libraries.

Contents

• Introduction to Business Process Improvement
  • About Business Process Improvement
  • When BPI Is Valuable
  • Small and Large Projects and Associated Resources
  • Return on Investment of BPI Projects
  • Best Practices, Trends, and Technology
  • Selling Change to Your Organization
• Business Process Improvement Project
  • Getting Started
  • Due Diligence
  • Improving the Budgeting Process
  • Revenue Budgeting
  • Employee Budgeting
  • Cost of Sales and Operating Expenses
  • Capital Expenses
  • Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statements
  • Alternative Budgeting Approaches
  • Improving Financial Reporting Processes
  • Human Resources, Training, Strategy, and Workflow
  • Best Practices
  • Technology
  • BPI Makeover
• Designing the Ultimate Chart of Accounts
  • Chart of Accounts Redesign
  • Creating a New COA
  • COA Development Plan
• Interviews
  • Robert Blake, Microsoft Corporation
  • Dean Sorensen, Bywater Management Consulting
  • Bill Ellenback, Software User
• Software Tools and Resources
  • Selecting Analytics Software
  • Software Evaluation: Factors to Consider
  • Software Buyer's Guide
  • Appendix A: Sample Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreement (Sales/Demo Process)
  • Appendix B: Sample Consulting Agreement
  • Appendix C: Software Vendor Listing
  • Appendix D: Sample Chart of Accounts
• Glossary
• Index