The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
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.”
Automation World: Practical Advice to Increase Manufacturing Profitability
November 11, 2020
“With small and mid-size manufacturers, there is a tremendous need for accountants to move beyond financial reporting and budgeting for control to help every area of the business understand and improve the monetary impact of operations on profitability—whether it is in manufacturing, warehousing, marketing/sales, or personnel. The function most often missing from the accounting repertoire is creating information for internal decision support. Why? First, because it is barely taught in accounting curricula; and second, because most accountants start out in auditing and auditors don’t care about internal decision support, only external financial reporting.”
SF Magazine: Tech Trends to Watch
November 10, 2020
“The rate of change in technology today is exponential. The future will only get faster. Faster, better, and cheaper technology solutions will always be there to distract you. Resist the temptation and the hype; this helps you avoid the trap of buying new technologies because “everyone else is doing it.” Not only can it be costly if you have to rip and replace systems, but it can expose your organization’s priceless data and systems to great risk.”
