RubinBrown - Manufacturing and Distribution

December 4, 2012

Inventory Management: Cycle Counting and the Role of Technology

Inventory is often the largest consumer of capital for an enterprise.

In order for a business to operate effectively and efficiently, maintaining accurate inventory balances—whether dollar or item based—is imperative. There’s no doubt that poor inventory accuracy may result in poor customer service.

There are many reasons why inventory levels may be inaccurate. By establishing a cycle count program, high inventory accuracy can be achieved and sustained through root cause analysis.

In addition, a cycle count program can spread out the work load as compared to a traditional wall-to-wall physical inventory count once a year.

The basics of cycle counting are simple in theory; establish a methodology, perform periodic counts, reconcile and investigate the discrepancies. However, in practice this process can be much more difficult to manage due to the complexities of your business, the volume of inventory, cycle counting methodology or methodologies, etc.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Cycle Counting, Inventory Management

November 9, 2012

Free Webinar On SEC Filings

If you would like to learn more about spotting red flags in SEC filings, we’re happy to share with you a free resource that will help. Arizona State University’s journalism department is holding free webinars on November 13-15 to help reporters and editors look for “good stories” by inspecting SEC filings. You could benefit from this webinar as well. Check it out at:
http://businessjournalism.org/2012/06/05/sec-filings-master-class-online-nov-13-15/

Filed Under: SEC Filings

October 22, 2012

Lean Accounting: React Quicker with Rolling Forecasts vs Traditional Budgets

How much time do you spend preparing your budget? And, more importantly – how does that budget help improve business results and provide the right incentive for your employees? Many companies spend months preparing their annual budget only to find that the budget is outdated less than a month into their calendar year! Traditional budgeting can also lead to unnecessary spending, promote “gaming” the system at your organization and even reduce profitability!

Businesses that are immersed in Lean, Six Sigma, or other process improvement techniques will find that traditional budgets can hamper and even stop this transformation. Traditional budgeting protects non-value add costs that may have existed for years in the organization. It also promotes a “command and control” culture, counter to empowering employees to solve their own problems.

Replacing a traditional budget with a rolling forecast will allow you to react more quickly to changing trends in your business. The flexibility of a rolling forecast will allow you to determine where and when to make important investments to increase your profitability. Finance plays an important role in leading the charge to eliminate the wasteful time spent compiling spreadsheets and producing a document that is seldom used to improve the business. Change the role of your finance and accounting group from a clerical historian to a business consultant!

An article from CFO Magazine provides several case studies of businesses that have eliminated their traditional budgets in favor of rolling forecasts. Read the article here.

Filed Under: LEAN Accounting

September 27, 2012

IRS Rules Some Employee Expense Reimbursements Taxable

Don’t get caught with a non-accountable plan. Expense reimbursements could be re-characterized by the IRS as taxable wages leaving the employer and employee subject to payroll taxes and income tax withholding. This article by The Journal of Accountancy briefly discusses an IRS recently issued Revenue Ruling (Rev. Rul. 2012-25) on wage recharacterization.

Read the article.

Filed Under: Income Tax, Payroll Tax

September 26, 2012