Finance Reinvented

We deliberately resisted making predictions for the New Year, because they can be a bit trite and meaningless. However, the Satyam fraud highlights one area we’re comfortable to predict - more accounting fraud will come to light this year.

The scale of the Satyam fraud is astounding: according to MarketWatch:

Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju said the balance sheet as of Sept. 30 had inflated non-existing cash and bank balances of 50.40 billion rupees ($1.04 billion), understated a liability of 12.3 billion rupees, and overstated debtors’ position of 4.9 billion rupees.

The overstating of cash amounts to a stunning 94% of stated cash reserves!

I’ve been hearing from insolvency experts over recent weeks that they expect to see considerably more fraud coming to light - not necessarily of the scale of this or the Madoff case, but still significant. In these tough times, the desire to overstate your position to save your company or job, or the wish to ‘get one back’ against an employer you think is about to make you redundant is a strong driver. Companies also need to be vigilant for individuals whose personal circumstances may be dire after taking out too much credit or too large a mortgage in ‘the good times’.

There are increasingly powerful tools available to help companies - and their auditors - to detect the traces of fraud - unusual activities, anomolous transactions or changes in behaviours. Within the Unit 4 Agresso group, we have  a range of such tools. AccountAnalyser is an example, which runs reports against financial transactional data and highlights anomolous transactions or activities. Not enough companies are using such technology yet, despite the increasing signs that they should, but they are starting to get adopted. These tools are widely used by (ironically enough) PWC in Netherlands (PWC in India was the auditor of Satyam, and may well face serious consequences as a result) and we expect further interest in the current climate.

Ultimately it’s always going to be harder to detect fraud when senior executives set out to falsely represent company finances. However, you can’t help feeling that a smart auditor equipped with a tool like ours would have spotted some significantly inexplicable behaviour.

WHEN it comes to redesigning processes, putting together new strategies, and restructuring there’s little harm in looking at the competition for a few ideas. 

So CIMA’s latest publication “Improving decision making in organisations: the opportunity to transform finance” is a perfect New Year read for those who want to uncover the secrets of creating a world class finance function – a vital ingredient to achieving sustainability.

The report looks at how leading companies have spearheaded major changes in finance by embracing opportunities offered by developments in technology and globalisation. it also warns of the dangers of complacency. (more…)

As paper chains and Christmas decorations are taken down the Christian world over the time for play is truly at an end. The new year marks one of the busiest periods in the corporate calendar as budgets start getting spent, new recruits are appointed, strategies are implemented and resolutions dished out. 

It’s also the time when managers start putting together their software shopping list - all the time aware of that closing budget window and project expectations. 

But aside from the fun that can be had from making prospective vendors jump through virtual hoops, choosing the right system is only one part of the decision process. (more…)

Much like other corporate governance scandals, the Conrad Black affair has run and run. Like other cases, the investigation has been complex and drawn out; also like other well known cases, the individual at the centre has been arrogant and bombastic.  Not that his character flaws in themselves make him guilty, but they do seem characteristic of individuals who seem themselves as ‘above the law’ when it comes to upholding governance in the organisations they run.

It’s true that to reach the top in business requires extra-ordinary self-belief, but Black seemed to take that particular trait to extremes.  And in common with many others indicted on corporate governance grounds, he still doesn’t appear to recognise that anything he has done is wrong.

Such blind arrogance and  clear lack of respect for the shareholders runs the risk of tarring the whole business community with the same brush, which is good for no-one. Bosses should watch and listen. Carefully.

New research has found that: “Most finance teams are struggling to cope with organisational change and greater regulatory pressures”.

No great surprise there, then… 

The answer, apparently, is for managers to keep a constant eye on the finances – rather than abandoning the whole thing for the auditors to sort out in March. Sixty percent of the finance professionals surveyed said ‘proactive monitoring and measurement’ was the way forward.

Certainly can’t argue with that… it’s why CODA embarked on producing its ‘Control‘ suite of software, and other companies have started to follow on.  Watch out for a stunning case study of a US client who has virtually moved to ‘lights out finance’ where all transactional tasks are automated, giving the accountants more time to focus on ‘added value’ tasks.