The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
SF Magazine: Strategic Life-Cycle Analysis: The Role of the CFO
November 16, 2020
“Any accounting-based control system, however useful at higher levels in the organization for ROI measurement, confronts a “crossover” problem at lower levels in the organization where process (not accounting) variables are the logical measurement tools to facilitate productivity gains. So, there is a need to have an in-house learning culture for the finance organization in order to make steady progress in dealing with company-specific performance measurement issues related to intangible assets.”
CFO Dive: Zero-based budgeting makes a comeback, but it’s different this time
November 14, 2020
“A ZBB-like review of expenses can lead to better analysis of the activities that support the customer,” Bryan Lapidus said. “This could be a huge value-add to the business by helping to assess profitability of products and services accurately, and be more meaningful than simply reading down the list of contracts in a general ledger.”
Robert Kugel on LinkedIn: Value-Based Planning Improves Corporate Performance
November 13, 2020
“Value-based planning, in my context, is an approach to corporate planning and budgeting that integrates operational planning and financial budgeting; a forward-looking exercise that incorporates “things” not just money. Things like headcount, kilowatt hours used, less-than-truckload shipments, invoices processed and so on. This is more effective because, for one, those responsible for a business unit think about their requirements and objectives mainly in terms of things they need to achieve and the things they use to achieve those objectives. Money is an abstraction of those things.”
CFO Magazine: Technical Accounting: The CFO’s Secret Weapon
November 12, 2020
“Sophisticated CFOs not only understand the value of technical accountants to accurately account for decisions made, they partner with them to provide proactive guidance for the decisions yet to be made. Here, accounting can drive desired financial outcomes, while navigating away from the unanticipated, but all too common, accounting accidents.”
