Strategic Finance articles from October 2004

Strategic Finance archives from October 2004

RCA at Clopay: here's innovation in management accounting with Resource Consumption Accounting.(Clopay Plastic Products Co.)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2004... An emerging cost method, Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA) produces more accurate results compared to traditional cost methods and provides more detailed information. But is dealing with more details worth it? Is the view worth the climb?...

Recognizing potential stars by promoting from within.(Careers)
October 1, 2004... With budgets to oversee, financial statements to prepare, and a host of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issues to consider, there's often little time in busy workweek to think about which accountants on your team may be ready for promotion. But if...

Improving logistics: the key is to have static-free communications among executives, financial professionals, and operations.(Cost Management)
October 1, 2004... Executives like the concept but don't understand the mechanics. Financial groups want to see results but don't know enough to understand the metrics. Operations people often dread it and subvert the process. No matter how you look at the...

How dashboards can change your culture: companies become performance-accountable organizations.(Performance Management)
October 1, 2004... The right technology can tell you how your business is performing at any moment. That technology produces dashboards, which can ultimately change the culture of your business by transforming it into a performance-accountable company. A company...

A bad moon rising.(End Note)
October 1, 2004... A recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) shows a dramatic decline in the number of American adults who read books, particularly literature. The group interviewed more than 17,000 Americans in all gender, income, educational...

Does superior governance still lead to better financial performance?(Ethics)
October 1, 2004... ALTHOUGH THE MESSAGE HAS BEEN OVERLOOKED by some, the reforms triggered by the ethical scandals of Enron, WorldCom, Andersen, and others have strongly underscored the need for improved attention to the importance of an organization's...

Clarity.(Best Practices)(Column)
October 1, 2004... LAST MONTH IN THIS COLUMN, WE MET JOANNE, a call center manager promoted to regional VP. As many of us do, Joanne celebrated her mastery of multitasking. She assumed that her ability to keep her mental activity high throughout the entire...

Caution: fraud overhead: overhead accounts are a breeding ground for fraud. What to do?(Ethics)
October 1, 2004... A closely held manufacturing company with 100 employees and more than $30 million in revenues that we'll call "Wapello Manufacturing, Inc.," was having unusually high monthly overhead variances. The CEO hired an outside consulting accountant to...

Bring back the generalist: it's time to seek more balance within our skill sets so we don't become overspecialized and less valuable to our employers.(Careers)
October 1, 2004... IS IT JUST ME, or has anyone else noticed the explosion of experts and specialty designations? Each one has its own language, its own mysterious terminology, and its unique way of viewing the world. We are an evolving society composed of...

Improving CMA and CFM recognition.(Perspectives: message from the chair)(certified management accountants, Certified In Financial Management)
October 1, 2004... The most frequent recommendation I get from members is: "Promote the CMA and CFM to employers. Promote the CMA and CFM in colleges." Good advice, tough job! Even if IMA subordinated every other activity and service and took every dollar it...

Strategic Finance Self-Study Quiz.
October 1, 2004... ANNOUNCEMENT: The Strategic Finance Self-Study Quiz is a program in which financial professionals can earn CPE credits for passing a test based on what they have learned about various topics from reading certain magazine articles. Two...

The ever-changing landscape of corporate governance ethics and integrity are the keys to stability.(Governance)
October 1, 2004... Conventional wisdom dictates that change is the only constant. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the arena of corporate governance. A casual glance back over the past several decades reveals that the one thing everyone--from CEOs to...

International Standards Convergence still faces challenges.(News)
October 1, 2004... HOW CLOSE IS INTERNATIONAL CONVERGENCE OF FINANCIAL REPORTING AND auditing standards? There are still several challenges to overcome, but there are some success stories, too, according to the findings of a new study commissioned by the board of...

IFAC publishes award-winning articles.(streetwise)(International Federation of Accountants)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Three articles published by IMA are included in IFAC's just-released Articles of Merit: 2004. They are "Roles and Practices in Management Accounting Today," by Ashish Garg, Debashis Ghosh, James Hudick, and Chuen Nowacki (the results of the E&Y...

Response to August "perspectives".(Readers' Input)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2004... I have worked as a cost accountant in various manufacturing companies for the past 20 years, and I have been frustrated with the gap in the accounting profession between the management accountants and the auditors. I have seen far too many...

Do you want to participate in a scorecard study?(Research)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... IMA MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ONLINE SURVEY regarding the worldwide use and adoption of scorecards. Sponsored by IMA and several other professional organizations, the study will provide information on which organizations are...

IMA launches "New Costing" e-mail exchange.(Research)(Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... As part of its current research effort, IMA is starting a new e-mail exchange called "New Costing" that will focus on Grenzplankostenrechnung (GPK), a well-established form of German cost accounting, and Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA)....

Business takes a "wait & see" on changes to Sarbanes-Oxley.(Government)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
October 1, 2004... DON'T LOOK FOR THE BUSINESS community to initiate a legislative assault on the internal controls provision of Sarbanes-Oxley until at least mid-2005, if then. That judgment is based on the less-than-heavy-caliber fire directed at the Section...

Increase your emotional intelligence.(Books)(The Emotionally Intelligent Financial Advisor)(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... * YOUR TECHNICAL SKILLS (E.G., PRODUCT and business knowledge, understanding of global economics, analysis of specific market sectors) are important to your success, but according to Hendrie Weisinger, Ph.D., a psychologist and leading...

Anti-FASB bill likely to die in Senate.(Government)(Financial Accounting Standards Board, Stock Option Accounting Reform Act of 2003)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... It's difficult to believe the Senate will approve the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act of 2003 (S. 1890), which the House passed by a vote of 312 to 111 on July 20. Sen. Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and...

Clemens A. Erdahl, 1919-2004.(Institute of Management Accountants)(Obituary)
October 1, 2004... CLEMENS A. ERDAHL, SR., 85, DIED IN CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, after a long illness. He was 1978-79 president of the National Association of Accountants, which subsequently changed its name to the Institute of Management Accountants. Born in...

Advance pricing agreements: a chance for certainty amidst chaos, Part 2.(Taxes)
October 1, 2004... IN LAST MONTH'S COLUMN, WE ADDRESSED the issues involved in transfer pricing for a multinational company. This month we will address the question, "How do Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) help?" The APA helps by reducing the uncertainty a...

Reading, writing, and photography tricks.(tools of the trade)(Copernic Summarizer, Jump Drive )
October 1, 2004... With the flood of print information online and e-mail, news, white papers, business plans--there's hardly enough time to get through what you have to read, much less what you would like to read each day. The Copernic Summarizer offers a...

Multimedia slideshows.(tools of the trade)(PhotoStory on CD & DVD from Magix Entertainment Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The morphing of the computer and the television continues abetted by the DVD player, which offers a bridge for digital content--photos, music, and sound. For anyone looking for an easy way to create multimedia content for marketing, product...

A pebble in a mudslide.(Tech Forum)(Copernic Technologies Inc.'s Copernic Desktop Search program)
October 1, 2004... * THE LAST TIME YOU WENT rooting around the file directories on your computer, looking for a lost file, did you get the feeling that there's a subterranean level somewhere in there into which work disappears--a dark place with small piles of...

PCAOB approves the Big Four's auditing.(Trends: in financial management)(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)
October 1, 2004... * IN ITS FIRST SET OF ANNUAL inspection reports on accounting firms' auditing of public companies, the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) found that each of the Big Four firms missed "significant audit and accounting...

XBRL grows fast in Europe.(XBRL)(Extensible Business Reporting Language)
October 1, 2004... EUROPEANS HAVE A HISTORY OF DOING TWO things that will continue to be favorable for the adoption of XBRL. First, they are genuinely interested in technological innovations, often seizing on them immediately and readily accepting them. Second,...