Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting

"The budget and financial reporting processes are well known sources of frustration for most CFOs. Seeking a quick fix to the problem, the common solution is to pour more money into new and better software. This leaves the root cause, the inefficient and dysfunctional underlying processes and routines, unaddressed. As this book shows, substantial and sustainable improvements are only achieved through an holistic approach to process improvement, technology, strategy, and people."
—Tom Henry Knudsen, Executive Vice President, Telenor Eiendom Fornebu AS, Proven methods for improving efficiency

Corporations face a high turnover among financial managers, rapid changes in technology, lack of time and process redesign skills, and ongoing ambiguity about primary objectives behind the budgeting and financial reporting processes. Amid this frenzy, it is the fundamental efficiency of these processes that dramatically impact overall business performance. Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting provides financial managers with a compelling blueprint for increasing efficiency and eliminating waste of time and energy. Four operational experts lay out an 80/20 plan-improving 80% of processes in 20% of the time it would take to improve 100%-and explain a Business Process Improvement (BPI) plan that incorporates:

• The emerging trends affecting financial managers today
• Step-by-step process implementation
• Interviews with industry leaders, consultants, and managers who have successfully instituted BPI plans
• Appraisals of the available software that can help or hinder the process

There is no substitute for improvedefficiency. CFOs, controllers, budget managers, and financial analysts will significantly benefit from adding this authoritative guide to their professional libraries.

As a company’s financial executives inevitably come and go, there is little time or attention paid to improving the essential budgeting and financial reporting processes that in fact dramatically affect a business’s performance. New software has little effect when incorporated into inefficient routines and when new management styles fail to address fundamental procedural problems. Applying the famed 80/20 rule–improving 80% of processes in 20% of the time that it would take to improve 100%–four operational experts go straight to the heart of the matter, laying out a compelling blueprint for improving a variety of essential procedures in Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting.

This much-needed guide combinesmethodology and systems from general business process improvement (BPI), as well as from business re-engineering theories, and applies them specifically to budgeting and reporting processes. Part One, "Introduction to Business Process Improvement," introduces readers to financial process analysis and the trends affecting managers today, while Part Two, "Business Process Improvement Project," takes readers step-by-step through actual project implementation. Part Three, "Designing the Ultimate Chart of Accounts," shows readers how to create a chart of accounts that easily adapts to changes and additions, remains clean and structured, and incorporates a code system that better captures relevant management information. Part Four, "Interviews," presents thoughtful discussions with professionals who have implemented BPI projects, BPI consultants, and technology gurus on common pitfalls and solutions. Part Five, "Software Tools and Resources," provides an in-depth look at the products available that can aid the BPI process and which specific tools may be appropriate for individual cases. Other topics covered include:

• How to sell change to your organization
• Budgeting and reporting diagnostics
• How to identify key budget process building blocks
• Software buyer’s guide

A companion Web site includes appendix material, such as sample nondisclosure contracts, consulting contracts, and business process improvement templates. Process efficiency is intimately related to business performance. Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting provides financial management with invaluable insights to help identify and improve processes.

NILS H. RASMUSSEN is a software solutions manager with Solver, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in budgeting and reporting. He has participated in more than two hundred software selection and improvement projects.

CHRISTOPHER J. EICHORN is a consulting manager with Solver, Inc. He is responsible for developing and implementing budgeting and financial reporting software for midsize and large corporations. He has formerly worked with Deloitte & Touche as a CPA.

COREY S. BARAK is a senior consultant at Solver, Inc. specializing in requirements analysis and implementations, enterprise-wide budgeting, and reporting software as well as budgets, financial reporting, workflow, business processes, and training.

TOBY PRINCE is a systems analyst at Dacor, Inc., where he performs financial analysis and implementation and support of financial reporting applications and analysis. He has supervised or participated in software implementations at over thirty companies.