Accounting Best Practices

NEWLY REVISED AND UPDATED!

With price-cutting measures and tough competition tactics a fact of business life, companies are often faced with a difficult dilemma-how to cut accounting department operating costs without cutting back on services to the company. Many financial and accounting managers do not realize that corporations can drastically cut expenses in all areas of their accounting department-without hiring an expensive outside consultant-by implementing the techniques known as "best practices."

Accounting Best Practices, Second Edition offers the latest and most important information on these advanced techniques and strategies to help you increase productivity, reduce costs, and efficiently monitor a company's existing systems. This new Second Edition has been fully updated to include fifty new best practices, expanded appendices, new real-world examples of best practices at work, and a new chapter on best practices in finance.

As he did in the first edition, accounting expert Steven Bragg covers a wide range of areas, including accounts payable, billings, collections, and cash processing. These best practices, when used in conjunction with one another, can radically improve whole functions and introduce safe changes for gradual integration within the accounting department of any company with a minimum of difficulty.

Through using best practices, it is possible to slash accounting costs and increase the speed of processing transactions, while shrinking the amount and frequency of errors. This revolutionary book will not only show you how to cut your business costs but will demonstrate how to optimize your company's effectiveness as well. Whether you've been searching for ways to cut costs in your accounting department, or just want to offer more services without the added expense, look no further-Accounting Best Practices, Second Edition is here.

A revised and updated Second Edition of the guide that lets you turn your adequate practices into Best Practices

Accounting Best Practices provides you with the most advanced techniques and strategies available today to help your business cut costs and improve accounting operations–regardless of your company’s size or holdings. Accounting expert Steven Bragg has updated the Second Edition to include fifty new best practices, expanded appendices, and a new chapter on finance. Featuring an easy-to-read format and covering a wide variety of accounting areas, this essential accounting reference will help enhance and optimize your financial bottom line. In addition, you’ll find:

• Flowcharts of some of the most complex best practices available
• Concise indices of best practices, classified by type of result and functional area within the accounting field
• Numerous expanded appendices cross-referencing the best practices to help you easily customize them for your business
• New best practices, updated chapters, and much more

Whether you are an accounting or financial manager, an internal or external auditor, or an accounting consultant, you’ll find Accounting Best Practices, Second Edition an indispensable resource–and perfect for all your fiscal needs.

STEVEN M. BRAGG, CPA, CMA, CIA, CDP, CSP, CPM, CPIM, has been the Chief Financial Officer or Controller of four companies, as well as a consulting manager at Ernst & Young. He received a master's degree in finance from Bentley College and an MBA from Babson College. He has also written Just-in-Time Accounting (Wiley), Advanced Accounting Systems, Outsourcing (Wiley), and Managing Explosive Corporate Growth (Wiley), and has coauthored Controllership and The Controller's Function (both from Wiley).

Preface.

Introduction.

How to Use Best Practices.

Accounts Payable Best Practices.

Billing Best Practices.

Budgeting Best Practices.

Cash Management Best Practices.

Collections Best Practices.

Commissions Best Practices.

Costing Best Practices.

Filing Best Practices.

Finance Best Practices.

Financial Statements Best Practices.

General Best Practices.

General Ledger Best Practices.

Inventory Best Practices.

Payroll Best Practices.

Appendix A: Suggested Readings.

Appendix B: Summary of Best Practices.

Index.