My two primary objectives of creating this finance,accounting and management accounting blog are:

1. To share and dedicate this accounting blog to all aspiring accountants in the areas of financial and management accounting aspects and
2. As part of my continuing professional education to keep abreast of financial accounting updates. whether in terms of news, issues / challenges.

With the aforesaid objectives in mind, this financial accounting blog has been segregated into the following areas:

• Credit management/credit control
  

Generally, the credit manager reports to the Controller/CFO, hence forming an intermingled role with the finance team. You might think that the credit department is a completely different area, but I believe that it is an important piece of the overall finance picture.

In the dual aspect of financial accounting, we have the debit side of entry which is essentially the accounts receivables. In addition, don’t forget that after all, credit management is really a part of the order to cash cycle.
Without the proper KPA and KPI and the understanding of the best practices in credit management, we might be missing one important area of creating or at least maintaining the wealth of the shareholders. Read on for ROI on receivables, bad debts impact, etc.

• Roles of Finance with KPA and KPI
  

The accounting roles have evolved / changed quite drastically. Accounting personnel need to be re-aligned in terms of their mindset to the importance of business partnering instead of harping on the routine and low value transaction processing role.
In this accounting blog there are articles written on areas such as targeted performance management, key results areas and indicators of financial staff.

• Internal controls/ audits/corporate governance
  

Establishing strong internal controls and checks forms an integral part of financial accounting role. Without it, there is always a risk that fraud and untoward happenings can occur right under the nose of the controller/CFO.

I recently created a dedicated blog called ieAuditBlog.com to handle the articles on internal control/checks, corporate governance,ethnics, internal control questionaires, internal audit programmes and others.

• Accounting fraud or scandals
  

Complementing internal controls/audit section, we look at ways, accounting fraud can occur. By understanding how, we then can take corrective or preventive measures to counter-act them.
As fraud are interlink to internal control/checks, I have now dedicated a blog called ieauditblog to specialise on this topic. In this specialised ieauditblog, articles on how fraud occur and many examples to illustrate the different type of fraud.

• Financial accounting standards,
  

In financial accountancy, whether it is GAAP, FRS, IFRS, IAS, it’s important to understand them as they laid the conceptual framework of the financial accounting concepts, convention, policies and principles.

• Best Financial Accounting Practices (CCC,BSC,SSC),
  

To keep abreast of financial accounting development, financial accountants, controllers or even CFO needs to be constantly updated on best financial accounting practices. World class or first class finance team will always walk the talk and consistently practiced the best financial accounting practices. As a result, there are many articles written on cash conversion cycle, balanced scorecard, shared service centre, outsourcing, economic value added to share with the readers.

• Financial Operations
  

In this section, we can see some suggestions to smoothen the close of your accounts department whether in a company or a group of companies. “Fast Close” should be the key in the mouth of all accounting personnel. To do that processes that involves simplicity, uniformity, consistency, automation and other must be in place

• Statement of Policy
  

To complement financial operations and other sections of this financial accounting blog, articles have been written to ensure critical accounting processes are looked into.

• Financial Strategy
  

In this section, we can read about alternatives to be used to add value to the shareholders. This can be accounting or non accounting but the crucial point is that its add value to the company once these strategies are formulated and executed

• Ratio Analysis
  

For any accounting personnel, we are always confronted with the needs to assess the performance of the business whether it is the one we are working with or other outside companies. Hence, the importance of ratio analysis cannot be under estimated. In financial accountancy studies, ratio analysis forms a very critical area which all financial accountants must be well equipped with. This section helps in the later section on analyzing annual reports of companies.

• Capex Management
  

As capital expenditure is one of the major cash outflow whether from the appraisal stage or to is proper utilization, the accountants need to analyse and give the necessary feedback to top management to make the relevant decisions.

• Mergers & Acquisitions

As part of the business partnering role, it is important that financial accountants need to have at least some basic knowledge of mergers and acquisition. It is a well known fact that some organization needs to grow inorganically hence the needs of good advise from the financial accountants.

• Risk Management

This accounting blog also touches on risk management and corporate governance as this form an essential bridge to better investor relations

• Asia Pacific countries: Update

Incidentally, the writer is presently overseeing some Asia Pacific countries, therefore he has also included some financial accounting articles on Asia Pacific countries so as to share notes with those others who might have just started and or need some extra notes on certain countries.

• Standard Common Agreements Relating to finance:

To facilitate some of the readers who might want to have standard and ready made agreement ( with some revision ), I have included some of those for your easy availability:

• Taxation like transfer pricing

Taxation can be a heavy outflow, if financial accountants do not value them. Every expenses should be looked at to see its deductibility. Tax incentives, transfer pricing mechanism needs to be understand and review for savings.

• Foreign Exchange Management
  

Due to the vagaries of the global environment, one critical area to look into is the understanding and management of foreign exchange. It is important that financial accountants appreciate the importance of the impact of foreign exchange.

• Treasury
  

Many varied topics are discussed in this accounting blog so as to widen the knowledge not necessary purely accounting in nature. Anyway, good accountant should understand treasury as it has substantial impact to the bottom-line.

• Analyzing Annual Reports

Whether we as security analysts,investors, lending officers, accountants, financial or non-financial managers, students, speculators or even employees, it is imperative to understand what the annual reports really means.We really need to gloss behind the figures and analyze what the numbers actualy tell us.

Examples like:-

• Can the reported profits corroborated by the cash coming in?
• Are the margins adequate?
• Are the borrowings sustainable?
• Is future growth likely or just wishful thinking
• What might be your reasonable prediction?
• Are the annual reports trying to conceal something?

In this section on analyzing annual reports, included are topics on:

a. Basic understanding of the financial statements:

• its components
• major accounting principles or convention underlying the preparation of the financial statements
• qualitative characteristics of the financial statements
• who are the usres and their purposes of reading it
• limitations of the financial statements

b. What are the principal tools in analyzing financia statements which includes the do and don’t when using ratio,etc

c. What are the principal tools in analyzing financial statements which includes the do and don’t when using ratios,etc

d. Quick snapshot of the classification of financial ratios and its purpose

e. Detailed explanation on financial ratios analysis for both companies, banks/financial institutions

f. Content of a typical annual report nd what to look out for

g. A summary of fraud & creative accounting on articles written by the same author in another blog www:ieauditblog.com

h. Useful articles re: spotting bonus issues, undervaluation of company,etc

It is also linked to the website of such authorities like Securities Commision and Bursa Saham as these links provide further insights/updates into the announcement of companies results and release of their annual reports.

To avoid the boredom of an “Accountants Blog”, the Humor/Jokes section hopes to enliven the reading and last but not least

In the Inspirational/Motivations and Morals section, I hope after reading the articles, this might help to inspire the readers to greater heights.

Happy reading……….

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