Getting beyond Counting
How to provide management with decision-making information. CPAs don't like to be called bean counters. Yet, like it or not, the term comes uncomfortably close to describing the tasks management accountants have performed historically counting, comparing, recording and, finally, periodically reporting financial information. Yet how much of this information is really current and useful to management? Can those who run the business use these data to make valid business decisions? In most cases, the answer to both questions is no. This article suggests ways accountants in business and industry can revitalize themselves by providing the right information, in the right way, at the right time, to the right people, To be sure, some of the data CPAs collect and report, while not useful to management, are required by investors, banks and the Internal Revenue Service. This article will not focus on those data but, rather, on the strategic information managers need to run their businesses better and more profitably. A NEW PERSPECTIVE One way to improve the role of management accountants is to revise how they think about their work. Many are so focused on being precise that they lose sight of their real objectives: to provide timely, relevant, concise and materially accurate information to management. Let's take a look at these four objectives and see how CPAs deal with them. Accuracy, Unfortunately, of the four objectives it seems CPAs tend to emphasize the fourth--accuracy. Yet no matter how diligently they attempt to be accurate--for example, accruing payables fully and tracking inventory-- management usually perceives the end product as a best guess. In truth, management often sees a best guess as more helpful in decision making than a precise number. For example, an organization often waits until the 20th of the month to complete its financial statements for the previous month (thus destroying any opportunity to be timely) in order to identify every- outstanding invoice when that same organization uses a percentage estimate for calculating cost of goods sold. Keep in mind that a variance of a fraction of a percentage point on cost of goods sold can produce a far greater error in a profit projection than some missed accruals. But even if all the numbers were recorded accurately, many accountants would commonly employ a smoothing technique that sabotages accuracy. This technique, nearly universally used by controllers, sets aside profits that are over budget in one month and reflects them in later months to create a more consistent earnings pattern. The process is jokingly called CRUSH, an acronym for controller's reserve for unexpected and surprise happenings. Timeliness. Some organizations proudly report that they prepare their financial statements in as little as three days after the end of the month. Since that information is already more than 30 days old, many of the decisions that should have been based on it have long since been made. In addition, electronic transaction flow is evolving in a way that affects timeliness. Historically, CPAs have had the luxury to capture, identify, organize, analyze and correct transactions in error and then disclose their findings. A growing number of businesses submit summary data on a daily or weekly basis to analysts, investors and banks--and that percentage is growing. How will this trend change the definition of timeliness? How much job security will a CPA have when a chief executive officer can gain a greater insight into the business more expeditiously from outside sources, such as the company banker or the media, than from internal advisers? Management accountants compound the problem by trying to make one set of reports satisfy many needs even though financial statements are not formatted or reported in a way that expedites day-to-day decision making. However, the data that feed these statements--hours worked, rework, scrap, cash collected, invoices billed, inventory received and work-order status--are exactly what most management teams need, yet those underlying details are generally missing from the reports managers receive from the accounting department. …