Page 297 - Accounting Best Practices

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General Best Practices
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13–24 CREATE COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING MOVIES
There are several major problems with any in-house training program. It must be
carefully scheduled so that the maximum number of people can attend (which
means that some people will not be able to attend, or at least will be seriously
inconvenienced). Also, an expensive trainer and training facility must be used.
Furthermore, people must travel to the training site for classes, which may entail
great expense. All of these problems can be avoided through the use of computer-
based training movies.
A computer-based training movie is one that replicates on-screen the actions
of someone who is walking through a standard set of activities, while explaining
each action through a microphone. The resulting movie will show a user exactly
what is being done to process a transaction (or some other activity) while the
accompanying voice recording explains what is going on. Just as is the case with
a movie that is inserted into a video cassette recorder, this movie format contains
on-screen buttons for rewind, pause, play, and fast forward. Each movie is easily
created—just plot out the steps to be followed during the movie, practice them a
few times, and then press the “record” button and start recording the movie. The
audio portion of the movie can be added concurrently, or at a later time.
By storing computer-based training movies at a central intranet location, a
company can make it available to all employees at all company locations.
Employees can download it at their leisure and review those portions about which
they are uncertain. When training movies are made for a wide range of company
functions, they can be set up in an index format on the intranet site, so that an
entire training program can be made available to employees on a wide range of
topics. The only problems with computer-based movies are that they take up a
large amount of computer storage space, and that all accessing computers require
audio cards and speakers. However, these are minor cost issues.
The software that is currently available for making computer-based movies
includes ScreenCam by Lotus (www.lotus.com), HyperCam by Hyperionics
(www.hyperionics.com), and Camtasia™ Recorder and Producer by TechSmith ®
(www.techsmith.com). Even the most expensive of these packages costs only $150.

Cost: Installation time:

13–25 IMPLEMENT CROSS-TRAINING FOR
MISSION-CRITICAL ACTIVITIES

There are a number of crucial accounting activities that will cause a significant
amount of disturbance within a company if they are not completed on time,
every time. Examples of these activities are payroll, since employees will
refuse to work unless they are paid, and accounts payable, for suppliers will
refuse to provide additional goods and services unless they are paid. In these