The first section of the book covers those tasks that should be accomplished prior to the start of a business or as ongoing analysis after it has been founded. It accomplishes this objective in three chapters.
Management Accounting Best Practices provides the answers to all of these ques- tions(andover100more)that showboththeaspiringandseasonedaccountanthowto set up and manage an accounting department. Furthermore, when other members of the management team come calling with questions, the answers now lie on the ac- countant’s bookshelf. The information in this book is culled from eight of the autho…
When I wrote Essentials of Payroll, I realized that the limitations of Wiley’s shorter “Essentials” softcover series did not provide enough room for the wide range of topics required to present a really thorough treatment of the payroll topic. Even though the Essentials of Payroll manuscript became the longest Essentials book ever issued, I still wanted to jam in more information. This bo…
The second edition of Just-in-Time Accounting demonstrates for the controller or chief financial officer how to streamline an accounting system so that transac- tions can be processed with minimal errors and staff time, resulting in high lev- els of efficiency that result in more time for other activities. Part One of the book uses a multistep approach to improving accounting sys- tems. The fir…
This book is designed for the accountant who is setting up a payroll system,wants to improve the efficiency of an existing system,or who needs answers to the inevitable variety of compensation,tax,deduc- tion, and record-keeping issues associated with payroll. Each chapter includes an example of how a company has addressed a specific payroll issue,as well as Tips & Techniques that offer guidanc…
The accounting department is a cost center. It does not directly generate revenues, but rather provides a fixed set of services to the rest of the company, and is asked to do so at the lowest possible cost. Consequently, the accounting staff is called upon to process transactions, write reports, create new processes or investigate old ones—while doing so as an ever-shrinking proportion of to…
This book has been written for business owners and managers who want to refine the accounting and financial operations of their companies. It provides detailed information about how to run these operations, track cash flows, conduct analyses, analyze key financial information, create a corporate risk management strategy, and manage tax liabilities—in short, all of the key accounting and finan…
A best practice is really any improvement over existing systems, though some consultants prefer to confine the definition to those few high-end and very advanced improvements that have been successfully installed by a few world- class companies. This book uses the broader definition of any improvement over existing systems, since the vast majority of companies are in no position, either in t…
The classical view of inventory data collection is that of employees filling out forms of various kinds throughout the warehouse and production areas, which are then forwarded to a central data entry location, where hordes of clerks keypunch the data into a central computer database. Although this was a reasonably accurate view of the situation in the past, the types of systems available for co…
A chief executive officer (CEO) spends months deciding on a corporate strategy. The plan probably includes a mix of changes in products, customers, and mar- kets, as well as demands for increased efficiencies or information in a number of existing areas. The CEO then hands off the plan to a group of managers who are quite capable of implementing many of the changes, but who scratch their heads …
This book contains hundreds of very specific controls over the basic processes of a business—order entry, shipping, billing, purchasing, and the like. These controls are presented in layers, beginning with those needed for a very basic paper-based system and progressing through computerized systems and the use of selected best practice enhancements to the computerized systems. Thus, users can…
The intention of this book is to give the accountant the answers to the largest possible number of accounting issues that are likely to arise. Thus, given the wide-ranging scope of this work, the reader should know about its overall structure in order to locate infor- mation more easily. The Accounting Reference Desktop is divided into eight parts, each of which deals with a different aspect o…
When I wrote Essentials of Payroll, I realized that the limitations of Wiley’s shorter “Essentials” softcover series did not provide enough room for the wide range of topics required to present a really thorough treatment of the payroll topic. Even though the Essentials of Payroll manuscript became the longest Es- sentials book ever issued, I still wanted to jam in more information. This …
Lack of adequate documentation is one of the largest pitfalls facing any accounting system. One of four excuses is usually given: (1) nobody reads it, (2) the hands-on approach in which each person teaches another is a better method, (3) written policies and procedures are too confining, and (4) nobody has the time to write documentation. In a constantly changing accounting world, none of these…
The accounting department is a cost center. It does not directly generate revenues, but rather provides a fixed set of services to the rest of a company, and is asked to do so at the lowest possible cost. Consequently, the accounting staff is called upon to process transactions, write reports, create new processes or investigate old ones—while doing so as an ever-shrinking proportion of total…
The accounting department is a cost center. It does not directly generate revenues, but rather provides a fixed set of services to the rest of a company, and is asked to do so at the lowest possible cost. Consequently, the accounting staff is called upon to process transactions, write reports, create new processes or investigate old ones—while doing so as an ever-shrinking proportion of t…
The accountant can find answers to almost any inventory-related question in this book. Within the general area of inventory accounting systems, it addresses data entry for inventory transactions, tracking inventory through different types of manufacturing environments, key control points and related fraud problems, several dozen inventory-related measurements, several inventory report formats, …
This book is designed for the accountant who is setting up a payroll system, wants to improve the efficiency of an existing system, or who needs answers to the inevitable variety of compensation, tax, deduction, and record-keeping issues associated with payroll. Each chapter includes an example of how a company has addressed a specific payroll issue, as well as Tips & Techniques that offer guid…
This book has been written for business owners and managers who want to refine the accounting and financial operations of their companies. It provides detailed information about how to run these operations, track cash flows, conduct analyses, analyze key financial information, create a corporate risk management strategy, and manage tax liabilities—in short, all of the key accounting and …
The accounting department is a cost center. It does not directly generate revenues, but rather provides a fixed set of services to the rest of a company, and is asked to do so at the lowest possible cost. Consequently, the accounting staff is called upon to process transactions, write reports, create new processes or investigate old ones—while doing so as an ever-shrinking proportion of t…
Lack of adequate documentation is one of the largest pitfalls facing any accounting system. One of four excuses is usually given: (1) nobody reads it, (2) the hands-on approach in which each person teaches another is a better method, (3) written policies and procedures are too confining, and (4) nobody has the time to write documentation. In a constantly changing accounting world, none of t…