By: KHA Consulting Team
The following is part four of a multi-part series on The KHA Way, KHA Management Consulting’s Integrated Service Offering. This blog series includes the benefits of using KHA Management Consulting Services and the components included.
Many mid-market industry leaders believe that accounting controls are unimportant, happen automatically, or are too costly in relation to time and/or money needed to implement. Unfortunately, this thought is incorrect. Most management teams learn the importance of accounting controls after an incident, such as suspected theft or malfeasance, has occurred that is far more costly and intrusive than they ever imagined.
Internal accounting controls are necessary to ensure that your assets are safe guarded and financial information is indeed reliable and accurate. Regarding your assets, they are much more than the trucks in the field or cash in the bank. Your business assets also include your proprietary information, your customer base, and in a broader scope, anything necessary to continue your business. Accounting controls rarely happen automatically in an organization, especially in the mid-market industries where many roles are fulfilled by the same person. They should be considered a necessary business practice and expense to help achieve your on-going concern and continued business success.
As your trusted advisors, KHA Management Consultants realizes that management’s knowledge of the accounting process and financial information is the best solution. These solutions ensure that errors or fraud are prevented and/or detected in a timely manner, therefore, protecting your vital business information. Your current state of the accounting controls will be assessed after we facilitate the discovery session with your leadership/financial team. Having an outside facilitator during this session often increases the likelihood of finding areas of concern since they are not tied to your current process or ‘how it has always been done’.
After the session, the areas of concern in your controls is documented and presented to your management team. Guidance regarding the changes recommended to current controls or implementation of additional accounting controls is also presented. Once your management team decides on the plan of action, our team will assist you with your implementation timeline and provide strategic guidance based on the level of importance or risk associated with the control. The documentation of the accounting controls process and a financial governance policy are an integral part of the Accounting Controls offering.
At KHA Management Consultants, we work with mid-market industry leaders to identify what makes the organization, its stakeholders, and its’ employees tick. We facilitate the Accounting Visibility process with your organization’s key constituents to ensure buy-in, ownership, and a new way of thinking about the organization and its stakeholders amongst all levels. From a resource perspective, we primarily use our unmatched experience but also tap into the top-level resources such as those made available by Harvard Business Review, relevant strategic management authors, and MentorPlus. Some of those materials, frameworks, and lessons have been used in authoring this series.
KHA Management Consultants, the consulting department of KHA Accountants, PLLC, based in Flower Mound, Texas, is always looking for opportunities to work with key clients ready to take their organization to the next level. If you have a desire to improve, take the first step toward success with the strategic management experts, and contact us at 972-221-2500.