Strategic Finance articles from September 2006

Strategic Finance archives from September 2006

Linking management accounting with finance.(La Salle University)
September 1, 2006... A common goal of accounting programs is to adequately prepare students for careers as business professionals. Toward this end, both academic and professional bodies encourage undergraduate programs to provide students with a better...

Finding commonalities in difference.(accountants)
September 1, 2006... Success in any accounting and finance role requires the ability to work well with diverse groups of people throughout the company and the business community. Today's accountants are master collaborators; their work crosses departmental lines...

Bridging the digital divide.(End Note)
September 1, 2006... Closing the gap between the technological haves and have-nots has involved many, but few initiatives have been as dramatic as the $100 wireless laptop or the Freedom Toaster. First announced in January 2005, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC)...

Ethical scandals rock state governments.(Ethics)
September 1, 2006... There has been a lot of publicity about ethical scandals at the federal government level. Top White House advisor Karl Rove escaped indictment, but Reps. Tom DeLay (R.-Texas) and Randy Cunningham (R.-Calif.) lit ethical bonfires in Congress....

The CFO as predictor of corporate performance: long before a crisis hits, long before it shows in the financials or in the KPIs, the signs are there ...(Performance Management)
September 1, 2006... Long before a crisis hits, Long before it shows in the financials Or in the KPIs, The signs are there... Dan's eyes were gritty, and he already had the beginnings of a headache. He hadn't slept well, waking several times during the night...

Learning: too much of a good thing?(Best Practices)(Column)
September 1, 2006... The Suppleness Quotient--individual and organizational resiliency and flexibility in the face of change--is fostered by learning mode, as we discussed in last month's column. It's a subject worth exploring further because it's key to unleashing...

Use of COSO 1992 in management reporting on internal control: the COSO Framework provides an integrated framework that identifies components and objectives of internal control. But does it set forth detailed guidance as to the steps that management must follow in assessing the effectiveness of a company's internal controls over financial reporting?
September 1, 2006... For the first time in the history of corporate financial reporting and disclosure, per Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), company management and their external auditors are required to report on the state of internal controls...

The BPM convergence: companies need software tools that will integrate their strategic planning, budgeting, and performance metrics so they can know where they're headed at all times.(business performance management)
September 1, 2006... Three-letter acronyms have long been the hallmark of software marketing wars as providers looked to establish a beachhead by first defining a new critical business or technical arena, then proudly asserting their preeminence in that field. ...

Beating the budget: perfect standards highlight opportunities for continuous improvement.(Continuous Improvement)
September 1, 2006... By 2007, cars from China are expected to cost 30% less than comparable U.S. models! And it isn't just cars. All other manufactured products could be similarly impacted because of overseas competition. When thinking about this, most...

Being involved.(Institute of Management Accountants)
September 1, 2006... I'm sure you have heard the old saw that you only get out of something as much as you put into it. And, related: Anything worth doing is worth doing well. The question that comes to mind, then, is whether being actively involved in IMA[R] is...

IAESB publishes ethics education paper, proposes IT guidance for professional accountants.(International Accounting Education Standards Board's "Approaches to the Development and Maintenance of Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes in Accounting Education Programs")
September 1, 2006... The International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), an independent standards-setting body within the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), has published two documents you might want to read. The first is a new...

IFAC highlights internal control developments.(International Federation of Accountants's "Internal Controls-A Review of Current Developments")(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... A new IFAC publication issued by the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee, Internal Controls--A Review of Current Developments, describes much of the current thinking on internal control from various countries around the world....

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... I enjoyed reading Thomas Corbett's "Three Questions Accounting" (April 2006). I think both sides are right in his second sentence: "Some people have called it a new paradigm in management accounting, but others have said that it's simply a new...

Section 404 Saga continues.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
September 1, 2006... The Securities & Exchange Commission will issue guidance for corporate management on how to comply with the provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires companies to explain their internal controls and test them. The SEC...

Tools for SOX compliance.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
September 1, 2006... By now, every management accountant is aware of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), passed in reaction to corporate scandal and investor loss of the late 1990s. In The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Overview and Implementation Procedures, Michael F....

Employee empowerment works at small companies, too: given the power to manage their jobs, employees more often than not will introduce ideas and techniques that revolutionize their workplace, saving costs and increasing the bottom line.(HR Management)(Viewpoint essay)
September 1, 2006... "I was a forklift operator, which entailed loading and unloading trains and trucks and also loading the assembly line with supplies. The biggest joke in my department, material handling, was who could take the longest uninterrupted nap over the...

All those pictures.(Adobe and Ceiva )
September 1, 2006... The greatest thing about digital photography is that you can shoot hundreds of pictures each time you take out your camera. One of the worst things is that you soon have thousands of photos on memory cards, your computer, CDs, your phone, and...

Always losing stuff?(tools of the trade)
September 1, 2006... It's one thing to leave behind a bottle of water and quite another to forget your cell phone. Genis International Inc. has an inexpensive solution for those who need a little reminding. The Mini Reminder[TM] is a battery-operated alarm/reminder...

A killer app for digital pens.(Tech Forum)
September 1, 2006... * THE BRIDGE BETWEEN PAPER AND PC used to be either a scanner or a fax machine. Hard copy was fed into one of these machines, and it converted the printed information into a stream that could be sent or saved. Today, the bridge can be a...

Exposing enterprise data: XBRL GL, Web services, and Google, Part 2.(XBRL)(Column)
September 1, 2006... Last month in this column I discussed Web services-oriented architectures as the logical solution to critical new challenges in corporate data access and distribution. These challenges can't be met by a closed system such as an ERP application,...