July 2010
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Cleaning Up
By Cristiano Busco, Mark. L. Frigo, Emilia L. Leone, and Angelo Riccaboni
Businesses are refocusing on sustainability as pressures from regulatory bodies increase and the financial community pays closer attention to socially responsible investments (SRIs) and investment rating systems such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Management control systems (MCS) and management accounting systems play important roles in operationalizing sustainability. The authors take a close look at General Electric and its Ecomagination Initiative and Procter & Gamble’s OGSM (Objectives-Goals-Strategies-Measures) system as it affects products, operations, and staff.
Really Using an Excel-Based Budget You’ve Created
By Teresa Stephenson, CMA, and Jason Porter
This is the last in a series of six articles addressing how to create an Excel-based Master Budget that you’ll really use. In this installment, the authors present three final steps: how to lock the budget so managers can see all the figures and equations but can’t change them, how to show others ways to use the budget, and, finally, how you can discover functions beyond what’s already in the numbers. A discussion of ethical issues closes the six-part series.
XBRL for GRC
By John Chironna and Ernst Zwikker
Because XBRL affects the formatting of data, auditors have questioned its impact on the level of audit risk and whether it could affect detection risk. Actually, because of the standardization of XBRL tags by industry and other general categories, the audit profession will benefit from the widely supported technological development that could improve the accuracy and efficiency of audit procedures.
2010 Carl Menconi Case Writing Competition Lorman Lumber Co.: What “Wood” You Do?
By Marty Stuebs, CMA, CFM, CPA, CIA
This winning entry in the 2010 Carl Menconi Case Writing Competition is presented along with advice for using it in managerial and cost accounting courses as well as in an accounting ethics course. The basic problem involves the economic, legal, and moral issues surrounding a lumber company and whether it should continue to release creosote and PCP chemicals into a neighboring river.
PERSPECTIVES
Creating a Professional Development Team
TOP LINE
Our Strategic Plan: Creating Value through Values
BEST PRACTICES
Take the Pledge: No Texting While Leading
TAXES
Proposed Tax Credit for Municipal Bond Interest
ETHICS
IFRS Would Escalate Ethical Challlenges for Accountants
FINANCIAL REPORTING
Integrating the Income Statement
CAREERS
The Discipline of Finishing
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
How CFOs Can Drive Innovation
IMA LIFE
Seize Your CMA
SF BULLETIN
• An XBRL Update
• Books: George Washington, CEO
• Differences of Note in Senate and House Financial Reform Bills
• Business Group Unhappy with New PCAOB Proposed Auditing Standard
• IMA News Special Section: 91st Annual Conference & Exposition
EXCEL
Formatting All Worksheets at Once
ACCESS
Upgrading to Access 2010
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Apple iPhone 4, T-Mobile Garminfone, Kodak Playsport, Samsung SC-MX20
TECH FORUM
Caffeinated Google
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