Finance

Trusted Advisor and Compliance Enforcer for Performance Management

Finance evaluates the soundness of the issues and decisions your company faces every day. It is a balancing act. On one side, Finance must focus on checks and controls to comply with legal, tax, and accounting regulations and requirements. On the other side, it must be able to advise the business on future directions, performance, and opportunities.

Information feeds this process. The ability to consolidate results, report and analyze what’s happened, and shape what will happen is critical to the organization. As the custodian of shareholder value, Finance needs dynamic tools to balance compliance and performance, accounting and business structures, short term and long term, top-down vision, and bottom-up reality. These tools let Finance:

Close the books, consolidate results, and report performance.
Set performance targets, align resource plans, and forecast business results to meet or beat expectations.
Define, understand, and lead your company’s decision-making for better performance management.

To help with this last challenge, we suggest seven areas within Finance to focus on for your goals, plans, and measures:

Income statement
How did the business team score; where was performance strong or weak?
Drill-down variance
What causes changes in financial performance?
Operational plan variance
How do we best support, coordinate, and manage the delivery of meaningful plans?
Cash flow and working capital
How do we manage working capital, collect accounts receivables, and monitor cash use effectively?
Balance sheet
How do we balance and structure the financial funding options, resources, and risks of the business?
Capital expenditure and strategic investments
What are the investment priorities and why?
Treasury
How can we efficiently manage cash and liquidity requirements?