Page 30 - Finance for Non-Financial Managers

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Counting the Beans
Manager’s Checklist for Chapter 1
❏ Managers need to understand the rules of accounting and
the boundaries of proper finance well enough to avoid get-
ting into trouble as they aggressively try to achieve their
goals.
❏ The financial department really has two fairly distinct jobs
to perform in most companies: managing the company’s
financial resources (“Finance”) and recording and report-
ing all its financial transactions (“Accounting”).
❏ The standard format for recording and reporting financial
transactions is outlined in guidelines, or rules, called
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
❏ One of the greatest challenges for management is to bal-
ance the two primary responsibilities of the financial
department—to safeguard the assets of the company by
properly accounting for them and monitoring their use and
to organize information from transactions and present it so
managers can function more effectively.