Winning CFOs: Implementing and Applying Better Practices, with Website

Book description

Better practices that today's CFOs can employ to bring value and efficiency to the teams that report to them

Helping corporate accountants from the CFOs to the management accountant implement better practices that will make a difference to their finance team's performance, Winning CFOs shows corporate accountants how to create permanent improvements in their organization's processes.

  • Provides better practice solutions the author has learned from more than 4,000 finance teams worldwide

  • A to Z guidance on how to be an effective CFO

  • Includes templates, checklists and implementation programs for process improvement

  • Abundance of tools to ensure implementation of better practices

  • Tips on how to develop winning leadership traits

Winning CFOs shows corporate accountants how to radically transform their contribution to their organization, enhance their job satisfaction and profile, and leave a legacy of efficiency and effectiveness in every organization for which they work.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction
  7. Part I: Areas to Focus on in the Next Six Months
    1. CHAPTER 1 Accounts Payable in the 21st Century
      1. Removal of Charles Dickens’s Processes
      2. Move to a Paperless Accounts Payable Function
      3. Invest in an Electronic Ordering System (Procurement System)
      4. Introduce a Purchase Card
      5. Cut Off Accounts Payable on the Last Working Day
      6. Close Accruals a Day before the Accounts Payable Ledger
      7. Limit the Accruals
      8. Mount the Last Signed Check on the CEO’s Wall
      9. Perform Frequent Direct Credit Payment Runs
      10. Improve Budget Holders’ Cooperation
      11. Speed Up Budget Holders’ Correction of Omissions
      12. A Welcome Letter to All New Budget Holders
      13. Introduce “Shame and Name” Lists
      14. Reward Good Budget Holder Behavior
      15. Have a Closer Relationship with Your Main Suppliers
      16. Use Self-Generated Invoices (Buyer-Created Invoices)
    2. CHAPTER 2 Timely Month-End Reporting: By Working Day 3 or Less
      1. Rating Scale for Month-End Reporting
      2. Benefits of Quick Month-End Reporting
      3. Impact of a Quick Month-End on the Finance Team Workload
      4. Major Steps You Can Do before Your Next Month-End
      5. Major Steps You Can Do within the Next Six Months
      6. History of Quick Month-End Reporting
      7. Research on Quick Month-Ends
      8. Implementing Quick Month-End Reporting
      9. Some Tips on Running a Post-it Reengineering Session
      10. Selling the Need for Quick Month-End Reporting
      11. Key Month-End Activities on a Day 3 Month-End
    3. CHAPTER 3 Make the Monthly Reports Worth Reading
      1. Foundation Stones on Month-End Reporting
      2. Reporting a Business Unit’s Performance
      3. Reporting a Consolidated Profit and Loss Account
      4. One-Page Summary to the CEO
      5. Reporting the Balance Sheet
      6. Reporting a Quarterly Rolling Accrual Forecast
      7. Snapshot of All Projects Currently Started
      8. Reporting Progress of the Top 10 Projects
      9. Cash Flow Forecasting
      10. CAPEX Reporting
      11. The One-Page Investment Proposal
      12. Reporting the Strategic Objectives/Risks/Costs Pressures
      13. Designing Graphs and Dashboards
    4. CHAPTER 4 Limit the Time Invested in Board Reporting
      1. Selling Change to the Board
      2. Costing the Preparation of Board Papers
      3. Scoping of the Information Requests
      4. Avoiding Rewrites of Board Reports
      5. Tabling Board Papers Electronically
      6. More Timely Board Meetings
      7. Board Meeting Less Frequently than Once a Month
      8. Continually Purging the Board Papers
      9. Timeliness of Board Meetings
      10. Reporting Key Result Indicators in a Dashboard to the Board
      11. Examples of Key Result Indicators for a Board Dashboard
    5. CHAPTER 5 Timely Annual Planning Process: Ten Working Days or Less!
      1. Sell the Change through Emotional Drivers
      2. Foundation Stones of an Annual Planning Process
      3. Efficient Annual Planning Processes
    6. CHAPTER 6 Managing the Accounting Team
      1. Hold an Off-Site Meeting for the Accounting Team at Least Twice a Year
      2. Set Up Monthly One-on-One Progress Meetings with Your Direct Reports
      3. Become Known for Giving Recognition Freely
      4. Attract the Best Staff to the Team
      5. Adopt Better Recruitment Practices
      6. Recognize Staff Performance
      7. Team Balanced Scorecards
      8. Better Practice Training
      9. Outdoor Pursuit Adventure
      10. Team-Building Lessons from a World-Class Coach
      11. CFOs and All Direct Reports Must Find a Mentor Immediately
      12. Become a Serving Leader
      13. Five Foundation Stones of a Serving-Leader
      14. Areas of Focus for a Serving-Leader
      15. A Viking with a Mother’s Heart
      16. Three-Month Planner
    7. CHAPTER 7 Quick Annual Reporting: Within 15 Working Days Post Year-End
      1. Costs of a Slow Year-End
      2. Cost the Annual Accounts Process
      3. A Quick Year-End Is a Good Year-End
      4. Help Get the Auditors Organized
      5. Appoint an Audit Coordinator
      6. Complete the Drafting of the Annual Report before Year-End
      7. Limit when Changes Can Be Made
      8. Negotiate and Plan for a Sign-off by the Auditors within 15 Working Days
      9. Have a Month 10 or 11 Hard Close
      10. Effective Stock Takes
      11. Estimating Added Value in Work in Progress and Finished Goods
      12. Effective Fixed Asset Verification
      13. Importance of the Internal Auditors
      14. Extract More Value from the Management Letter
      15. Derive More Value from the Interim Audit
      16. Run a Workshop to Post-it Reengineer Year-End Reporting
      17. Restrict Access to Confidential Information to the Audit Partner
      18. Speeding Up the Reporting Supply Chain
      19. Moving Forward
      20. Some Case Studies
    8. CHAPTER 8 Managing Your Accounts Receivable
      1. Operational Improvements to Accounts Receivable
      2. Reporting on Your Accounts Receivable
      3. Avoiding Accounts Receivable Month-End Processing Bottlenecks
      4. Increasing the Use of Direct Debiting of Customers’ Accounts
      5. Debtors’ Collection before Year-End
    9. CHAPTER 9 Marketing the Accounting Team
      1. Fitting into the Wider Team
    10. CHAPTER 10 Client Management: Improving Relationships with Budget Holders
      1. Perform an In-House Customer Satisfaction Survey
    11. CHAPTER 11 More Emphasis on Daily and Weekly Reporting
      1. Yesterday’s Sales Report
      2. Weekly Key Customers’ Sales
      3. Weekly Reporting on Late Projects and Late Reports
      4. Daily and Weekly Reporting of Performance Measures
    12. CHAPTER 12 Working Smarter, Not Harder
      1. Staff Debriefing at the End of the Day
      2. Banning Morning Meetings for the Finance Team
      3. Implementing “Action Meetings” Methods
      4. Golden Rules with Emails
      5. Continuous Innovation in the Finance Team
      6. Getting the Induction Process Right
      7. Creating a Service Culture in the Finance Team
      8. Having Fun in the Workplace
    13. CHAPTER 13 Limit the P & L to 50 Account Codes
      1. Project Accounting
      2. Subsidiary Chart of Accounts
  8. Part II: Areas to Focus on Once Core Gains Have Been Achieved
    1. CHAPTER 14 Throw Out Annual Planning and the Associated Monthly Budget Cycle
      1. Reporting without a Budget
    2. CHAPTER 15 Quarterly Rolling Planning: An Evolvement from Quarterly Rolling Forecasting
      1. Quarterly Rolling Forecasting Is the Most Important Management Tool of This Decade
      2. Ten Foundation Stones of a Rolling Forecasting Process
      3. Better Practices in a QRF
      4. Implementing a Quarterly Rolling Forecasting and Planning Process
    3. CHAPTER 16 Cost Apportionment: Do Not Do It Monthly!
    4. CHAPTER 17 Ban Excel from Core Monthly Routines
    5. CHAPTER 18 Identifying the Organization’s Critical Success Factors
      1. Benefits of Understanding Your Organization’s Critical Success Factors
      2. An Airline CSF
      3. Relationship among CSFs, Strategy, and KPIs
      4. Finding Your Organization’s CSFs
    6. CHAPTER 19 Reporting Your Winning Key Performance Indicators
      1. The 10/80/10 Rule
      2. Key Result Indicators
      3. Performance and Result Indicators
      4. Key Performance Indicators
      5. Characteristics of a KPI
      6. Importance of Daily CEO Follow-up
      7. Selling KPIs through the Emotional Drivers
      8. Reporting KPIs 24/7 or Daily to Management
      9. Reporting Weekly KPIs and PIs to Management
      10. Reporting Monthly PIs and RIs to Management
      11. Reporting the Key Result Indicators in a Dashboard to the Board
      12. Reporting to Staff: The Team’s Progress
      13. Reporting to Staff: The Organization’s Progress
      14. 12-Step Model for Implementing Performance Measures
      15. How KPIs and Financial Reporting Fit Together
    7. CHAPTER 20 Where to Invest in Your Accounting Systems for Maximum Benefit
      1. Avoiding the Hard Sell
      2. Better Systems to Invest in
    8. CHAPTER 21 Implementing a New Accounting System
    9. CHAPTER 22 Better Use of the Intranet
      1. Your Intranet Should Be a Spider’s Web
      2. The Intranet as a Business Tool
      3. What the Finance Team Can Do
  9. Part III: Areas Where Costly Mistakes Can Be Made
    1. CHAPTER 23 Designing Performance Bonus Schemes
      1. Foundation Stones
      2. Avoid Having Deferral Provisions
    2. CHAPTER 24 Avoiding a Rotten Takeover or Merger
      1. How Takeover or Merger Goes Wrong
      2. Takeover or Merger Scorecard
      3. Alternatives to a TOM
    3. CHAPTER 25 Hidden Costs of Downsizing
    4. CHAPTER 26 A Reorganization Too Many
      1. Ramifications and Associated Costs
      2. An Addiction to Reorganizations
      3. Typical Reasons for a Reorganization
      4. There Are Alternatives to a Major Reorganization
      5. Before You Look at a Reorganization
    5. CHAPTER 27 Listing on the Stock Exchange
      1. Gather Useful Experiences
      2. Selecting the Advisors
      3. Have a Well-Oiled Public Relations Machine
      4. The Prospectus
      5. Due Diligence Coordinator
      6. Preparing the Forecast
      7. Getting the Timing Right
      8. Sources of Useful Information
    6. CHAPTER 28 Managing the Treasury
      1. An Open and Honest Relationship with Your Banks Will Pay Off
      2. Do Not Get into Deals You Do Not Understand
      3. You Can Never Guess the Future, So Be Half Right and Half Wrong
      4. Foreign Exchange Trading Can Be a Zero-Sum Game
      5. Obtaining Credit Lines When You Do Not Need Them
      6. Staggering the Maturity of Loans
      7. Sources of Useful Information
  10. APPENDIX A Checklist of Areas to Focus on in the Next Six Months
  11. APPENDIX B Month-End Reporting Checklist
  12. APPENDIX C Month-End Bottlenecks and Techniques to Get around Them
  13. APPENDIX D Speeding Up the Annual Audit Process Checklist
  14. APPENDIX E Checklist of Strategic Focus Areas
  15. APPENDIX F How a Quarterly Rolling Forecast Can Be Laid Out in a Planning Tool
  16. APPENDIX G Implementing a Quarterly Rolling Forecast Checklist
  17. APPENDIX H Performing a Quarterly Rolling Forecast Checklist
  18. APPENDIX I Streamlining an Annual Planning Process Checklist
  19. APPENDIX J Useful Letters and Memos
  20. APPENDIX K A Satisfaction Survey for an Accounting Function
    1. Finance Team User Satisfaction Questionnaire
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Winning CFOs: Implementing and Applying Better Practices, with Website
  • Author(s): David Parmenter
  • Release date: April 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470767504