Posts Tagged ‘finance kpi’

Keeping Abreast with the Latest Finance KPI Trends

Friday, January 16th, 2009

It has long been established that finance KPIs play a very important role in the success of any business, no matter the size and tenure in the arena. It is no wonder how many businesses, even the smallest ones, are now establishing their very own systems of KPIs and metrics to manage performance and operations of their enterprises. However, just because you already have a metric system running quite robustly for your enterprise does not mean that you should already stop looking for better and more encompassing ways to incorporate and improve your existing KPIs. Thus, there is a need to keep an eye out for the new trends in the arena.

At present, we have four new trends to look into when it comes to the incorporation of KPIs for finance. The first one pertains to the role-oriented KPI tools. Primarily designed for enterprises that are small or medium in size, these tools are the ones that keep track of all business procedures that go about. Assessment is also tackled by these tools across all the various procedures that take place.

The second trend pertains to integration. Because of the established importance of KPIs in the arena, more and more applications are being integrated right into the applications of today’s offices and organizations. Because of such integration, there is now easier linkage as well as easier implementation of all the existing platforms all over. This is definitely one trend that can help any small- or medium-sized enterprise obtain just enough leverage to get things going the way they should. If you are the proprietor of such an enterprise, then be sure to look into this particular trend.

The third trend pertains to data specialization. In the old days, it was quite difficult for managers to get their hands on specific data as needed, particularly because there was just too much data to process and begin with. Now with data specialization, a more precise system is implemented, allowing easier access to specific data. With this comes the achievement of the goal of data cooperation as well.

The good thing about all of this is that these latest performance management systems still have the original purpose of the KPIs in mind. The system still gives managers a valuable bird’s eye view of the performance and the progress of the company quite easily. And because of the implementation of role-oriented KPI tools, it is definitely easier to deal with the specific needs of specific departments, whether you need to tackle the needs of operations, customer service, accounting, even sales.

Another massive advantage that this new system has to its belt is the fact that data gathering is made much faster to begin with. Before, it would literally take weeks and months for managers to accumulate data needed and generate significant reports and results for the different levels of the enterprise. This new approach virtually turns the whole process around, cutting back these weeks and months to just days.

Delving into the new trends of finance KPIs is certainly a wise move that any business or enterprise should look into. With more role-oriented management systems in tow, this is something small and midsize enterprises should get their hands on.

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The Essential Contents of Finance Metrics

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Managing money is not always about cost cutting. It requires analytical approaches that will indicate which part of the expenses should be minimized or totally eradicated. As such, there has to be measurements in managing money; and in terms of report, this is translated into what is called finance metrics. One cannot just simply decide that a certain process or machine be removed as it is expensive. Decisions based on assumptions are more likely to cause financial damage than assistance or resolution.

There are many aspects in managing finance. There are several Key Performance Indicators or KPIs that need to be incorporated in the report when finances are measured. One of these is job costing. Whenever there are projects that has cost, especially for manufacturing, a job costing analysis should be made. It is in this principle or light that a job costing report should be prepared so the managers will get a picture of what is transpiring. This way, they can also see if the investment is earning or if there is much potential for expansion.

Job costing shows people the total accumulated costs of a certain project, and this should include overhead expenses, too. Full costs are calculated against the revenue, and this is more often than not measured by department or division.

The first part of the job costing report is the job ledger. This should contain accounting transactions in a specific order. Normally, this contains job orders and job numbers categorized in a specific way for easy tracking. This contains revenues, costs, indirect costs, and receipts for all the jobs done for a specific project. The job ledger may be sub-categorized in different buckets to easily identify the pain areas in expenses and lost revenues. This may include current cost, purged job cost, billing cost, and invoice ledgers.

Another metric that can be used in analyzing financial status and movement is discounted cash flow. This is a method in appraising a company and its financial assets. Perhaps the downside of this approach is that it is based on the estimation of future cash out flow instead of current expenditures. However, this estimation is backed up by historical data, which is the foundation of any statistical study. Normally, discounted cash flow is only applied in investments and real estate development industries. However, its effectiveness in gauging financial performance has led it to become one of the most used tools in financial studies.

Discounted cash flow may be confusing to some. The problem is that this is not based on simple addition and subtraction. There are a lot of financial formulas that need to be used because one has to factor in the value of treasury notes and the span of time that has elapsed since the assets were purchased.

In general, people who want to manage their finances should consult an expert in finance management, whether this is personal or corporate finance. It is always best to consult experts when developing finance metrics, to be sure that the things being measured are ultimately aligned with the goals of the company.

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