Features

The CFO’s Best Friend
Richard A. Gerardo and Andrew Spanyi
Reducing the cost of all goods and services a company purchases by just a tiny percentage can have a significant positive impact on its bottom line. Establishing a centralized strategic purchasing team, led by a chief purchasing officer with executive-level authority and responsibility, can turn procurement into a value-adding market activity. By employing the same amount of diligence typically performed on the sell side, the purchasing team can take focused, effective action to reduce waste and unnecessary cost throughout a company’s entire supply chain.

The SEC Goes International
Jack T. Ciesielski, CPA, CFA, and Thomas R. Weirich, CPA
The SEC’s road map for convergence of IFRS and U.S. GAAP calls for the elimination of IRFS-to-GAAP reconciliation in SEC filings by 2009 or sooner. As “sooner” becomes “now,” management accountants and others are caught in the middle between two accounting worlds. Companies and investors will have to become more experienced with understanding IFRS in a short time, and enforcement itself may be more difficult. Management accountants will need to develop new best practices based on IFRS rather than relying on the time-tested methods linked to U.S. GAAP.

Let’s Certify the Quality of a Manager’s Information
Gary Cokins, CPIM; K.J. Euske; George Millush; Peter Nostrom; and Alan Vercio, CPA
Companies are required to undergo audits to demonstrate the accuracy and compliance of their financial reporting, but no such certification exists for the internal managerial information these companies use to make business decisions. The authors propose an assessment that measures the quality of operational data and cost information and highlights potential deficiencies and internal inconsistencies. The result will be higher-quality information, enabling better, more informed decision making.

SOX, ERP, and BPM: A Trifecta that Can Make Your Business Run Better
Kenton B. Walker
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and business process management (BPM) tools are two well-established resources that companies can implement to improve business processes and efficiency as well as comply with SOX Section 404. ERP supports compliance in several ways, including helping to eliminate disparate, incompatible systems; improve the systems environment; and streamline business processes. BPM helps integrate members of the value chain and automate the process of evaluating and updating controls. Combining SOX compliance efforts with ERP and BPM can lead to significant organizational changes and improvements.

Columns

PERSPECTIVES
Tough times, tougher people.

TAXES
Tax planning with capital gains and losses.

ETHICS
Why has AIG had so many problems?

ADVOCACY
FRC and SBC update

FINANCIAL REPORTING
Financial statements unlike any you’ve seen (part 2).

EXCEL
AutoFilter secrets in Excel.

ACCESS
Introduction to Access database software.

Departments

STREETWISE
SOX optimization opportunities still exist
IMA life
Try the new Strategic Finance Digimag
Changes to SFAS No. 157 less likely
Books: Implementing lean successfully

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

TECH FORUM
The economic recovery will require a smarter planet.

END NOTE
America’s first CTO.