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Performance Management Mobility Can Light Up Organizations
The world has gone crazy over mobile—and finance is no exception. Mobile solutions have the capability to transform the way we operate, manage, and monitor the workplace. For finance in particular, “the immediacy of information that can be received, processed, analyzed, and then pushed back out—…
Achieve Finance Function Excellence
Every six months, the APQC financial management (FM) team hosts a webinar that provides an overview of the Finance and Accounting resources available through the Knowledge Base. The purpose of hosting this “Now in the Knowledge Base” community call is to review recent research, present upcoming…
Fiscal Cliff Deal Affects Fixed Asset Management
On January 1, 2013, final passage of the “fiscal cliff bill,” otherwise known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, averted scheduled income tax increases and spending reduction requirements, much to the relief of many. However, this new Act also retroactively reinstates for 2012 many fixed…
Top 10 Predictions for Finance Transformation in 2013
In APQC’s 2012 December financial management community call, Mary Driscoll, senior research fellow at APQC, and Wayne Daigle, managing director at Business Performance Collaborative, discuss what they think the top priorities are for finance functions in 2013. Based on APQC’s recent Best…
Stop Overpaying for Fixed Assets
In the wake of the recession, the topic of fixed asset management has become increasingly important. When an organization has a good handle on its fixed assets, meaning it is able to do a good job of tracking, managing, and accounting for depreciation, it not only avoids errors on its financial…
Financial Reporting Increasingly Complex
As 2012 begins to come to a close and finance departments are consumed with the year-end close-to-disclose process, it seems fitting to reflect back on how this “last mile” of finance has transformed over the past few years. The close-to-disclose process involves all activities needed to close an…
Finance Best Practices Report Released
Earlier this month, APQC released the latest financial management (FM) Best Practices Report Building a Best-in-Class Finance Function. This research describes 14 best practices common among best-practice organizations. Topics include: the strategic purpose of the…
Big Data Is Here
Big Data refers to a collection of data sets so large and complex that capturing, storing, searching, sharing, analyzing, and understanding them is beyond the capabilities of commonly used databases and tools. Organizations are being inundated with a plethora of data that has the potential to…
The Close-to-Disclose Process: Repairs Required
A common theme among senior finance executives and subject matter experts regarding the close-to-disclose process has emerged. Many large organizations, particularly those that have significantly grown globally over the past decade, could stand to improve in one or all of the following four areas…
Shared Services Centers Still More Efficient
Recently, several in-depth articles that review shared services center (SSC) performance with headquarter (HQ) and business unit (BU) performance were updated with new benchmarking data. According to APQC’s Open Standard Benchmarking in accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and general…