For today’s corporations, the ground is shifting. Issues such as globalisation, business efficiency, increased specialisation and product innovation are percolating upwards in priority. And corporations are now focusing more intently than ever on profitability, working capital, cash flow, technology, risk management and investments.
To manage these priorities successfully, organisations are moving away from a longstanding business [...]
A very interesting article below on how leveraging outsourcing providers has been one of the factors common to the select group of companies who have been able to achieve sustained profitable growth over the last 10 years. These companies are also linked in leveraging outsourcing providers to gain capabilities they don’t have in-house or to improve [...]
A new report from global consulting and research firm Everest indicates that the Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) market in 2010 is expected to resume a growth trajectory more similar to pre-recessionary levels, moving towards 20 percent and reach nearly $3.7 million in annual contract volume (ACV). According to the Finance [...]
A small business owner typically can’t afford to hire enough people to have proper separation of duties to gain the internal controls needed to prevent accounting fraud. However, every business owner can achieve accounting fraud prevention by taking these simple steps:
1. Open the bank statement yourself
Every small business owner should receive the [...]
Like many finance executives, Terry Lillis, CFO of Principal Financial Group, is tired. The constant stream of guidance from regulators and accounting standard-setters — plus the expected inflow of more to come over the next few years — has created “huge accounting fatigue” among his finance staff, he told a roomful of finance chiefs at [...]
Markup vs Margin Differences
Is there a difference? Absolutely. More and more in today’s environment, these two terms are being used interchangeably to mean gross margin, but that misunderstanding may be the menace of the bottom line. Markup and profit are not the same! Also, the accounting for margin and mark-up are different! A clear understanding [...]
CFOs see several positive economic signs, but employment isn’t one of them.
At last, some good news. For the first time in more than a year, finance chiefs expect double-digit growth in earnings and significant growth in capital spending over the next 12 months, according to this quarter’s Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Finance [...]
Numerous regulatory proposals aim to reverse the ebb in small-business lending. But will any of them actually work?
Vincent Ryan, CFO.com | US
March 5, 2010
How can access to capital be improved for small businesses so they can create jobs and accelerate the economic recovery? There is no silver bullet, but President Obama [...]
One of the critical keys to managing your company’s receivables is to measure and control your Day Sales Outstanding, the average number of days your company takes to collect sales revenue. Treat a high DSO number as a red flag — it means you’re taking too long to collect revenue and extending credit to customers [...]
Predicting future cash flow plays a critical role in maintaining the company’s health, and yet many small businesses have no satisfactory forecasting mechanism in place. To some extent, this is understandable — large corporations have more access to elaborate computer-generated data processes, while smaller companies must rely on intricate, well-coordinated interplay between department heads and [...]
