Recent TRG blog posts

In addition to being difficult to manage, intangible assets have traditionally been a challenge in terms of communicating their value. Financial reporting has not evolved fast enough to adequately capture the true value of the organisation’s intangible assets and to address the needs of business decision makers.

Ledgers are the backbone of any accounting system. They are the central repository for all accounting data of an organisation and are pivotal to financial reporting. An organisation’s financial statements are derived from ledgers.

Businesses, no matter how big or small, all want to make high quality, impactful business decisions. In order to be able to do so, the business must be equipped with accurate, fact-based and timely data. This is where management accounting comes in.

In today’s ‘VUCA’ world—characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity— it is becoming harder and harder to get right. As discontinuity becomes the norm and the most established business models come under threat, business leaders may need to adapt their models or develop new ones. How can organisations achieve sustainable success in a constantly changing environment with management accounting?

Read more: Why does your business need an accounting software?

Shortcomings associated with the traditional budgeting approach can undermine the true value of the process. Budgeting should be less cost-driven and more investment-based, i.e. all forecasted costs of a department should be attached to deliverables—the products and services that department delivers to other departments or to the clients. Doing so will make budget decisions investment decisions.

Known as the technology behind Bitcoin, blockchain can be applied in a wide array of applications for business, not just limited to only the cryptocurrency arena. Even though still in its infancy, blockchain technology is believed to redefine the finance function.

Companies spend millions of dollars developing and documenting their processes, policies, and controls, yet have little visibility into whether they’re being followed. With thousands of transactions to screen and systems being accessed by hundreds or thousands of employees whose statuses change daily, the process of monitoring for breaches—either accidental or intentional—can be both expensive and overwhelming. A strategic and automated approach is, therefore, essential.

In a more digitalised world, the finance leaders are expected to be forward-looking, evolved from their traditional role to provide data-driven analysis and insights. However, in reality, many CFOs still find it is difficult to keep up with the development, and therefore, is unable to deliver deep insights to support the risk management to spot new opportunities, weather economic shocks and volatility.

In July, Workday released its global “Finance Redefined” study, conducted by Longitude, which surveyed more than 670 finance leaders across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and South Africa to get their vision and strategy on the future of the finance function and finance leadership.

Duplicate invoice payments occur far more frequently than most organisations realise. On average, approximately 0.1% to 0.05% of invoices paid are typically duplicate payments—which for a medium-size organisation with annual costs of $100 million over a three year period, could represent a loss of $300,000.