Page 10 - Accounting Best Practices

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Preface
commonly reports to the chief financial officer, and therefore a discussion of
improvements to it appears relevant for this book.
Accounts payable remains the area with the largest concentration of best
practices, with the total now rising to 40 just in this area. A number of risk man-
agement and investor management best practices have also been added to the
finance chapter, as well as a smattering of best practices to a half-dozen other
chapters. The result is 292 best practices to assist the reader in creating a more
efficient and effective accounting department.
Given the large number of best practices in this book, it would have become
quite difficult to locate specific items under the structure used in the second edi-
tion. Accordingly, a table has been added to the front of each chapter, itemizing
by subcategory the best practices located within it. For example, the accounts
payable chapter sorts best practices into the categories of approvals, credit cards,
documents, expense reports, management, payments, purchasing, and suppliers.
A reference number is assigned to each best practice in the table, which one can
then use to find the best practice within the chapter. The tables also graphically
describe the cost and duration of implementation required for each item, which is
repeated throughout the text that follows the descriptions of each best practice.
For additional ease of indexing, these tables are collected into Appendix A.
Finally, a selection of best practices have an “Author’s Choice” icon posted
next to them. These best practices are those the author has found to be particu-
larly effective in improving accounting operations.
If you have any comments about this book, or would like to see additional
chapters added to future editions, please contact the author at brasto@aol.com.
Thank you!

STEVEN M. BRAGG
Centennial, Colorado
March 2003