20 major mistakes made by accountants – and how to avoid them

Corporate accountants worldwide continue to make the same mistakes. Why do we spend months on an annual planning process that we know is flawed? And many days preparing monthly reports which inform management 'after the horse has bolted'? Why are performance measures reported, rather than galvanising change?

In an economic downturn corporate accountants need to find more time to help their businesses in a more proactive way.  This workshop will enlighten and encourage controllers, CFOs, management and financial accountants to avoid these major mistakes and work more smartly. It is based on David Parmenter’s new book Winning CFOs: implementing and applying better practices, which analyses the lessons learnt from ´winning’ finance teams from around the world. 

• finance directors, chief financial officers and financial controllers plus corporate accountants in all sectors
• consultants and practitioners who offer services to corporate accountants.

• find out how to avoid the top twenty major mistakes
• free up time so you can be more proactive
• obtain a white paper and electronic templates, valued at £120, so you can make an immediate start on working more smartly.

David Parmenter BCom (Hons), FCA, is an international presenter and published author with John Wiley & Sons. His thought provoking courses have led to substantial change in finance teams around the world.

David is a leading expert in: finance teams' better practices, the development of winning KPIs, implementing quarterly rolling forecasting and planning, quick month end reporting processes and decision based reporting.

He has also worked for Ernst & Young, BP Oil Ltd, Pricewaterhousecoopers and Arthur Andersen. His Key Performance Indicators book is a best seller in the performance management category.

The course will cover how to avoid the mistakes which include:

• having over 80 account codes for the P/L
• only forecasting to year end
• breaking down the annual plan into twelve before the year starts
• making the finance team a miserable place to work
• not investing enough effort and time into leadership
• producing numbing monthly financial reports
• reporting on the wrong performance measures
• allowing month end reporting to go past three working days
• investing in a complex G/L and upgrading unnecessarily
• giving budget holders an annual entitlement
• budgeting at account code level
• taking months doing an annual plan - instead of ten working days
• not producing daily/weekly decision based reports
• letting Excel dominate the finance system
• not investing enough in accounts payable.

It will start with registration and coffee at 9.00 am and end at 5.00 pm. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

6 CPD hours (where applicable)

This course is endorsed by ACCA UK.

Please also see details of Implementing winning KPIs and Quick month end reporting, other courses by David Parmenter which might be of interest to you.

Find out more
If you have any queries please email or phone us on +44 (0)845 026 4722.

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