How familiar are you with the accounting rules and concepts utilized by accounting software systems?  If you were more confident with the information generated by your accounting program, would it help you to use it more effectively to run your company?  More importantly, do you understand how your Accounting Policies and Procedures integrate with the accounting rules and concepts to produce the internal controls you need?

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Question of the month: How can Accounting Policies and Procedures help your organization?

The Accounting Department is an area where policies and procedures are usually a requirement, because they are considered part of the internal controls noted in Sarbanes-Oxley. The real question is: What approach are you taking to developing accounting policies and procedures?

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Everywhere in your organization people are carrying out business processes to make things happen. It doesn’t matter if the processes are well defined, poorly documented or if the staff is trained. If things are getting done – it is because people are executing business processes.

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What is the difference between a well-conceived and well-written accounting policy and a poorly conceived and poorly written accounting policy?  Of course, the needs of every organization are different, and the most important element of an accounting policy is that it helps the organization. Last week we mentioned the importance of gathering accounting policies into the accounting manual.  Now let’s review some important points to consider when crafting policies.

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The question “What should be in your accounting manual?” should first be answered by another question: “Why do you need an accounting manual?” Whether you are looking to purchase a pre-written accounting manual or create your own accounting manual from scratch, these are two important questions to answer.

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It has been more than five years since most provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 took effect (in mid- 2003). Many publicly traded companies, however, still seem to struggle with developing a confident understanding of compliance.

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We are experiencing an avalanche in our financial system. Major financial institutions are failing to the shock of investors and depositors, and there is such a high level of uncertainty in the financial system that availability of credit has been shut off even to the most highly rated borrowers.

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Question of the Month: How do policies and procedures fulfill requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial regulations?

This month’s highlight was the release of the Finance Policies, Procedures & Forms manual. Our newest product is the result of a nearly year-long effort of intensive research, writing, editing, and reviewing. The Finance Manual was finally ready for production and shipping last week. We are very pleased with this new product, and the response from our customers, to date, has been tremendous.

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The “finish line” — the $1,000,000 “prize”, cash savings for your business – is within sight.  In our articles on Inventory and Accounts Receivable, we found $250,000 worth of savings in each functional area.  We found another $250K could be saved in Sales and Marketing.  Accounts Payable is

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