Just-in-Time Accounting: How to Decrease Costs and Increase Efficiency - Hardcover

Bragg, Steven M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470403721 ISBN 13: 9780470403723

Publisher: Wiley, 2009

Synopsis

Praise for Just-in-Time Accounting

How to Decrease Costs and Increase Efficiency

Third Edition

"Most books on business accounting focus only on the accounting process?and never address the operational issues that impact it. Steve Bragg has delivered the rest of the story—the valuable insight and detailed information accountants need to help?them not only properly account for business activities, but to streamline and improve the overall process. Whether the practitioner is just starting up or is working with a well-established business, the information in this book offers real benefits to both."
—Joanie C. Mann, Executive Vice President, InsynQ e-Accounting; Business Development Consultant, The Sleeter Group

"Mr. Bragg delivers another essential reference for every CFO's bookshelf. Just-in-Time Accounting is full of specific guidance you can use right now to save money, improve processes, and make you more effective."
—Luella Schmidt, President, Fine Point Consulting LLC

"Just-in-Time Accounting is the 'go-to' accounting department transaction and streamlining reference. Process improvement begins here."
—Geoffrey Garland, Controller, Staco Systems

"Just-in-Time Accounting is an incredible toolkit for streamlining and simplifying the accounting process. Practical but intelligent approaches to the whole accounting cycle make this book so effective and unique that it is a must-read for accounting clerk and CFO alike, regardless of the company and accounting department size or the industry you are in.
—Shan Staka, MBA, Controller, PGP International

"One of the critical goals for the CFO is to develop a Lean Finance Factory that is efficient, on time, reliable, and accurate. Steve Bragg's Just-in-Time Accounting does exactly that and more. It not only teaches how to set up a system that delivers, but also teaches how to optimize it and, as such, is a great resource for both new and established CFOs. In today's world of information and data overload, this book is invaluable in teaching how to focus on the urgent and important."
—Arif Iqball, Executive Director and Board Member, Avon Products Co. Ltd., Japan

"The underlying theme of the book is working in a consistent and efficient manner. Topics discussed and suggestions presented often have a 'lean' feel to them. These methodologies and practices lead to higher efficiency, the elimination of waste, and an increase in quality. The examples on Value-Added Analysis are prime examples of 'lean' thinking. In a time when global competition requires faster response times and lower prices, having an accounting system in place to accurately and effectively support business operations is extremely important. Operational efficiencies lead to lower operating costs and higher operating margins, and Just-in-Time Accounting helps identify many potential candidates for increasing efficiency."
—Chip Nickolett, MBA, PMP, Director, Consulting Services—Americas, Ingres Corporation;former president, Comprehensive Solutions (U.S. and UK)

About this title

From the Publisher

This extremely practical book explains how to streamline an accounting system so that transactions can be processed with minimal errors and staff time, resulting in high-speed transactions that allow the accounting department more time for business analysis, management reporting and other activities that contribute to a company's profits. Describes how to generate reports quicker, identify and eliminate unnecessary information in the reports, ensure that the correct data is used the first time and much more. Includes checklists whenever processes must be followed in a specific sequence.

From the Back Cover

The solutions you need just-in-time!

Are you serious about finding ways to improve your accounting department? In this remarkable new hands-on guide, you'll learn how to

• Speed up the accounting process
• Eliminate redundancy and waste
• Increase the accuracy of your information
• Reduce costs to the corporation
• Focus on activities that increase profits
• . . . and much more

Global competition, quality- and price-conscious customers, and profit-conscious stockholders are forcing business organizations to seek greater efficiency in every facet of every operation. Accounting departments are no exception: CFOs, controllers, and department managers must streamline routine procedures, exploit new technologies, and free their staffs to spend more time on profit-generating activities. But how?

Just-in-Time Accounting does for financial officers what JIT has already done for inventory manager — sit shows you how to eliminate inefficiencies, redundancies, and waste and implement high-speed, low-cost, quality systems that can be adapted to any company's particular needs. Here is your opportunity to improve accounting performance and quality, generate reports more quickly, identify and eliminate unnecessary information, and do it all with less labor.

Steven M. Bragg begins by showing you how to identify cluttered, poorly documented, or archaic systems that require excessive document handling and wait times. He then describes methods and techniques for expediting processes at various steps and demonstrates how to

• Apply new technologies to reduce labor costs for transaction processing
• Automate control points and eliminate those that are redundant
• Remove steps from the transaction that can be handled in advance
• Conduct cost/benefit analyses and assess the impact of process changes
• Compare the performance of new and old systems
• Reduce errors while speeding up routine procedures
• Generate the reports required to control the new systems
• Troubleshoot and correct implemen-tation problems

This multistep approach can be applied to all of your most common transactions, including cash, sales and accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, cost accounting, and payroll. You will also learn to streamline other accounting areas, such as budgeting, electronic data interchange, and closing accounting ledgers and issuing period-end reports. Finally, the discussion turns to the impact of these procedural changes on employees and on the organization as a whole. You will learn to anticipate certain problems and solve them before they occur and make sure that you keep your best employees through the period of reorganization.

If you are a hands-on manager who's serious about improving your accounting department, this is the book for you.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0470403721
• ISBN 13: 9780470403723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 368