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A Financial Control System that Focuses on Improvement and Success
Of course, we are not saying that businesses should ignore prudent controls over their cash drawer. The point is that focusing on small components while not knowing how much cash is tied up in receivables does not represent a control system that recognizes priorities and risk. Focusing solely on the rote and mundane does little to improve your overall financial performance. Financial control systems
shouldn’t just be about compliance, they should be about continually improving key aspects of the financial operation such as:
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Regularly reviewing and improving the overall capital structure.
Using a capital plan to minimize the cost of capital while strengthening the Debt/Equity position. Managing working capital so excessive inventories and receivables do not sap financial resources. Ensuring proper calculations and scenarios are explored while making debt/investment or leasing decisions.
Maximizing returns while minimizing costs for cash and merchant accounts.
A control system of well-defined processes is not only about control or compliance, it is also about consistently striving to do a little better. Control systems that are designed only to achieve compliance are doing the bare minimum, and they represent a missed opportunity to gain improvement and a competitive edge. And that should be enough reason for any size and type of company to think about using a continual improving process approach to creating a financial internal control system. Sox is nice; but continual improvement is better for everyone.
Financial control of projects
Purpose:
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Established and effective cost control systems and procedures, understood and adopted by all members of the project team, entail less effort than ‘crisis management’ and will release management effort to other areas of the project. Fitness for purpose checklist:
The prime objective of the government’s procurement policy is to achieve best VFM. ? To exercise financial/cost control, project sponsors need to review and act on the best and most appropriate cost information. This means that they should receive regular, consistent and accurate cost reports that are both comprehensive in detail and presented in a manner that permits easy understanding of both status and trends. Reports need to be tailored to suit the individual needs of each project and should always be presented to give a comparison of the present position with the control estimate.
? Reports to project sponsors normally give only the status of the project overall. But sponsors will on occasion need to monitor costs against a specific cost centre in more detail. The typical contents of a cost report are given in Annex A.
? Tables of figures are essential, but for rapid understanding and analysis of trends some graphs are helpful.
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Suggested content:
The following aspects should be addressed in a financial report (rather than repeating detailed information available in earlier reports, later reports can summarise the key points and cross refer to the relevant earlier reports):
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development of budget
original authorised budget
new budget authorisations (giving justification for changes) current authorised budget expenditure to date
(Each section on budgets and expenditure should address the original base estimates and risk allowances for each element)
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commitments
agreed variations (giving justification for variations)
potential/expected claims or disputes awaiting resolution (if the project is going well, this area should be small) commitments required to complete orders yet to be placed variations pending
future changes anticipated.
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Each of the following cost elements should be covered:
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in-house costs and expenses (including all central support services, administration, overheads etc)
consultancy fees and expenses (design, feasibility, client advice, legal, construction management, site supervision etc) land costs
way leaves and compensation
demolition and diversion of existing facilities new construction or refurbishment costs operating costs maintenance costs disposal costs insurance costs
all other costs relating to the project not listed above. All prices need to be discounted to a common base. Example of a cost summary report
Financial Control
Financial Control is a major contributory factor to business survival. For many managers, exercising effective financial control is, at best, seen as a mystery and, at worst, not even considered. Yet monitoring a small number of important figures can ensure that you retain complete and effective financial control.
Objectives
This section is intended to help you put in place that financial control: to ensure that you are estimating costs accurately and then keeping them under control; to ensure that you are charging and/or paying the right price; and to ensure that you can collect money owed to you and can pay your bills as they fall due. Its objectives are:
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to demonstrate how effective financial control assists in the management of the organisation in which you work;
to show that control can be achieved through simple documentation; and, to suggest financial indicators for inclusion in your strategic objectives.
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1 Achieving Control
Good financial results will not arise by happy accident! They will arise by realistic planning and tight control over expenses. Remember that profit is the comparatively small difference between two large numbers: sales and costs. A relatively small change in either costs or sales, therefore, has a disproportionate effect on profit.
You must watch your costs/prices and margins very carefully at all times since small changes in any of these areas can lead to substantial changes in net profit. Control can then be exercised by comparing actual performance with budget. To do this, you will need to produce:
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a financial plan, agreed as being achievable by all concerned; and, some means of monitoring performance against the plan.
Since there will always be differences between the actual and the plan, you need some form of control. Beyond a certain organisational size, control can only be exercised by delegation; the human aspect of control is, therefore, important.
Why keep records?
Accurate record keeping is required if you are to be effective in monitoring performance against budget. Other reasons why you will need to keep accurate records are:
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there is a legal obligation to do so; any shareholders may want accounts; the VAT inspectors will need them;
HM Revenue and Customs will require them; potential suppliers may require them;
you will need to report accurate figures to your stakeholders; you will need to identify areas of possible concern; and,
you will need to investigate and explain variances (under or overspends against your budget).
Accounting records will need to be detailed enough for you to be able to say at any one time what the financial position is; ie, how much cash is in the business or the budget? How much do you owe? How much is owed to you? How big is the overdraft (or overspend)? How long could bills be paid for if cash stopped flowing in? What is the profit margin?
Financial control will be poor if there are no clear objectives and a lack of knowledge of the basic information necessary to run a business or department
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successfully. A lack of appreciation of the cash needs for a given rate of activity and a tendency to assume that poor results stem from economic conditions or even bad luck will only exacerbate the situation.
Accounting centres
One way of delegating financial responsibility is to set up a system of accounting centres. Where businesses make a range of products, putting each into a different accounting centre makes it easier to determine which of the products are profitable. Some costs (eg factory rent) are more difficult to allocate, so may be recorded in a holding account and then split between products. Indirect costs could be allocated by the proportion of sales represented by each product (by volume or cost), by proportion of machine time used, or by some other appropriate method. This split will give an indication of the profitability of each product, but you should beware of ceasing sales of a particular product because of low profit or loss - the costs currently charged to that accounting centre would have to be redistributed among those remaining, so necessitating increased sales of those products.
There are four possible levels of financial responsibility with appropriate targets and control requirements:
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revenue centre - staff only have responsibility for income (eg a sales department in a store). Staff have sales targets against which income is measured and compared;
cost centre - staff have responsibility for keeping costs within set targets, but do not have to worry about where the money comes from (eg an NHS Trust department);
profit centre - staff have more responsibility and control and will agree targets of profitability and absolute levels of profit (eg a division within a larger company). Control is achieved through
monitoring performance as measured by the profit and loss account (P&L); they are unable, however, to invest in new equipment; and,
investment centre - the staff have authority over investments and the use of assets (eg a subsidiary company) although the holding company would typically need to approve major investment. Targets would focus on return on capital and control would be through monitoring performance measured by the complete accounts.
2 Management Information Systems
If your financial control is to be effective you need to regularly analyse your actual performance figures and compare them against the financial plan and, perhaps, performance of the business historically.
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