After some years of experience managing different types of accounting, industrial, commercial, service and manufacturing companies in Ecuador, we have come to the conclusion that the success of an accounting department lies in the methodology applied in internal processes. of the company that allow the accounting department to reach its main purpose, which is the issuance of financial statements; intended for end users, who take this information for general purpose use.

“Accounting is the language of numbers expressing the financial position of an entity at a given date.”

This information is of vital importance for the external and internal user of the company.

Mainly for shareholders and investors, who look forward to reading it to find out the long-awaited “results”, which will allow them to know if their investment has the expected return.

For other dreamers or entrepreneurs, it will mean seeing and reading the results of their effort day by day, hoping that the results of their management will be translated into numbers that generate wealth .

This valuable information is what is presented to company managers and what they expect to read.

Accounting information is valuable and has been over the years; so, to achieve their goals, accounting departments have moved from bookkeeping supported by good handwriting to online, electronic, contractual accounting.

As businesses have grown, globalization has advanced and wealth has prospered, companies have had to adapt to meet these needs. In the same way, accounting departments have evolved in their services until they became specialized.

Today, there are accounting firms that provide outsourcing and accounting supervision services to facilitate this business accounting process. At Aldía, we have managed to fulfill our purpose, allowing the entrepreneur to dedicate himself to the core activity of his business and us to our accounting activity to provide quality information in a timely and necessary manner through the financial reports delivered.

The success of our company has allowed us to reach other levels of service that have pleased and captivated our customers, because of this experience we allow ourselves to share the following.

Some points to consider so that your accounting department is efficient and achieves its main objectives:

Success variables:

🎯Communication.

Keep communication channels open with your accounting team. Have individual sessions, listen to ideas and apply the ones you consider the best.

🎯Training.

Develop a training, development and education plan for all your collaborating assistants.

An accounting team that is not trained, is not going anywhere, you will waste time explaining again and again instead of everything flowing.

Important! Training comes from the company to the employee; however, individual and personal training is vital, there are no excuses not to do it.

🎯Technology.

Take advantage of cloud systems (ERP), applications and backups. Always thinking of easy and remote access, while providing all the necessary tools for your team to work comfortably and in real time.

🎯Process Automation, Work Papers.

If you have an ERP, automate processes, work papers (Excel is very helpful), develop dashboards. Do not accumulate papers on your desk.

A full trash can or a desk full of documents is not synonymous with having a lot of work, it is synonymous with inefficiency and disorder.

The reflection of an orderly accounting is a clean desk.

🎯Activity Calendar.

Keep the team informed of the commitment dates. Move the goals of the company to the last level. Corporate KPIs are carried out from the operational part to middle managers and from middle managers to senior managers. If you don’t have an agenda of activities, or a calendar of accounting planning meetings, you will hardly be able to reach the goal that is to close the financial statements.

🎯KPI’s.

Evaluates activities with indicators vs previous period, and establishes references. Measure the compliance of your accounting team in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

You can establish KPIs for bank reconciliations, for physical inventory taking, for account analysis, for compliance with declarations and presentations of tax annexes on time.

If you do this month by month, surely your annual closing will be effective. Your Balances will be presented to the control entities in the month of January and not in April of each year.

🎯FSF (Financial Statements).

Preparation and timely delivery, truthful and in compliance with financial regulations, which allow analysis, corrections and timely decision making. Financial statements closed on time will allow you to carry out comparative analysis, apply financial ratios and others that allow management to make corrective decisions before the next closing.

🎯Reconnaissance!

Remember!! Not all acknowledgments are monetary, give a virtual course, surprise free time or a letter delivered with the signature of the head of the accounting department, it also works.

🎯Teamwork.

Remember that as a service department we must provide information to the different areas of our organization and provide support for decision making.

The accounting department is not a closed department, it is an open department that works with all areas: Production, commercial, field, and administrative.

It is important, as an accounting department, to be open with all areas, since all areas in their normal operations in one way or another carry out transactions that affect accounting.

If you manage to create synergy with such areas, we wish you success in your department and collaboration to achieve your goal: Present financial information to senior management with timely information.

Author: Joseph Merchán, CPA Engineer. , Accounting Outsourcing Manager – ERP Implementations