Latest
Electronic Unclaimed Property Reporting Part I–It’s Easier Than You Think
Blog on Escheatment • posted 04/05/12
States unclaimed property (escheatment) laws are being more aggressively enforced than ever. So why not switch to electronic reporting to make compliance easier? Continue…
Recent
How Controllers Can Update Skills for Today’s Finance Organization
Blog • posted 03/01/12
It's a changing world in the corporate finance organization. The need to bring strategic financial analysis and planning skill sets to the table is impacting financial executives from the CFO and controller on down. Controllers who want to keep their careers on track must move beyond the technical skills required to head the accounting and financial controls function. Continue…
Employee Retirement Plan Compliance Changes for 2012
Blog on Benefits Costs • posted 02/18/12
Significant changes are coming for administration of employer-sponsored retirement/savings plans in 2012. Here we alert controllers with fiduciary responsibilities for such plans to two new developments: 1) the April 1, 2012 deadline for 401k plan fee disclosures; and 2) IRS nondiscrimination rules for defined benefit plans that are closed to new participants. Continue…
Global Tax Compliance Alert for 2012
Blog on Tax and Regulatory Compliance • posted 02/18/12
With record-setting U.S. exports in 2011, more controllers than ever must keep abreast of global tax issues. Here we highlight two: the proposed Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA); and heightened SEC scrutiny of U.S. companies’ foreign tax exposure. Continue…
AP Best Practices: Matching and the Invoice Payment Process
Blog on Accounts Payable • posted 01/03/12
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Hosted TMS Enables Smaller Companies to Enhance Treasury Operations at a Lower Cost
Blog on Financial Leadership • posted 01/03/12
Treasury Management Systems are designed to improve efficiency by providing companies relief from the burden of manual operations, help them to reduce staff, provide value added services like pre-defined interfaces to banks, hotlines for processing issues, and improved cash flow forecasting. But few can afford the estimated $500,000 for an in-house TMS. With a hosted solution smaller companies can avoid all the technical headaches like training your own in-house IT specialists, or creating your own backup systems and disaster recovery sites. In terms of costs, there is little or no upfront investment in TMS hardware, operating systems and database software. And, SaaS gives you access to a variety of value-added services like pre-defined bank interfaces, back office processing, integrated dealing platforms, SWIFT connectivity and electronic bank account management (eBAM). There are now at least twenty-two TMS solutions on the market. New solutions, such as Kyriba, TGold and Reval, are available only as hosted solutions. Vendors of some of the more traditional in-house TMS, like SunGuard and Wall Street Systems, are also now selling hosted solutions. Continue…
T&E Best Practices: Corporate Travel Cards
Blog on T&E • posted 12/12/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Controlling 2012 Health Care Costs Complicated by Health Care Reform and Supreme Court
Blog on Benefits Costs • posted 12/12/11
This year’s 6.1 percent increase in employer's health care plan costs, while slightly less than 2010’s increase of 6.9 percent, is still nearly twice the rate of inflation. Moreover, planning for future costs is now complicated by the Supreme Court's decision to wait until next June to rule on the legality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). How the Court rules next year will greatly affect the health care cost issues facing employers. In the mean time, in planning for 2012, employers say they will continue to focus on cost shifting as a primary means to control costs. Some 47 percent of firms said they will either increase the percent of premiums paid by employees next year or increase deductibles, according to a just released study from Mercer LLC of more than 2,800 employers. Smaller employers, those with between 10 and 499 employees, saw their health care plan costs increase by 9.9 percent in 2011, compared to just 3.9 percent for larger firms, according to the Mercer study. One contributing reason for this is that the cost of complying with the law has been greater on small firms. For an in depth review of the many challenges posed by this new law, a timeline for its rollout and, an update on cost control strategies being used by employers in the mean time, IOFM has devoted an entire section to the issue in a forthcoming Controller’s Compliance & Tax Reporting Handbook. Continue…
Automating and Outsourcing Options for Unclaimed Property Reporting
Blog on Financial Leadership • posted 12/05/11
The unclaimed property issue has spread far beyond the banking and insurance industries – today this issue touches almost every commercial entity – corporations, banks, insurance companies, mutual fund/security houses, mail order merchants, utilities, and temporary employment agencies. Those firms with the biggest unclaimed property problems are those with frequent customer overpayments, a large or revolving workforce and stock distribution. The 1995 Uniform Unclaimed Property Act allows penalties up to $25,000 plus 25% of the value of the property for willful failure to report, plus a 12 percent interest is applied on penalties. In addition, state offices are cooperating with one another, so one visiting state auditor my represent five or more states. And one audit can result in penalties from all the states if non-compliance is discovered. Unclaimed property reporting can be extremely complicated and time consuming if your company holds a significant volume of unclaimed property and is obligated to report in many states. It gets complicated because each state determines its own dormancy period, due diligence procedures, report filing dates and report format. For example, a checking account is considered abandoned after five years in Texas, but only three years in California. For a bank, final reports are due on October 31st in Louisiana, April 30th in Florida, and March 31st in Connecticut. Some states require a preliminary report six months before the final report, and few states accept only electronic reports, some paper only, and some accept both. Then there are differences depending on the type of unclaimed property. For example, the dormancy period for an uncashed payroll check can be different than for stock dividends. To help controllers organize and respond to this reporting nightmare, there are several automation solutions (listed below), several leading outsourcing firms to consider and, a few states that offer free filing diskettes to reporters of unclaimed property. In addition, there is a detailed section on Unclaimed Property Compliance for controllers in the forthcoming Controller’s Compliance Handbook from IOFM. Continue…
AP/Purchasing Best Practices: Handling Exceptions on PO-Based Invoices
Blog on Accounts Payable • posted 12/05/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
T&E Best Practices: Meals and Entertainment
Blog on T&E • posted 11/28/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
SEC Studies Find GAAP More Detailed, IFRS Application Could Be Better
Blog on Accounting & Performance Measurement • posted 11/28/11
Most experts are coming to understand that IFRS is not as detailed, as clear, or been in use as long as GAAP, and that it will cost most large businesses a small fortune to adopt. But, as much of the world moves toward IFRS, many U.S. based companies, not just large multi-nationals, will find it increasingly necessary to understand and use the “condorsement” method outlined by the SEC back in May of 2011. Condorsement has been proposed as a method of incorporating IFRS in U.S. financial reporting through a combination of convergence and endorsement. Under this approach, FASB would incorporate new or amended IFRS principles into U.S. GAAP once endorsement was established. The condorsement process basically allows the SEC to farm out the project to FASB, of slowly walking financial reporting one standard at a time away from GAAP to IFRS. Two new studies from the SEC appear to go a long way towards helping the commissioners decide on incorporating IFRS into U.S. financial reporting, but give no clue as to when the decision will be made. Continue…
T&E Best Practices: Expense Reports
Blog on T&E • posted 11/21/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Can You Accelerate Your Financial Close?
Blog on Accounting & Performance Measurement • posted 11/21/11
Of 18 best practices that finance and accounting departments control directly and that can accelerate the close, a majority of controllers say they “always” or “usually” use 11 of the best practices. The top three practices have total “always” and “usually” usage ratings above 80 percent -- creating standard entries for such items as depreciation and insurance, creating templates for recurring reports, and keeping accounting processes running despite exceptions. Yet, there are other best practices that many controllers acknowledge they are not making good use of – such as closing subledgers before month-end, and paring down the content of reports. In addition, at many companies, more effort in moving routine inter-company accounting issues out of the close, and minimizing journal entries during the closing process can help shave valuable time off the close process. Continue…
AP Best Practices: Orphan Invoices
Blog on Accounts Payable • posted 11/15/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Are You Tracking Too Many Line Items in the Annual Budget?
Blog on Accounting & Performance Measurement • posted 11/03/11
As the number of line items tracked in the annual budget increases, the amount of information to be gathered and synthesized typically increases. This increase in complexity contributes directly to increasing the number iterations and overall length of time required to complete the budget process. However, some companies are able to use substantially fewer line items, and thus streamline the process greatly. And, not only does this streamline and shorten the process, it also tends to tighten the connection between budgeting and strategy. Continue…
AP Best Practices: Invoice Processing—The Invoice Receipt
Blog on Accounts Payable • posted 11/03/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Do Your Budgets Accommodate and Respond to Market Change Fast Enough?
Blog on Accounting & Performance Measurement • posted 11/02/11
Being able to use a budget to take corrective action to ensure plan objectives are met is a critical function of the budget. However, just 9 percent of respondents to an IOFM study, "Improving the Budget Process: Benchmarks and Best Practices," strongly agreed with this statement, while another 38 percent moderately agreed that the budget can help managers undertake appropriate action and combat slipping performance. When respondents were asked to rate whether their budgeting allowed rapid response to changing business conditions, again only 9 percent strongly agreed, while just 31 percent moderately agreed. Another benefit of budgeting also elicited a somewhat skeptical reaction: that is, just 7 percent of respondents indicated that their budgeting allowed for early warning for significant change. Altogether, the reactions to these three statements imply that monitoring the budget, while identifying change and performance lapses, doesn’t really enable a rapid response. Continue…
A Framework for Making the Decision to Outsource Manufacturing to Low-Cost Countries
Blog on Logistics, Purchasing Inventory Costs • posted 10/28/11
IOFM controller and other corporate finance members have 24/7 access to a plethora of tools and resources like this, including: current sales & use tax rates state-by-state, dozens of best Continue…
Best Practices and a Two-Step Audit Ensure Cost Containment Efforts From Vendor Negotiations
Blog on Logistics, Purchasing Inventory Costs • posted 10/28/11
It is estimated that up to two-thirds of the projected savings from an expense reduction project are typically missed, according to the new White Paper, Controller’s Guide to Cost Containment, from Alliance Cost Containment. The reasons include the following: lack of company-wide guidelines to calculate and track the savings; differing interpretations of the term “savings” within the organization; too passive an involvement by the finance department; and lack of a formal cost containment plan that is also linked to business plan. However, by using several best practices and a straight forward, two-step audit process, controllers can ensure they are not leaving any projected savings on the table from a cost reduction project. To find out more, continue reading and download the free White Paper. Continue…
