Help and ideas for busy numbers people
I’ve written more generally about how to have a smooth year end accounts process. This is a more specific piece about how to build an audit-friendly year end accounts model.
I’ve included examples for download to illustrate the principles.
If all this sounds interesting but you don’t have the time, you could always ask me to build a model for you!
Continue reading “Preparing a year end accounts model”
I wrote a while back about whether you really needed a new finance system.
If you’re reviewing your accounting system I would always recommend you go through these checks first. Having done this and decided that you definitely do need something different, how do you go about choosing a new finance system?
Continue reading “Choosing a new finance system”
With over ten years experience in senior finance positions, I’ve recruited quite a few finance team members, and helped others do the same. I’ve learned what works for me when it comes to finance team recruitment.
Most of this is applicable to any candidate search process but I’ve added a few thoughts throughout about what might be different about recruiting finance team members.
Continue reading “Finance team recruitment”
Sometimes external circumstances force process improvement upon you.
Businesses across the world are changing rapidly to deal with the enormity of the changes that the plague has thrust upon us. Customer interactions and supply chains have transformed overnight.
Meanwhile, in the domestic sphere, I have achieved a reduction in a routine task from approx 3 hours a week to just half an hour. The task?
Shopping.
Continue reading “Process Improvement: the weekly shop”
What do you need to learn to be “good at Excel”? What Excel training should be mandatory for finance teams?
I really rate the ICAEW’s spreadsheet competency framework as a tool to use to diagnose where you and your team are at and where you should be. It breaks down users into four types – Basic, General, Creator and Developer – and allocates the skills that each level should have.
This is much more helpful to me than users saying that they are “intermediate” or “advanced” users. When I recruit for roles I often use the framework in the job description.
Continue reading “How to be a good Excel user”
Business planning can be full of jargon and buzzwords. I used to think that “roadmap” was one of these – an output used to disguise a lack of a more detailed plan.
I’m changing my view on this quite rapidly. I now think that, as with most business jargon, the roadmap has a place and is meaningful if done properly.
Continue reading “Business planning: Roadmaps through uncertainty”
Balance sheet reconciliations are a key component of regular accounting to ensure that your transactions are correct. They help you detect issues such as missing transactions or failure of controls or process. This article sets out what they are, what they’re for and how to do them.
Continue reading “Balance Sheet Reconciliations”
Managing mental health in the workplace is really important to me. I want to be happy, and I want my teams and people I work with to be happy too. I once worked for a mental health charity and picked up a few tools for thinking about and managing wellbeing and mental health.
This post explains the ACE approach – Achieve, Connect, Enjoy. In one sentence – we need to achieve a balance of these things in our daily lives.
Continue reading “Mental health in the workplace – the ACE approach”
If you’re managing a finance team, at some point you (or someone in the team) will need to prepare some kind of year end accounts, also known as statutory accounts. I’ve been doing this for many years now and in this post I will share my observations about what makes for a smooth year end process.
The short version of this; planning in advance will always reap dividends. As you will see, most of my advice concerns things you can and should be doing well in advance of year end.
Continue reading “A smooth year end accounts process”
Have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ever featured so much in our news bulletins? As a nation we are suddenly poring over death and testing rates and graphs as never before.
Our new-found love of stats highlights six lessons I’ve learned over the years from producing board reports and analysis.
Continue reading “Coronavirus and Key Performance Indicators”