Federal financial managers are spending too much time and energy on following regulations and not enough time watching how much it all costs. James Brimson is President and founder of the Activity Based Management-Institute, and wrote the report on Process-based Financial Reporting for the Association of Government Accountants with funding from Grant Thornton. He joined WFED's Federal Drive hosts, Mike Causey and Jane Norris, to explain how using XML could save your agency money.
Listen to the interview
Showing posts with label Process-based Accounting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Process-based Accounting. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
New report calls for changes in financial management
Financial managers spend too much time complying with regulations and too little time helping manage costs and performance, according to a new report.
Not only are managers not getting enough meaningful performance information, financial reporting is harmed, said the report by the Association of Government Accountants and accounting firm Grant Thornton.
“One near-future possibility is the implosion of the federal financial function, resulting in a surge of disclaimer opinion on annual financial statement reports,” according to James Brimson, the author of the paper released Monday.
He suggests a new model that provides managers information needed for making sound business decisions: process-based accounting and management. Process-based accounting directly links financial data to performance data.
The key to process-based accounting is XML technology, which allows auditors to extract information from computer transactions to measure quality and quantity of work, the report said. Agencies should use their collective buying power to influence commercial off-the-shelf vendors to install XML capabilities in all new releases and upgrades, the report said.
AGA recommends agencies determine common standards for reports, increase the use of XML technology and launch a few case studies to test the new reporting system.
-M.Z. Hemmingway, FederalTimes.com
READ MORE...
Read the Full Report
Not only are managers not getting enough meaningful performance information, financial reporting is harmed, said the report by the Association of Government Accountants and accounting firm Grant Thornton.
“One near-future possibility is the implosion of the federal financial function, resulting in a surge of disclaimer opinion on annual financial statement reports,” according to James Brimson, the author of the paper released Monday.
He suggests a new model that provides managers information needed for making sound business decisions: process-based accounting and management. Process-based accounting directly links financial data to performance data.
The key to process-based accounting is XML technology, which allows auditors to extract information from computer transactions to measure quality and quantity of work, the report said. Agencies should use their collective buying power to influence commercial off-the-shelf vendors to install XML capabilities in all new releases and upgrades, the report said.
AGA recommends agencies determine common standards for reports, increase the use of XML technology and launch a few case studies to test the new reporting system.
-M.Z. Hemmingway, FederalTimes.com
READ MORE...
Read the Full Report
Friday, April 13, 2007
EVENT - A New Road to Improved Financial Management in Government: Process-Based Financial Reporting
The Government Results Center In Association with the United States Department of Agriculture and Grant Thornton Present:
GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE INTEGRATORS GROUP (GEIG) Meeting
Tuesday April 17, 2007, 8:45-Noon, [Agenda]
A PRACTITIONERS SERIES FORUM ON: "A New Road to Improved Financial Management in Government: Process-Based Financial Reporting"
Meeting location is in the Jefferson Auditorium, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 12th and Independence Avenue, S.W.
The purpose of the Government Enterprise Integrators Group is to enable sharing between government agencies and offices of lessons learned and better practices to integrate planning, budgeting, financial management, execution through people, technology and evaluation feedback into an effective performance management system.
All GEIG meetings are free of cost but restricted to government officials or public administration academics. Reservations are required for security, badge preparation, and copying of handouts.
In 2006 the Association of Government Accountants (AGA), with funding from the Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector group, initiated a research study to determine the applicability of process-based accounting to federal agencies. Process-based accounting was first proposed by James A. Brimson in his book The Handbook of Process-Based Accounting: Leveraging Processes to Predict Results (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 2002). Through interviews with 28 Federal Chief Financial Officers and other top government executives involved in financial management, the survey revealed a need for financial and performance reporting that was not focused on compliance but rather toward providing information necessary for sound business decisions.
The GEIG April session will feature an explanation of process-based accounting in developing integrated financial and performance reports. Secondly, we will explore how all federal agencies might use process-based accounting tools to increase transparency, highlight problems and opportunities for operations improvement, and increase the amount of forward-looking information for decision-making. Finally, we will consider how some agencies are integrating and institutionalizing these tools to create value-added financial and performance reports.
REGISTER HERE
GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE INTEGRATORS GROUP (GEIG) Meeting
Tuesday April 17, 2007, 8:45-Noon, [Agenda]
A PRACTITIONERS SERIES FORUM ON: "A New Road to Improved Financial Management in Government: Process-Based Financial Reporting"
Meeting location is in the Jefferson Auditorium, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 12th and Independence Avenue, S.W.
The purpose of the Government Enterprise Integrators Group is to enable sharing between government agencies and offices of lessons learned and better practices to integrate planning, budgeting, financial management, execution through people, technology and evaluation feedback into an effective performance management system.
All GEIG meetings are free of cost but restricted to government officials or public administration academics. Reservations are required for security, badge preparation, and copying of handouts.
In 2006 the Association of Government Accountants (AGA), with funding from the Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector group, initiated a research study to determine the applicability of process-based accounting to federal agencies. Process-based accounting was first proposed by James A. Brimson in his book The Handbook of Process-Based Accounting: Leveraging Processes to Predict Results (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 2002). Through interviews with 28 Federal Chief Financial Officers and other top government executives involved in financial management, the survey revealed a need for financial and performance reporting that was not focused on compliance but rather toward providing information necessary for sound business decisions.
The GEIG April session will feature an explanation of process-based accounting in developing integrated financial and performance reports. Secondly, we will explore how all federal agencies might use process-based accounting tools to increase transparency, highlight problems and opportunities for operations improvement, and increase the amount of forward-looking information for decision-making. Finally, we will consider how some agencies are integrating and institutionalizing these tools to create value-added financial and performance reports.
REGISTER HERE
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