I have written about this in the past, yet it is an ongoing subject that we deal with business owners day after day… A client recently asked me why we (The Strategic CFO) were insisting on generating the clients financial statements on an accrual basis and per GAAP. He insisted that cash basis was fine
In my 28 years of working for different types of organizations – public, private and consulting for companies from $4 million in revenue to $1.5 billion in revenue – I continue to be surprised how decision making impacts an organization. I’m even more surprised how the lack of decision making negatively impacts an organization. In
Ron Rael, author of 13 ½ Strategic Ways of Winning the Budgeting Wars, once said that, “To achieve success in anything, you need two ingredients: a target to aim for and a way to measure your progress towards it.” Budgeting is all about achieving success in business. When you improve the budget process, you are
Michael Gerber said it best in his book, E-Myth Mastery, “there is nothing in the creation and operation of a company that so seemingly conspires to confuse, intimidate, overwhelm, complicate, rationalize, and metastasize the plain ignorance of the average business guy, or woman, then money” (172). But why is that so? It’s because as humans,
Let’s go back to 1912… The RMS Titanic set out on her first (and only) voyage from Great Britain to New York City on April 10, 1912. The plans were drawn. The lines were cast. Some of the wealthiest people in the world were aboard. The well-oiled machine was pumping the turbines below, pressing forth to America.
You may be familiar with the advisory system (pictured at right) formerly used by the Department of Homeland Security to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts. Despite its being replaced by a new system in 2011, most of us remember the color-coded warning system that came in the wake of September 11. But,
During the Vietnam War era, the military coined the term SWAG – Scientific Wild-Ass Guess. CBS released “The Uncounted Enemy: a Vietnam Deception” in 1982 which highlighted the US Army and their “manipulation” of facts and figures during the Vietnam conflict. CBS claimed that General William Westmoreland and other military officers were conspiring to misrepresent information, resulting in
Do you need to take an umbrella to work today? Without a trusty weather app or friendly meteorologist, it would be difficult to know the answer. Fortunately, you probably have one of these tools to help you make an informed decision. The CFO/Controller is the meteorologist for the business. It’s your job to help the company decide when, and if,
The new year is well under way and many of us are working with new, leaner budgets. When we were developing these plans at the end of 2019, it seemed completely realistic that we could cut costs while maintaining our current sales volume. Now that the holiday buzz has worn off and harsh reality has
Have you had to make an important decision and you kept weighing the alternatives, trying to decide which choice was more worthwhile? We all make important life decisions every day. We tend to focus on the benefit of our first choice and not the benefits of the next best choice. An opportunity cost is the
Whether in business or in personal life, we can all look in the past and say that we’ve been in situations where we’ve wasted money, time, or energy on things that did not end up being worthwhile. Was there a moment during that situation when you thought about backing out before you sank even deeper?
See Also: Absorption vs Variable Costing Semi Variable Costs Sunk Costs Marginal Costs Average Cost Variable vs Fixed Costs Definition In accounting, a distinction is often made between the variable vs fixed costs definition. Variable costs change with activity or production volume. In comparison, fixed costs remain constant regardless of activity or production volume. All Costs In
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