Most CEOs of companies who are making decisions should have a CFO who can advise him as to what is happening within each step of production, marketing and distribution. We had a relationship with a fortune 500 company who at one point had their entire accounting system on a spreadsheet. This was a publicly traded company. They had no idea what was happening at a micro-level within their organization. Costs change, markets fluctuate. Your accounting system must be able to capture these cost fluctuations and help you to identify inefficiencies within your organization and production facilities and communicate upward in a way that is meaningful and accurately guides the decision making process.
Many companies look at accounting as a “loss leader” – something that just costs them money, and investing in that system simply robs from the bottom line. Quite the contrary, a well designed and maintained accounting system provides accurate, timely and critical insight into every step taken within your company. It is quite in vogue for management level “dashboards” to be used to monitor corporate performance and upon which to make decisions. Are your dashboards focused on the right metrics within your organization, and are you capturing the right data at the right point in order to feed your informational dashboards? I’ve heard it again and again from CEOs and business owners: “I don’t understand how my costs are going up.” Today it’s something like: “All my dashboards are in the green, why are our costs out of balance and our profitability decreasing?”
Contact experienced business, accounting and tax professionals at Allen Barron by calling for a free initial consultation at 866-631-3470. We will work to analyze your present systems, and help you to put the processes and systems in place to allow you to minimize costs, maximize profitability and take your company to the next level.
