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#isitok – to just be a really good management accountant?
I never really knew what I wanted to do for a living, just that I was good at maths, economics & geography which pointed towards some form of business occupation. I did a degree in Accounting & Financial Analysis at Warwick Business School, without truly knowing what accounting was. After graduating I just did some temp work in an accounts office (they hired me full time within a few days) before a recruiter sat me down one day and said I needed to get my act together and get qualified if I wanted a proper career. It didn’t need much research to work out CIMA was the route to go. Following this route enabled me to become a Chief Accountant, Financial Controller then Financial Director within a fairly short space of time. All of this was in the small company environment and I was involved in every key decision, which was fascinating and rewarding! But the politics were rife and the hours were long!
The question – How can I do all the fun stuff, the analysis/reporting/decision support/director mentoring without selling my soul to the business? My answer was to go freelance and try and emulate what I had done before but across a number of businesses in different sectors. This just reinforced what I’d previously thought – I had found my vocation in life – working with owner managers or MD’s of smaller companies, understanding their aspirations, delving into the businesses, providing the right information, making a difference, adding value, finding solutions to problems, evaluating everything for them – but not taking it home every day.
During all of this I entered into the CIMA Members in Practice world, a place full of very successful people, a mix of high flying entrepreneurs, some more traditional accounting practices offering compliance as a lead service, some specialist consultants, but as far as I could see not so many freelancers like myself. At the annual conferences in the midst of all these success stories I’ve quite often sat back and thought ‘Am I doing something wrong?’ My worry was that I had no desire to build an ever expanding business, I had no appetite for compliance work, I didn’t possess a specialism where I would stand out from the crowd and I didn’t feel I needed the best looking website or my own app (or certainly couldn’t afford it). On reflection, the last 15 years has confirmed to me I’m not doing anything wrong, it’s actually ok to focus on what you feel you’re really good at.
#isitok – to just be a really good management accountant? – I think it is.
Cheers
Mark
www.avalon-ma.com
Mark Tomsett, Avalon Management Accounting Limited
Celebrating 15 years as a Freelance Management Accountant
Weekly Work Life Balance Formula
It just occurred to me the other day that I think I’ve found a good work-life balance. Being a freelance management accountant gives you freedom to work from home and plan your own day but you also need to engage with people at your customer sites to stay in tune with how businesses thrive and survive. You also need to have some flex for the urgent customer requests, keep your education on track, fit in your business admin and plan some midday slots down the gym (it’s less busy and there are less biceps and six packs to be compared to).
Nearly everyone has key elements to their job that if balanced well could make for a better work life.
So I’ve created a formula for my ideal work life balance as a planning tool for my own work;
My Weekly Work Life Balance Formula is:
WWLB = 2.5C + 1.5H + 0.25A + 0.25E + 0.5F
© 2015 Avalon Management Accounting Limited
C = Day working at Customer Site
H = Day working at Home
A = Day of Business Admin
E = Day of Education
F = Day of Flex (for anything unplanned – if not required
for work use for Marketing)
This formula can be applied in any order during the week and the days at home, on admin and education can be partly early morning or in the evening to allow extra social time during the usual “9-5” working day.
Have a think about your ideal formula.
Cheers
Mark
http://www.avalon-ma.com
Mark Tomsett, Avalon Management Accounting Limited
Celebrating 15 years as a Freelance Management Accountant
Financial Reporting – Strategic Report – Part II
In the first part of this article we wrote about the statutory underpinnings of the new Strategic Report, as part of the enhanced disclosure regime promoted by international and national financial reporting standard setters.
Today we focus on the content and structure of the Strategic Report.
We start by emphasising that the standard setters and regulator do not want a formulaic report, but being realists we believe that is exactly what the outcome is going to be. The basic idea behind the report is to better inform investors of the business model and strategic intent of the business, together with how this is measured. In other words, where would accountability and responsibility for failure or a the very least, the key risks and uncertainties in the business or wider environment lie.
What is the purpose of the strategic report?
The basic intent is to bring together, in a cohesive and clear manner the most relevant information investors in a business would require – a ‘joined up story’ with the rest of the Financial Statements. As per the Deloitte practical guide it “provides context to the financial statements, an analysis of past performance and insight into the main objectives, strategies, risks – and how these might impact future performance“.
[Source: Deloitte:
- Objectives & implemented strategy
- Measured against KPIs
- Annual review and future (options)
- Principle Risks and uncertainties faced
- Further considerations
- Employees
- Environmental & CO2
- Human Rights
- Social & community issues
Business Model Canvas Poster download (http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/tools) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now that confidence is returning and the market and investors have a better, clearer and concise understanding of the direction and calculated risks and unavoidable uncertainties any organisation faces, then better outcomes, good, indifferent or bad can be expected.
©2014 – 3resource
Related articles
10 things your Finance Director should be doing….
SME’s often mis-understand the purpose of a Finance Director and the value they can bring to a business.
The job of a finance director is not just about producing regular accounts: they can help your company with strategy and development. If you want a small, stable business, then you can settle for a risk-averse book-keeper. But a good FD is key if you are growing your business because FDs develop future financial forecasts and push business growth. [Smarta]
So what should your Finance Director be doing for your business…..
- The FD should be able to look into to future to see what the future financial needs of the business will be
- He/She should negotiate funding facilities to ensure the business can manage its cash flow needs
- The FD should be able to foresee the future tax consequences and risks of decisions
- He/She should help the business to achieve the best possible credit scores
- Identify ways to reduce costs and improve profitability
- Understand the business owners objective and focus the business on achieving those objectives
- Ensure financial and regulatory compliance
- Ensure accurate and timely reporting of management information
- Evaluate growth opportunities
- Apply corporate governance
steve@bicknells.net
‘Bean counter’ view of accountants is holding back entrepreneurs
Some entrepreneurs and small businesses may be holding themselves back by refusing to share information with their accountants who they sometimes regard as little more than “bean counters”, according to a new study.
There is a tendency for UK businesses, to make decisions without adequate financial information or analysis, there is often poor cash flow management and time and opportunities are being wasted because some owner-managers don’t want anyone else to know their business, it concludes.
The report, funded by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and compiled by Dr Michael Lucas of the Open University along with Professor Malcolm Prowle and Glynn Lowth, from Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University urges accountants to improve their image by refuting bean counter accusations and promoting themselves in business partnering roles.
“Given the importance of financial issues and the increasing need for enterprises to operate economically, efficiently, effectively, efficaciously and ethically, management accounting has potentially a crucial role to play in improving the quality of planning, control and decision-making,” says the CIMA report called Management Accounting Practices of UK SME’s.
The authors also call for further research into the way small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reach critical decisions and into the psychological profile of executives, particularly owner managers.
Dr Lucas said: “While most business owners are good at using accounting services for monitoring cash flow and costs they do not always appreciate that management accountants can add a great deal to decision making in the management of the business. Accountants were sometimes regarded as little more than bean counters, rather than potentially having a business partnering role where they can advise and improve efficiency
“Some entrepreneurs, in particular, are reluctant to employ management accountants, expressing a desire to maintain control and have exclusive access to information they consider sensitive.This could lead to higher costs in terms of management time which is turn can put constraints in time spend in growing the business.”
The report says its exploratory findings give important insights which should inform the development of further large-scale survey research into whether accounting tools were used and, if not, why not.
These tools include: Product costing; budgets for planning and control; standard costing variance analysis; cost-volume-profit analysis; responsibility centres; capital expenditure appraisal techniques; working capital measures; and strategic management accounting.
Dr Lucas is Senior Lecturer in Accounting at the Open University Business School, Professor Prowle is professor of business performance at Nottingham Business School and Mr Lowth, who is a former President of CIMA, is a visiting fellow at the Nottingham business school.
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