Wiley Just–in–Time Accounting: How to Decrease Costs and Increase Efficiency

Following the methodology used in JIT inventory management, this accounting guide is based on the premise that all inventories are undesirable and should be eliminated or minimized. It explains how to eliminate redundant and unneccesary information as well as increase accuracy of information; how to reduce costs to the corporation; and provides checklists whenever processes must be followed in a specific sequence. Synopsis Following the methodology used in JIT inventory management, this accounting guide is based on the premise that all inventories are undesirable and should be eliminated or minimized. It explains how to eliminate redundant and unneccesary information as well as increase accuracy of information; how to reduce costs to the corporation; and provides checklists whenever processes must be followed in a specific sequence. From the Back Cover The solutions you need just-in-time! Are you serious about finding ways to improve your accounting department? In this remarkable new hands-on guide, you'll learn how to *Speed up the accounting process *Eliminate redundancy and waste *Increase the accuracy of your information *Reduce costs to the corporation *Focus on activities that increase profits *. . . and much more Global competition, quality- and price-conscious customers, and profit-conscious stockholders are forcing business organizations to seek greater efficiency in every facet of every operation. Accounting departments are no exception: CFOs, controllers, and department managers must streamline routine procedures, exploit new technologies, and free their staffs to spend more time on profit-generating activities. But how? Just-in-Time Accounting does for financial officers what JIT has already done for inventory manager -- sit shows you how to eliminate inefficiencies, redundancies, and waste and implement high-speed, low-cost, quality systems that can be adapted to any company's particular needs. Here is your opportunity to improve accounting performance and quality, generate reports more quickly, identify and eliminate unnecessary information, and do it all with less labor. Steven M. Bragg begins by showing you how to identify cluttered, poorly documented, or archaic systems that require excessive document handling and wait times. He then describes methods and techniques for expediting processes at various steps and demonstrates how to *Apply new technologies to reduce labor costs for transaction processing *Automate control points and eliminate those that are redundant *Remove steps from the transaction that can be handled in advance *Conduct cost/benefit analyses and assess the impact of process changes *Compare the performance of new and old systems *Reduce errors while speeding up routine procedures *Generate the reports required to control the new systems *Troubleshoot and correct implemen-tation problems This multistep approach can be applied to all of your most common transactions, including cash, sales and accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, cost accounting, and payroll. You will also learn to streamline other accounting areas, such as budgeting, electronic data interchange, and closing accounting ledgers and issuing period-end reports. Finally, the discussion turns to the impact of these procedural changes on employees and on the organization as a whole. You will learn to anticipate certain problems and solve them before they occur and make sure that you keep your best employees through the period of reorganization. If you are a hands-on manager who's serious about improving your accounting department, this is the book for you. About the Author STEVEN M. BRAGG, CPA, CMA, CIA, CCP, CPM, CPIM, is CFO of Isolation Technologies of Denver and a former Ernst & Young consulting manager. He received his MS in finance from Bentley College and his MBA from Babson College, both in Massachusetts. He coedited the fifth edition of Controllership and is the coauthor o