Customer Reviews

Pareto's 80/20 Rule for Corporate Accountants

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first came across David Parmenters work on [...] where he has a number of artcles and webinars posted. What I like about his work is it's very practical. I've been in Finance for twenty years and most of the stuff I read is interesting but not very useful in the daily life of an accountant or analyst. This is probably because it is written by consultants who don't work day to day in the trenches and usually are just trying to push their latest version of the holy grail. Parmenter seems to have spent most of his carreer actually working in Finance so knows what he is talking about. His recommendations can be applied right anyway and don't need major system changes. His sections on reducing the close cycle and implementing a quarterly rolling forecast are particularly good. He also has a book on KPIs which I have not read but if it's as good as the Webinar on the bettermanagement site it will be well worth the money. Buy the book and check out his website at [...] which also has lot's of good content.

Good reading full of great ideas. Some of the ideas more controversal than others. I did particularly like the sections containing ideas how to overcome road blocks to the controversies..

I had the book and recently had the pleasure of attending a workshop with David Parmenter. He really has this topic down pat. Everything he suggests makes life easier, not harder and there is no loss of value to the business. If you read only one accounting book this year, make it this one. It will revolutionise your reporting cycle, and you'll produce monthly reports that people might actually read.

I first got track on David Parmenter, when I searched for help on rolling planning. Via the website [..] I found his articles and a link to his website. Quarterly Rolling Planning and KPIs is really his thing.
What I like in this book is the pragmatism and the directness. No fuzz. The clear way the examples are described enabled me to mimic some in Excel, like reporting a business unit's performance.
There is attention for your own personal development and it describes the marketing of your own financial department. It contains practical things that you can incorporate in your daily work right away. David describes his work from inside, tells about the relation with the people around him and the way to organize the work and to how to develop yourself and others. He incorporated better practices of people that attended his workshops. Really a hands-on book. A book that stimulates you to change the way you work.

In combination with this book I read "The First 90 days - Critical Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels" by Michael Watkins. As in any new situation you need to consider in which situation the company is and how you can excel.

Thanks David for displaying your knowledge and experience.

Great book, great ideas... inspiring! (or, at least as inspirational as you can get I guess, for a book about acctg)

This is a collection of practical tips for making finance functions more efficient. There is no theory in here (not necessarily a bad thing), the 80/20 rule only features in the book's title.

It isn't rocket science - but there is enough genuine content in here for finance staff to find the book useful and provoke some ideas to implement.