Strategic Finance articles from February 2004

Strategic Finance archives from February 2004

How to create an activity management program that lasts.(Tips From The Field)(Financial management)
February 1, 2004... Since its arrival on the management accounting scene in the 1980s, activity-based costing (ABC) has received a great deal of attention. Organizations of all types and sizes have used ABC for answers to a variety of questions. ABC has spawned...

Project teams that get results.(Careers)(Leadership skills)
February 1, 2004... Every project team is formed for the same purpose: to work collaboratively to address and offer solutions to a particular issue or problem. While this goal may not seem too challenging on the surface, many groups fail to achieve it. Lack of...

What is that?(End Note)(mapping the Internet)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... There are times when the sarcastic question "Would you like me to draw you a picture?" deserves an affirmative response--especially when the discussion becomes technical and complicated. The engineers who build computers work from visuals...

How does your board rate? now you can use a balanced scorecard to measure and improve corporate board performance.(Annual Conference Topic)(Human resource management)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2004... Though in recent years more attention has focused on improving corporate performance measurement by using strategic management systems such as the balanced scorecard, little has changed at the top of major companies. Neither corporate boards...

They love me, they love me not: getting employee feedback, and paying attention to their concerns, is key to high morale and productivity in your organization.(Career Skills)
February 1, 2004... Does it sound like these phrases describe the typical financial manager? After you stop laughing, you just might want to read the rest of this article because, of course, the image of many financial managers is quite different. While we have a...

Letting go to get ahead.(Best Practices)(Human resource management)
February 1, 2004... SARAH WAS IN A QUANDARY--THOUGH OVER-loaded with work in her new position, she was hesitant to delegate her workload to her staff. She was still too new in the job to be confident that they would get it done to the standards that had got her...

New CMA exam.(Perspectives: message from the Chair)(Certified Management Accountant)
February 1, 2004... IMA will have a new and enhanced CMA exam starting in July! One of the functions of the ICMA Board of Regents is to ensure that our CMAs have the skills that will keep them on the cutting edge of business practices. As the business environment...

Considering an asset-based loan? your lender can be a source of both funds and advice.(Small Business)(asset backed securities)
February 1, 2004... Credit markets are loosening again. But traditional sources of debt remain elusive for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). These companies wanting to borrow $5 million to $20 million might consider asset-based financing. ...

Strategic Finance quiz: 3 CPE credits.(Continuing Professional Education, online education)
February 1, 2004... How to Participate 1. Complete the quiz order form below. 2. Circle your answer for each quiz question on the next page. All questions asked in this quiz comply with NASBA. 3. Sign the statement that attests that you have read the...

Bailey named deputy chief accountant.(News)(for Securities & Exchange Commission)(and survey mutual fund scandal)
February 1, 2004... ANDREW D. BAILEY, JR., 61, WAS NAMED DEPUTY CHIEF ACCOUNTANT FOR the Securities & Exchange Commission last month. He will share responsibilities for the day-to-day operations of the Office of the Chief Accountant with Scott A. Traub, current...

FASB revises SFAS NO. 132.(streetwise)(Financial Accounting Standards Board reissues Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 132, "Employers' )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Financial Accounting Standards Board has revised and reissued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 132, "Employers' Disclosures about Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits." This was done to improve financial statement...

GASB issues new statement.(streetwise)(Governmental Accounting Standards Board issues Statement No. 42, "Accounting and Financial Reporting for Impairment of Capital Assets and for Insurance Recoveries.")(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued Statement No. 42, "Accounting and Financial Reporting for Impairment of Capital Assets and for Insurance Recoveries." It requires governments to report the effects of capital asset...

Should IMA ethical principles apply to nonfinance duties?(Ethics)(Institute of Management Accountants)
February 1, 2004... THREE YEARS AGO, AMY KIMBELL ASSUMED THE POSITION OF ASSISTANT controller of XYZ Corp. after spending eight years performing assurance services for an international CPA firm. XYZ is now in an expansion mode after recently winning a government...

Internal controls auditing standard elicits heated comment.(Government)(pension plans )(and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board proposes auditing standards)
February 1, 2004... JUDGING BY THE HEAT OF THE verbal volleys, the next big corporate accounting battleground is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) proposed rule on auditing standards for assessing the sufficiency of a company's internal...

Following a vision to success.(Peter Cleveland's 50 Steps for Business Success, book)(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... * BOOKSHELVES ARE CROWDED WITH HOW--TO books full of hints and tricks for performing whatever activity is covered, though they often fail to guide the reader through the complexities of the subject, leaving out many helpful techniques. Peter...

International trade & title: security & tax concerns--part 1.(Taxes)
February 1, 2004... INTERNATIONAL TRADE BRINGS WITH IT SUBTLE complexities that now can have major consequences in areas not usually considered problematic for exporters and importers. One of those complexities is the concept of ownership or title and the...

Find it, fix it, and add some functions.(softwares and hardwares for Personal Digital Assistant, Quickoffice, AscToHTM, STOPzilla)
February 1, 2004... Quickoffice from Cutting Edge Software, Inc. is an award-winning suite for Palm PDAs that lets you create and edit, sync, and view Excel and Word documents on your PDA. It has four components: the Desktop, Quicksheet, Quickword, and Quickchart....

Securing the hardware.(Tech Forum)
February 1, 2004... A STOLEN LAPTOP might turn out to be no more than an expensive annoyance, or it might create a credible threat to national security. A lot depends on what's on it. Sometimes even the loss of computer parts, say, hard-drives from a research...

Contentious road to reporting off-balance-sheet entities.(Trends in Financial Management, Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation No.46)
February 1, 2004... TWO YEARS AFTER ENRON'S FRAUDulent special-purpose entities that hid debt and inflated cash were revealed, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has sought to close loopholes with a major rewriting of accounting standards that...

Protect yourself.(demand and supply contracts, risks management)
February 1, 2004... ARE YOU PREPARED if one of your major suppliers or customers is forced to scale back operations or go out of business? How would you handle such a situation? Resultant problems could include interruptions in the supply of proprietary components...