Book Description
The successfully proven alternative system for relevant business reporting through performance management
Performance-Based Reporting shows businesses how traditional accounting fails to provide meaningful measures for performance and presents radically innovative and thoroughly tested methods for performance-oriented management, assessment, and reporting. Twenty-five years in the making, this helpful book also presents The Baseline Approach to management, assessment, and reporting-composed of eighty-percent accounting-free methods.
Performance-Based Reporting presents the culmination of intense experiments involving more than 1,500 businesses and over 4,000 executives. It definitively proves the need for new tools for realistic business planning and management in an unpredictable world. These tools already exist, and this helpful guide walks readers through the process of implementing them to help firms improve their ability to predict the direction they should take in the future.
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The successfully proven alternative system for relevant business reporting through performance management Performance-Based Reporting shows businesses how traditional accounting fails to provide meaningful measures for performance and presents radically innovative and thoroughly tested methods for performance-oriented management, assessment, and reporting. Twenty-five years in the making, this helpful book also presents The Baseline Approach to management, assessment, and reporting-composed of eighty-percent accounting-free methods. Performance-Based Reporting presents the culmination of intense experiments involving more than 1,500 businesses and over 4,000 executives. It definitively proves the need for new tools for realistic business planning and management in an unpredictable world. These tools already exist, and this helpful guide walks readers through the process of implementing them to help firms improve their ability to predict the direction they should take in the future.
Customer Reviews:
Due Dilligence or Undue Negligence.......2006-06-21
The shortcomings of the accounting system, dramatically displayed in the Enron, Parmalat, and hundreds of similar cases, are part of the issues that this book is dealing with.
Beyond accounting.
What we really need is to reconsider the use of accounting data in due diligence. In many M&A due diligence processes, much of the focus is still on accounting-based data. This is a serious imbalance in our time. Mergers and acquisitions are strategic decisions that are far too important to be based on accounting data.
"Use only as directed!"
Since Luca di Pacioli's time, the end of the 15th century, businesses have been addicted to using accounting data for much more than they were ever intended for. They must be seen for what they are: nothing but records of past transactions, and incomplete and manipulated at that. In our time of uncertainty and mind-based wealth creation, they should never be used for serious decisions, and certainly not when they are embedded in trend extrapolation, discounted cash flow, or other forms of "corporate astrology." Accounting data, as presented in earnings statements and balance sheets, are intrinsically unreliable and, even worse, increasingly irrelevant. They are simply not a significant base for any serious decision making, and certainly not for M&A decisions. SOX or other regulatory efforts will never be able to change that.
The biggest challenge facing global business.
Non-financial drivers of company performance are more important indicators of success or failure than financial data. Barton and Jackson give some examples of such indicators. But a more systematic and all-encompassing approach is required. Creating a new business reporting and analysis system, more inclusive, more reliable, and more relevant, is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the global business community at this time.
The business world needs to establish systems that move business reporting and analysis from a dangerous and misleading focus on past transactions to a focus on present conditions for company success or failure. This is a huge change, the biggest change of perspective since the end of the 15th century. Just as we, as a society, need to cut our gasoline dependency, we need to eliminate our accounting dependency.
A post-accounting world--is it possible?
But is it even possible to conceive a reporting or analysis system without its roots in accounting? Many economists brought up in the accounting tradition shudder at the mere thought. To borrow a sentence from another revolutionary in the fields of business and economics, the recently deceased John Kenneth Galbraith, these ideas are of course "deeply subversive of the established orthodoxy."
The truth is that significant nonfinancial drivers can be systematically defined, structured, and measured, with high degrees of relevance and reliability, while the precision and relevance of accounting-based measures increasingly deserve their bad rap.
Alternative systems exist.
Wellstructured alternative systems for business reporting and analysis, including M&A assessments, exist, and have been in operation for many years. Such a system is described in this book. The system includes a computer-supported way to analyze the two companies considering a merger, showing--and measuring--the range of critical relationships each of the two companies has with key stakeholders. It then makes a similar "pro forma" measurement of the combined company. If the level of dependency of the new company is less favorable than that of the two existing companies, then that is a strong warning signal against the merger. If, on the other hand, the new company has a better rating, then the merger is more likely to be successful.
A crucial indicator of success or failure.
All strategic business decision processes, including decisions on M&A, need to accept uncertainty, or unpredictability, as a starting point. The strategic way to handle it is to develop the company's responsiveness, flexibility, or freedom to act., and it is not guesswork. It is a measurable sum of a well-defined range of company-specific dependencies. Hundreds of examples show that it is a substantially more relevant indication of company success or failure than any accounting data, perhaps the most significant measure of a company's ability to survive, grow, and be profitable. Any process for due diligence in M&A that does not systematically define a company's stakeholder situation should be moved into the "undue negligence" box!
The methods suggested in Performance-Based Reporting are free to test for any company that wants to improve its M&A work. And that is only a first step towards a completely new perspective on company reporting and analysis.
Bertil Andreazon is a corporate governance facilitator
A different way to look at the bottom line .......2006-06-20
I love the way these guys think. They have completely rethought financial reporting. After a great review of why today's accounting practices should be left behind along with all the old rules of the 20th Century, Johnsson and Kihlstedt make a very good argument for rethinking how and what we report.
Citing examples like Sunbeam, Enron and Warnaco as evidence, they argue that old-fashioned accounting has no place in modern society. They then carefully walk the reader through a number of very interesting new metrics that companies can and probably should use to demonstrate success. They develop their Baseline Reporting Model, defining a company's success "as its ability to survive, grow and create a surplus."
Why this all makes so much sense is the emphasis on networks, relationships, social capital and flexibility, all things we know intuitively are part of any successful company today. In an email to me, Hans Johnsson said, "You may already have noticed that [our book] takes a very different view on company reporting, with relationships and reputation as central themes."
Their approach is partly historic and partly a cookbook, complete with a 25-question process to start you off on the right track. What I particularly like about this book is the way it uses dozens of case histories to illustrate points; they are short, simple, easy to read, and it's easy to see how they apply. As a small business woman, I particularly appreciate the fact that the case studies range in size from global mega-corporations to tiny family businesses with almost no employees.
This is a must read for anyone with financial responsibilities for an organization, be it an agency, a small business or a Fortune 500 company.
Providing Governance and Enterprise Risk Management Fundamentals.......2006-05-22
This book has revived the way I look at risk management - or enterprise risk management (ERM)! Apart from shaking the foundations of current accounting (which actually dates back to the 15th century), the book outlines the fundamental relationships and business conditions that make companies grow and prosper.
What information do management, board members, investors and other stakeholders need to judge the viability and sustainability of an enterprise?
To properly govern a company, the owners, board and management need more structured, transparent non-financial information than what we see today. It is sad that the members of the various governance institutions and committees that have delivered a long series of rules and regulations ever since Barings Bank never had the opportunity to read this book - incl Mssr Sarbanes and Oxley. But it's never too late correct past mistakes and misconceptions.
I can only urge audit committee members, internal auditors, chief risk officers and risk management professionals to read this book and chapter 4 in particular. The broad stakeholder view of the enterprise which the authors recommend is fundamental in our new global, net-worked world.
Per Aakenes
Senior Risk Management Advisor
Customer Reviews:
Simplistic.......2007-05-14
I work in a CPA firm and found this book to recommend simplification in writing to the point of absurdity. It is a fact that there is a 'language' for business, and this book spends far too much time advising the reader to take complex or wordy phrases and simplify them to an almost moronic degree. While I agree that business writing is often overly and unnecessarily convoluted, this book seems to ignore a business-like paring down and instead invite the reader to return to elementary-school quality writing. I definitely did not feel that the book was a worthwhile investment, especially at the inflated price for which it retails. It is possible that it would benefit those in the accounting field whose clientele are completely non-business oriented or have little business knowledge.
Excellent for College Students in Business.......2007-03-08
I'm an accountancy major at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This has greatly helped me on my group cases where I write memorandums and other professional communication. Writing hasn't come easily for me (like numbers have) but this book helps me find my weaknesses and gives me suggestions for them. At first I wondered why such a small book was so expensive, but the price is definitely worth it!
Book Description
Provides accountants in small and medium sized firms the tool to expand services beyond attest and compliance functions.
- Shows how to transition to other professional services that clients value.
- Provides a pro-forma business plan for mapping a three to five year plan for the transition to a successful practice.
- Positions consulting as an extension to traditional services, not just an alternative.
- Includes many real world examples of accountants who have made a successful transition to new services, discussing the challenges and the results achieved.
- Focuses on quality of life issues and how to get there.
Customer Reviews:
A truly paradigm-shifting work.......2006-05-15
Ron Baker is doing for the professional services firms what Columbus and Pythagoras did for the "Earth is Flat" proponents! "Paradigm-shifting" has become so over-used in our culture, but it is not mere hyperbole when describing this book. The work is quite thorough, implementing excerpts, quotes, and philosophies from dozens of well-respected scholars, economists, and management consultants. The work reminds me a lot of Tom Peters' seminal book, "In Search of Excellence" in the way in which the author sprinkles in so many great examples from other successful organizations and industries. In addition, he has many real-world examples (from firms around the world) of professional services firms that have successfully tranformed their practices. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to any professional who is trying to transform a professional services organization or who is wondering if there might be a more effective and profitable way to run a professional services firm.
The Essential Reference for Law Firm Leadership.......2006-02-08
I first read this book about 2 years ago. I keep it within arm's reach of my desk and refer to it often, still.
I've read one reviewer who stated that this book was the modern almanac of best business practices. I agree completely.
I run my own small law firm. We have implemented many of this book's practices with great success and profitablilty. Primary among them is fixed fee agreements. Yes, we are a law firm that has trashed its time sheets, due in large part to the inspiration and impetus of this book. And, we will never go back.
An earlier reviewer suggested that this book would be more useful for CPA's and not for lawyers. I disagree. Though I'm certain the message of this book is critical for CPA's, I think that any person in law firm leadership must read this book. I think it is particularly suited to small firms and solos who will have the ability to immediately take action in implementing these ideas and making them a reality in their practice.
However, if you are one of my competitors forget everything I said above and do not touch this book. My firm and my family will thank you.
Extremely helpful, well documented........2005-11-14
This is a very well-documented guide for any service firm. It's also very well written, very insightful and very well researched. It's real deep, complete and full of advice and wisdom from several great minds. I run a corporate reputation consulting firm in El Salvador and this is the most advice-rich book I've encountered in the last five years. I also recommend "the trusted advisor" by David Maister and specially "Managing the Profesional Service Firm" also by Maister.
Permission to Believe.......2004-12-14
The Firm of The Future coordinates both the theory and practical application of pricing concepts AND business service models in such a complelling manner that Baker & Dunn give Professional services organizations permission to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
While the Firm of The Future is geared to the legal and accounting professions the message and vision is applicable to Advertising agencies, Consulting Organizations, Marketing service firms and professional service providers of all shapes and sizes.
Cost plus pricing is short sighted and intellectually flawed.The intense pressure on increasing billable hours and driving down costs is destroying the creativity and core capabilities of Professional Service companies.Baker&Dunn explain the flaws of cost plus and hourly schemes and identify a road map which outlines how to move a professional services organization and it's customers to a healthier, happier, more productive and more mutually profitable business process
A great read---Inspirational and practical
Tom Finneran
Executive Vice President
American Association of Advertising Agencies
Must reading for the professional service provider!.......2003-12-04
After reading this book, you'll need to place it alongside your desktop dictionary, Thesaruas and Ron's first book "The Professional's Guide to Value Pricing. This is how strong of an impact their message has made on me.
After reading the first two editions of Ron's book, I didn't think he would be able to improve much on the message of switching to Value Pricing. Boy, was I wrong! He and Paul Dunn have done an amazing job of getting the reader to think differently. As with the radical theme of trashing the timesheet in "The Professional's Guide to Value Pricing", they do a masterful job of convincing you why the old "Revenue Equation" must be replaced with the forward-thinking "Profit Equation". They go on to introduce other new topics not found amongst professional services firms such as developing your Intellectual, Structural and Social Capital, emphasizing effectiveness over efficiency and of course Value Pricing. As is typical of Ron's writing style, and complemented by Paul, their reasoning for making this paradigm shift is well supported and well reasoned.
I've been using practicing Value Pricing for about 5 1/2 years now and I can tell you that it works. In my own firm, I've slowly begun implementing some of their new concepts but with a new perception. I'm convinced these principles will work for me and they can for you as well.
After reading this book, you'll definitely want to keep it handy as a useful reference guide!
Average customer rating:
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Wiley Practitioner's Guide to GAAS 2007: Covering all SASs, SSAEs, SSARSs, and Interpretations (Wiley Practitioner's Guide to Gaas)
Michael J. Ramos
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Wiley GAAP 2007: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (Wiley Gaap)
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Wiley IFRS 2007: Interpretation and Application of International Financial Reporting Standards
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The Ultimate Accountants' Reference: Including GAAP, IRS & SEC Regulations, Leases, and More
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Manager's Guide to Compliance: Sarbanes-Oxley, COSO, ERM, COBIT, IFRS, BASEL II, OMB's A-123, ASX 10, OECD Principles, Turnbull Guidance, Best Practices, and Case Studies (Manager's Guide Series)
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Wiley Not-for-Profit GAAP 2007: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for Not-for-Profit Organizations (Wiley Not for Profit Gaap)
ASIN: 0471798304 |
Book Description
The clearest, easiest-to-use guide to understanding GAAS 2007 on the market-fully updated!
This latest resource to understanding GAAS addresses the toughest part of an accountant's job-identifying, interpreting, and applying the many audit, attest, review, and compilation standards relevant to a particular engagement. Wiley Practitioner's Guide to GAAS 2007 offers the accounting professional a clear, accessible distillation of the official language of those standards, Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAEs), and Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARSs)-as well as advice on exactly when and how to remain fully compliant with each. The only GAAS reference organized according to practitioners' actual use of the Statements on Auditing Standards,Wiley Practitioner's Guide to GAAS 2007 presentseach statement individually, explaining how thestandards are related and offering guidance onthe entire engagement process in the form of practicenotes, checklists, questionnaires, and real-worldexamples that illustrate how the fundamental requirements of each section are applied. Other key features include:
* A brief identification of each SAS, SSAE, and SSARS, with its effective date and tips on when to apply it
* A convenient and comprehensive glossary of official definitions, which are usually scattered through-out a standard
* Behind-the-scenes explanations of the reasons for each pronouncement and brief explanations of the basic ideas of the section
* Concise listing and descriptions of each standard's specific mandates
* Easy-to-read capsule summary of interpretations, plus selected AICPA practice alerts and advisories
* Helpful techniques for remaining compliant with each standard
New in GAAS 2007!
* Audit Risk Assessment suite of standards, SAS Nos. 104 - 111, including new requirements related to:
*
* Understanding internal control
*
* Performing audit procedures
*
* Evaluating misstatements and audit differences
*
* Assessing audit risk
*
* And more
* SAS No. 103, Audit Documentation
* SAS No. 112, Communicating Internal Control Matters Noted in an Audit, including new definitions and guidance on evaluating the severity of control deficiencies
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Litigation Services Handbook: The Role of the Accountant As Expert
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
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ASIN: 0471109444 |
Book Description
This indispensable reference is the result of a joint project between Price Waterhouse and top experts in the field. Covers all aspects of litigation services including current environments, the process itself, different types of cases, proving damages and practical considerations of court appearances. In addition to addressing important developments affecting the accounting practice, it examines issues raised when calculating both prejudgment and postjudgment interest on damage awards. Provides the latest information on relevant statutes and interest rates on damages.
Book Description
This highly regarded reference is relied on by a considerable part of the accounting profession in their day-to-day work. This handbook is the first place many accountants look to find answers to practice questions. Its comprehensive scope is widely recognized and relied on. It is designed as a single reference source that provides answers to all reasonable questions on accounting and financial reporting asked by accountants, auditors, bankers, lawyers, financial analysts, and other preparers and users of accounting information.
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Dickey Accountants Cost Handbook 2ed
DICKEY ACCOUNTA
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
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ASIN: 0471065196 |
Book Description
This highly regarded reference is relied on by a considerable part of the accounting profession in their day-to-day work. This handbook is the first place many accountants look to find answers to practice questions. Its comprehensive scope is widely recognized and relied on. It is designed as a single reference source that provides answers to all reasonable questions on accounting and financial reporting asked by accountants, auditors, bankers, lawyers, financial analysts, and other preparers and users of accounting information.
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Accountant's Desk Handbook
Albert P. Ameiss , and
Nicholas A. Kargas
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall Trade
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ASIN: 0130018775 |
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Accountants' Handbook: 2006 Cumulative Supplement (Accountant's Handbook Supplement)
D. R. Carmichael
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Accountants' Handbook, 2 Volume Set (Accountant's Handbook)
ASIN: 0471728896 |
Book Description
The
2006 Cumulative Supplement contains the following new chapters:
- Chapter 20A: Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets. This chapter includes a comprehensive examination of all current accounting literature bearing upon the financial reporting of intangible assets, with a new emphasis on the intellectual property rights that are increasingly the foundation for business operations. The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on governance matters pertaining to intangible assets is also addressed.
- Chapter 44D: Cost-Volume-Revenue Analysis for Nonprofit Organizations. This chapter discusses how cost-volume-revenue (CVR) analysis, together with cost behavior information, can assist nonprofit managers in performing many useful planning analyses. By studying the relationships of costs, service volume, and revenue, nonprofit management is better able to cope with many planning decisions.
Books:
- Principles of Accounting: Working Papers for Exercises and Problems, Vol 1, Chapters 1-18 and Appendixes A-C
- Principles of Food, Beverage, and Labor Cost Controls
- Public/Private Finance and Development: Methodology/Deal Structuring/Developer Solicitation
- Quality Financial Reporting
- Quicken 2001 for Macs for Dummies
- Ready Notes for use with Fundamental Managerial Accounting Concepts
- Restaurant Financial Basics
- Sarbanes-Oxley Guide for Finance and Information Technology Professionals
- Solving the Corporate Value Enigma: A System to Unlock Shareholder Value
- Student Solutions Manual for use with Practical Business Statistics
Books Index
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