Page 276 - Accounting Best Practices
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                                13–8  Post the Procedures Manual on the Intranet
                                13–7 ISSUE ACTIVITY CALENDARS TO ALL                         265
                                      ACCOUNTING POSITIONS
                                The bane of any accounting department is disorganization.  This department,
                                above all others, is responsible for consistently completing the same tasks, day
                                after day and year after year, with a great deal of reliability. If the employees can-
                                not organize themselves properly so key tasks are completed on time, the entire
                                function can fall into disarray, resulting in payments and billings not being com-
                                pleted on time. Also, financial statements, the most subject to delays if there is
                                disorganization, will be released much later than expected, possibly containing a
                                large number of errors. Clearly, some instrument of organization must be found.
                                   An excellent tool for straightening out the timing of accounting work is the cal-
                                endar. One can create a calendar on the computer, either with a scheduling software
                                package or an electronic spreadsheet, and load it with all of the tasks that must be
                                completed each day. An example of such a calendar is shown in Exhibit 13.4.
                                Though some employees are naturally well-organized and will already have it in
                                place, many others will be in desperate need of this simple organizational tool. The
                                best way to distribute these calendar schedules is to keep the schedules for all
                                employees in a single location, update them at the end of each month, and have a
                                staff meeting to distribute them so the controller can emphasize all calendar changes.
                                It is then a simple matter to refer to copies of all employees’ calendars each day and
                                follow up with them to ensure that they are completing the scheduled tasks.
                                   The calendar is only one way to assist in managing the operations of the
                                accounting department. Another excellent tool is the policy and procedure man-
                                ual, which was discussed earlier in this chapter, in the ‘‘Create a Policy and Pro-
                                cedure Manual” section.
                                        Cost:                 Installation time:



                                13–8 POST THE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL
                                      ON THE COMPANY INTRANET SITE

                                When the accounting staff is widely scattered through many locations, it is diffi-
                                cult to make available to them a current version of the accounting policies and
                                procedures manual. This can be a real problem, for the accounting department is
                                much more procedurally driven than any other department, and operating with
                                antiquated procedures can cause significant differences in operations between
                                various locations. Traditionally, this problem has been addressed by creating an
                                internal procedure-writing and publishing department that constantly updates
                                documents, maintains a list of authorized recipients, and mails the changed docu-
                                ments to them. This group is expensive, and does not always result in updated
                                manuals at outlying locations, especially if those outlying personnel take a dim
                                view of spending their valuable time replacing pages in their procedures manuals.
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