Controller's Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations [Hardcover]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471576808 | ISBN-13: 978-0471576808 | Publication Date: February 9, 2004 | Edition: 1

The Controller's Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations is a comprehensive guide for controllers, CFOs, and budget managers who need to determine:

• The soundness of sales forecasts
• The best approach for setting product prices
• The profitability of customers and market segments
• Federal tax remittance rules
• The impact of a just-in-time system on inventory levels

Packed with clear and realistic strategies, it helps create a coherent framework of financial plans that apply to the full breadth of ongoing corporate control systems, as well as illustrates:

• When to use labor and materials standards to control manufacturing
• How to control research and development costs
• How to grant appropriate credit levels to customers
• How to set up an effective capital budgeting process
• How to create a cost-of-capital calculation

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Due to a lack of implemental know-how in the areas of planning and control, many companies are unable to successfully follow through with reasonable planning and control strategies. Companies with operations that are not managed with a consistent, detailed planning and control process are more likely to lapse into a less focused corporate direction, eventually resulting in reduced levels of profitability.

The Controller’s Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations describes key planning and control activities in every major area of a company, ranging from sales and manufacturing to the management of cash, receivables, and inventory. Through clear and realistic strategies, it helps controllers create a coherent framework of financial plans that can be used as the basis for ongoing corporate control systems. All operations throughout a company are examined, including:

• Direct material and labor
• Marketing
• Cash and short-term receivables
• Research and development
• Sales
• General and administrative expenses
• Payroll

In-depth coverage goes beyond the mechanics of budget creation, presenting effective analytical approaches to determining if a budget is reasonable based on a variety of ratios, historical trends, capacity planning, staffing levels, and relationships with other parts of the budget model. This valuable budgeting analysis is the difference between a usable budget model and one that has little basis in reality.

All strategies are flexible to accommodate individual businesses and are accompanied with practical advice to assist the controller in determining the appropriate mix of controls needed to ensure that operational results stay within expected boundaries or significant variations are promptly spotted.

The Controller’s Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations is a valuable tool for profitability for controllers, CFOs, and budget managers.

From the Back Cover

The Controller’s Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations is a comprehensive guide for controllers, CFOs, and budget managers who need to determine:

• The soundness of sales forecasts
• The best approach for setting product prices
• The profitability of customers and market segments
• Federal tax remittance rules
• The impact of a just-in-time system on inventory levels

Packed with clear and realistic strategies, it helps create a coherent framework of financial plans that apply to the full breadth of ongoing corporate control systems, as well as illustrates:

• When to use labor and materials standards to control manufacturing
• How to control research and development costs
• How to grant appropriate credit levels to customers
• How to set up an effective capital budgeting process
• How to create a cost-of-capital calculation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471576808
• ISBN-13: 978-0471576808
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,614,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The primary question I receive is, why would anyone write so many accounting books? The story began in the early 1990s, when my former boss, Jan Roehl-Anderson, asked me to assist in taking over a book called Controllership from Jim Willson (correct spelling), who had been maintaining the book since the early 1950s. I liked the experience, and even found it relaxing (I must have issues!).

So... I had an idea for another book, called Just-in-Time Accounting, which the publisher accepted, and which got me on the track of doing management accounting books. Most accounting books up to that point had primarily dealt with accounting principles and not how to management the department, so this was a rich area for new books.

The Accounting Best Practices book, which is one of the top-selling accounting books in the country, started when I was bouncing around ideas for new books with one of my editors, John DeRemigis. He suggested the accounting best practices idea, and I said, "nah, there's not enough material." Four editions later and over 400+ pages long, it appears that he was right and I was wrong.

Writing became more intense in 2005, when John Wiley & Sons recommended me to the authors of the Wiley GAAP Guide as a new co-author. This is a seriously technical high-end accounting principles guide, and so was nothing like what I had written before. My first assignment was adding a hundred or so new examples to the book, which was absolutely frantic -- imagine becoming an expert on a really far-out accounting topic in one day, writing an esoteric example, and then hurrying on to an entirely different example the next day.

I have just finished writing Accounting Controls Best Practices, which is chock-full of control points for the most common accounting systems, as well as for best practices upgrades to those systems. And now, it is time for a break, if only for a week.

So... I am heading to the Western Pacific for some serious diving off a live aboard dive boat.

Steve Bragg