Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Impact of Globalization on Management Accounting

With a movement towards globalization approaching, the change brought on by it can change how companies in the U.S. view their accountants. First, there are two types of accountants, financial accountants and managerial accountants. A definition of financial accounting, taken from Merriam-Webster, is the systematic analysis of information about the economic affairs of an organization for the use of persons outside the organization. Merriam-Webster goes on to explain management accounting as "the creation of reports for planning and decision-making"... "It's aim is to provide managers reliable information on the costs of operations and on standards with which those costs can be compared, to assist them in budgeting". The key difference to take away from these two definitions is that financial accounting provides information to people outside of the organization, and management accounting is aimed at helping managers within an organization make decisions.

The U.S. becoming more globalized will increase competition for firms within the country, therefore making management accountants more valuable to firms. The survey suggests that U.S. accountants "emphasize the use of standards to control manufacturing costs after the fact", while contrasting Japanese accountants use practices that look towards the future. This difference here lies within the goals set by the companies. While firms in the U.S. are looking at what they can do now to lower costs, Japanese firms are looking into the future to lower costs for products that might not exist yet. Management accountants look toward the future, they set up budgets, forecast, and steer companies in the right progressive direction. It is more common for businesses in the U.S. to demonstrate action for personal gain than it is in Japan, and in an age of globalization and increased competition companies cannot survive with that type of mindset and framework.

The current state of management accounting in the U.S. rewards managers and puts the company as a whole in jeopardy, and with a rise in competition approaching is it in firms' best interests to employ management accountants that make decisions for the best interest of the company.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Re-Devising Finance And Accounting Services To Re-Energise your Business

Having spent more than two decades in the finance and accounting (F&A) domain, I have seen changes from very close quarters within this business process. F&A is the backbone of any business, and re-engineering processes can make a world of difference to the bottom-line of any organization. We at WNS, partner with our clients to provide outcome-based solutions that can help them achieve a sustainable advantage over a period of time.

As businesses strive to accomplish more from less, there is intense pressure to lower operational and transactional costs. In doing so, businesses can gain from the constrained level of resources, such as global talent, capital and infrastructure, that they are currently operating in.

In most companies, there exists an inherent division between the various departments. The chief financial officer (CFO) is, more often than not, viewed as someone who is intent on slashing the marketing budget; while the CFO is of the opinion that the marketing team fails to effectively explain the basis and return-on-investment on communication spends. The result is the creation of silos between the two departments.

From the point of view of the marketing team, this division can often lead to lack of financial commitments to marketing and sales campaigns. On the other hand, finance executives like to point out that without their stewardship, marketing can let costs get out of hand. The fact is that the finance team can be an effective partner to achieve any business goal. Hence, re-engineering finance and accounting services is one of the key drivers of business effectiveness today. 

Our deep functional expertise, industry intimacy, focus on operational excellence and global delivery model gain help clients gain competitive advantage and remain ahead in the race. CFOs outsource accounting services to WNS so that their internal teams can focus on core business issues, while the WNS team delivers to goals of standardizing finance and accounting processes, transforming the finance operations and lowering costs.
 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Make a Productive Growth by Utilizing Accounting Services for your Business


Most of the ingenious inventions introduced to the succeeding centuries and widely used by the modern world today were coined by Europeans. Europe was at the center of development in all areas including finance so it became a model for later generations to emulate. Every detail needs to be recorded but since the operation of commercial establishments doubled after money was introduced, owners experienced one setback: keeping up with the growing number. Merchants found the answer through double entry bookkeeping wherein two accounts are in use for every transaction which became the method of choice for added accuracy and precision.


Accounting Firms of Today
 
The 21st century saw the birth of firms that does more services for their clients with the use of modern technology through accounting software applications. The relationship between the increase in number of companies is just directly proportional to the increase in number of accounting agencies responding to their need. Most companies are reaching many countries now aside from their base country due to rapid offshore relations. The relevance of accounting services became more apparent due to the increasing demand from different industries of different natures.
One motivation for companies needing it is that they want to save on operating expenditures by hiring outsourced help from leading accounting consultants. Philippines has its share of outstanding accounting firms such as SGV and Laya Mananghaya and Company which even sponsor international exposure for its employees. Today, there are more than a thousand firm of this kind in the country or perhaps even larger and Davao is no exception. As a result, accounting services in Davao City became a booming business as well.


Online Software Services

If you are more into the personal usage, online software applications are also available for download; some must be purchased while others are for free. If you are a local company situated within Region 11’s capital and is wishing to do the accounting yourself, there are different accounting software services for Davao based companies, available for download. Some leading names in software development for accounting are Peachtree and MYOB.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Forensic Accounting - defining this area of legal expertise

The combined use of accounting skills, auditing proficiency and investigative capability is what can be termed as forensic accounting. The aim is to come up with an accounting analysis that would be presented at a court of law as litigation support evidence in a dispute involving assets.

It's a highly specialized legal field and you need to have a competent forensic accounting professional for the job. What core areas are within this domain? Two major aspects are under forensic accounting - litigation support and investigative accounting. These are interrelated and one complements the other.

Here are some of the categories of cases that the experts of the domain may need to handle.
Criminal Investigations - In these cases the accountant works on the behalf of the law enforcement authorities to come up with evidence to prove the crime related to an economic aspect.

Compensation Claims - These forensic accountants help determine the economic losses of the victims of an accident or a workplace mishap or a medical malpractice and thus come up with the right compensation that needs to be provided.

Fraud Investigations - In employee fraud investigation the task includes finding proof to support its existence, analyzing the type and determining the degree as well as identifying the individual(s) associated with it.

Business Loss Investigations - This includes analyzing contract disputes, product liability claims, losses incurred from patent infringements, construction claims, and so on. The forensic accountant is capable of finding the details of these economic losses.
Marital Property Dispute Investigations - The distribution of marital property post divorce is another issue that requires help from a forensic accountant. It is their job to track all assets and evaluate them.

The chief tasks involved in forensic accounting litigation support are -
* To investigate and analyze the economic data available
* To develop computerized applications that would help analyze the date
* To present the financial evidence in a clear and concise manner
* To assist in legal proceedings (by preparing the evidence or by testifying as an witness with expertise in the field)

It is also the responsibility of the accountant to prepare reports, analysis, and presentations that could be submitted at court to support a claim or to refute one.
In such circumstance, choosing a competent professional is an absolute necessity. The two things to consider are the qualification and experience of the accountant. It is always wise to opt for someone who has handled similar cases in the past.

It is essential that the individual(s) handling forensic accounting has access to all the data regarding the case. Only then would they be able to come up with the correct analysis of the economic situation and help reach a resolution of the dispute.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

How Accounting Service Outsourcing Can Prove Beneficial for Your Business?

Proper and systematic management of financial records has become crucial for any company as it speaks out the financial stability of that organization. One of the best and popular trends is to get your work accomplished by some outside professionals. The term outside professional implies professionals who work outside your organization. The main objective of this article is to make you aware of the benefits that you can reap by outsourcing accounting services in India.
 
Bookkeeping and Accounting services have become an integral part of every modern business. Bookkeeping service is an important business activity that is comprised of keeping a track of all the business transactions of a company. The term business transactions is a vast term and it covers various aspects such as assets, income, expenditure, liabilities and much more. The records of all the business transactions are kept up to date in books, journals and ledgers. The main area of concern is the time and the expertise involved in maintaining all theses activities. Most of the companies often have an in-house facility for the proper maintenance of their financial accounts or they have the option to outsource these services to other accounting services provider in India and abroad. The main advantages of accounting service outsourcing are as follows:

Improvement in Your Business Specialties: Outsourcing accounting services to an accounting service provider provides you the required time to capitalize on the core areas of your business. In this time you can binge and think upon certain innovative ideas and strategies to boost up your revenue upfront. So build up your core strength and work upon your weaknesses to take your business to new heights.

Addition of an Expert Touch Along With Quality: Meeting deadlines is very important in today's competitive environment. With accounting service outsourcing you can hire the certified accounting professionals who can render greater consistency and accuracy to your business records.

Liberty from Hiring and Administration: When it comes to manage accounting services of your own you need to find an appropriate person and moreover some sort of training too needs to be imparted. In such a scenario you need to posses some patience besides investing a considerable time and money involved in it but that's not the case with accounting service outsourcing.

Easy Resource Management: Accounting service outsourcing facilitates easy resource management in terms of the expenditure involved in maintaining all the needs of a regular accounting staff such as office space, rental expenditure, system requirements and much more.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Keep your Business on top with Five Competitive Strategies

Business strategy is a game plan that your company uses in its business, gain market share, and perform. This action plan sets out how the company is to satisfy customers and to compete effectively and to implement the objectives of the development strategy should mean that there is management commitment to follow a set of actions that advance the financial market business and increase its profitability.
Michael Porter generate three generic strategies for compete the business:

Cost leadership: Selling product in reasonable price.
Differentiation: Make different product.
Focus: Company tries to find a market in different field in which no competition.

According to him, the value of the separation of leadership from one end and the other end, and if the company has a competitive differentiation and cost leadership, but they are not stuck in the middle of this area, and it will be very difficult for the company to grow, however, some researchers say that there are companies that are successful, even in the midst of this group is the case, if the company can not obtain progress in the competition, they need to focus on one strategy, namely cost leadership or competition or comparison with him that the other companies.

So, how to get a low-cost strategy. This is a great question to answer for any company to make progress than their opponents, there are five basic strategies in this area.
A low-cost provider strategy:
Mix at low cost and high section of the purchaser. for example: Target and Costco.
Broad-Differentiation Strategy:
seeks to differentiate the product offering of opponents and society in a way that will appeal to a wide range of buyers, for example: Apple and Toyota
A best-cost provider strategy:
Includes giving customers more value for their money is good, the attributes of excellent products at a lower cost than its competitors, the goal is to have the lowest (best) costs and prices compared to competitors that offer products with comparable attributes.
Focused Low-Cost Strategy:
Focusing on a narrow segment and buyer rivals competing in cost than its competitors, and thus able to serve niche members at a lower price.
Focused Differentiation Strategy:
Focusing on a narrow segment competitors and buyer competition by offering a place of optional features that suit their tastes and needs better than competing products.

The five generic competitive approaches to stake a market position. The decision on the strategy to use is conceivable the most important strategic commitment to your company to this obligation to conduct strategic actions that your company agrees to, and it sets the tone for everything your looking for a competitive advantage.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Move your business to the next level with MYOB Consultant

MYOB Consultants provides professional business services to deliver optimum performance for your business. These services helps you to deliver quality services and solutiuons to your clients. MYOB Consultant provide you expertly advise to ensure a maximum value for your business. These MYOB Consultant helps you to grow your business in different way. 

Optimize productivity
 MYOB software can be configured to meet all your business requirement. MYOB consultants will help you to ensure that your system saves your time and maximizes productivity.

Be aware you with technology 
MYOB Consultant and services that target products and grow the profitability of the business and add value to your business. We will work with you to implement work flows more efficient and get the most out of their software. 

Improve integration
 MYOB data in the system can be used with other programs such as Microsoft Office and Accounting LEAP and another with the construction of the various products. To use the information to be displayed to you, leave them confused and excitement of a great page here.