Corporate / Commodity Tax
Many professionals view taxes as a necessary government evil and as such not enough planning is allocated to ensure that mechanisms are in place to maximize net income via appropriate tax planning.
Financial Planning & Analysis
Financial Planning is critical to any successful business strategy. The numbers embedded in the financial plan must be consistent with the business objectives. Assumptions/constraints must be clearly identified.
Project Management
Accounting and finance professionals tend to be reactive in their approach to deadlines. Inherent in our schedules is the expectation of long, intense days during the close of financial cycles.
Process Improvements
One of my “pet peeves” is inefficiencies within many standard process flows in organizations. Many employees simply inherit old processes that may now be redundant.
Internal Controls and Compliance
Thanks to the likes of Worldcom, Enron, Tyco International etc, governments and regulators implemented legislation (SOX in the US, Bill 198 in Canada) to ensure fundamentally that there was a semblance of responsibility by executives regarding the Internal Controls in the organization.
System Implementation and Integration
The amazing technology tools available today can improve productivity by leaps and bounds. Statistics and data that would historically take a tremendous effort to source via manual mechanisms can now be obtained via a click of a button.