In the earlier articles, the simple concepts of simplify, uniformity, consistency, standardizing and automating have been advocated and practical illustrations  given to demonstrate the benefits of practicing them.

In today’s article I would like to look at a simple automation deploying the shared service folder.

Assuming we have the following scenario:

a holding company with many overseas subsidiaries

every […]

Assuming a situation when you just joined the Finance department, your management felt that something is wrong with its existing structure and would like you to review its existing organization chart.

Append below is an hypothetical trading based finance organization chart (assuming IT and administration is under the Head of Finance):

· Controllership
· Treasurer
· Financial Planning
· Order […]

As part of cost management, you might be queried by management on the escalation of audit fees.
Generally, audit fee increased due to the direct result of more audit hours being expended by the external auditors.

To reduce or at least maintain the audit fee we should proactively:

· Provide more assistance to the auditors, including preparation of […]

The reason why I’m writing this article is that I have seen many financial executives that do not truly appreciate using the imprest system to keep the company’s petty cash.

Before I continue, let’s look at what really is the Imprest system:
This method of keeping petty cash or even cash is that a fixed sum or […]

For many financial executives, inventory will take a major chunk of your company’s current asset. It’s therefore important that you should set up a clear policy and procedure for the conduct of the physical stock-count.
Broadly speaking, the policy and procedure of physical stock-count should consider the following areas:
a. Before Physical Stock-count,
b. During the Physical count,
c. […]