1506, 2015

Moving accounts payable out of the dark ages

By |June 15th, 2015|0 Comments

The accounts payable team is one of the most important in the accounting function. However, many APteams are stuck in the dark ages, which means:* monthly accounts cannot be prepared promptly, as AP is buried under a tsunami of invoices* budget holders are unnecessarily tied up in authorising and approving all transactions– no matter how […]

3005, 2015

Determining Measures That Will Work in Your Organization

By |May 30th, 2015|0 Comments

Many performance measures are created from a flawed process. Frequently the task of finding measures is carried out at the last minute by staff members who do not have a clue about what is involved in finding a measure that will create the appropriate behavioral response. Chapter 12 looks at common reasons why organizations get […]

3005, 2015

Create a lean finance team

By |May 30th, 2015|0 Comments

The annual planning process and the long, drawn-out annual reporting cycle are both perfect examples of catch-22s. To break out of them, finance teams need to attack the onerous processes that are hangovers from the past and that they have mistakenly stuck with. Read More

3005, 2015

The free accounts payable system

By |May 30th, 2015|0 Comments

The average cost of a whole purchasing cycle is estimated at £30 to £40 per transaction. This cost is horrific when you realise that a high portion of your transactions is for minor amounts. The diagram to the right shows a typical profile of accounts payable(AP) invoices. Read More

3005, 2015

Annual planning will always be wrong

By |May 30th, 2015|0 Comments

The one sure thing about annual planning is that it will be wrong – its underlying assumptions have been flawed since LucaPacioli invented double entry bookkeeping in 1494.This article completes my look at the foundation stones of rolling planning, a more useful alternative.  Read More

610, 2014

The foundation stones of rolling planning: Separating out targets from realistic forecasts

By |October 6th, 2014|0 Comments

It is vital to generate realistic forecasts rather than forecasts that the board or senior management wants to hear. The board might want a 20 percent growth in net profit, yet management might see that only 10 percent is achievable with existing products, customers and capacity constraints. If the forecasting team reports what the board […]

610, 2014

The Great KPI Misunderstanding

By |October 6th, 2014|0 Comments

Many companies are working with the wrong measures, many of which are incorrectly termed key performance indicators (KPIs). I believe it a myth to consider all performance measures to be KPIs. From my research over the last twenty five years I have come to the conclusion that there are four types of performance measures:

1. Key […]

3009, 2014

Lean finance team processes – making the finance function more efficient

By |September 30th, 2014|0 Comments

To what degree has your finance team embraced the LEAN movement? – Invitation to attend a webcast run by ICAEW.

Join David Parmenter for a webinar on 9 October, 2014 at 9:00 AM (GMT).  There is a small cost of non-members.

LEAN has now been embraced by accounting functions around the world. LEAN has  not only re-engineered […]

608, 2014

Wisdom of the crowd- A new management concept

By |August 6th, 2014|0 Comments

James Surowiecki wrote that “a large group of people are often smarter than the smartest people in them.” Hence the term “wisdom of the crowd was born”. In other words, a group’s aggregated answers to questions that involve quantity estimation have generally been found to be as good as, and often better than, the answer […]

608, 2014

Use a measures gallery to test measures

By |August 6th, 2014|0 Comments

Stacey Barr in her PuMP methodology has pointed out the benefit of showing performance measures  on the walls in a room. Visitors from around the company come for a coffee and leave notes about their concerns or issues relating to a particular measure, on post-it stickers. This system is using “Wisdom of the crowd”.  An […]