Features

Shareholders Pay for ROA
Michael Rothschild
The failure to measure return on assets (ROA) on a daily basis rather than just at year-end is causing an average shortfall of more than $100 billion in one $2 trillion industry. Companies that have managed to integrate velocity and margin metrics at the transactional level allow their managers to model the ROA implications of their choices—before they make them. They then can make the adjustments in product mix, customer mix, asset mix, and pricing levels that lead to an increase in profits.

Merging GPK and ABC on the Road to RCA
Brian Mackie
The accounting staff of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto merged the concepts of German cost accounting (GPK), which focuses on resources, with ABC’s activity focus and produced financials that were actually relevant and useful. The new accounting system, which created many more cost centers, succeeded in breaking down the barriers separating corporate finance and operational management.

A View from the Top
Ramona Dzinkowski
In this exclusive interview, new SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt discusses SOX compliance, the adoption of XBRL by companies, and the convergence of international securities regulations. Commenting on the conservatism of auditors and CFOs in reporting their data in the aftermath of major corporate accounting failures, he suggests that accountants need to become more comfortable in applying the rules that are consistent with the underlying principles of the economic substance of the transactions.

Turning Personal Adversity into a Business Opportunity
Ned Lenhart
Many decry the illiteracy that still prevents people from benefiting from a growing economy, but this tax consultant has focused on the financial illiteracy that leads to employees agonizing over their personal finances on company time. When he teaches personal financial planning to corporate employees, he speaks from personal experience, having pulled his family out of a financial hole early in his career.

Columns

PERSPECTIVES
Which side of the line?

ACADEMIC CORNER
Fraud prevention education in the accounting curriculum.

BEST PRACTICES
Open-heart surgery.

CAREERS
Benefits: gain a competitive edge with offerings employees want.

TAXES
Manufacturer’s domestic production activities deduction.

IMA
Professional advocacy update.

ETHICS
The value of an ethical corporate culture.

XBRL
From spreadsheet trash talking to data recycling nirvana.

Departments

STREETWISE
Is Six Sigma beneficial for midsize companies?
IFAC issues proposed standard SEC holds second XBRL roundtable Books: Mastering finance for high performance.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Talk, record, and type.

TECH FORUM
Collective intelligence.

END NOTE
Twinkling motherboards.