Course Information

Today’s controllers are facing a complex and constantly changing business environment, pressuring their accounting departments to provide timely, accurate, and reliable information in a more efficient manner. The controller’s office is increasingly viewed as a business asset. Despite the uncertainty of the future, organizations look to the controller to provide clear insights using historical and forward-looking data.

This course will present recent research relevant to today’s controllers, describing the role of the controller in detail.  He/she is at the center of the corporate universe due to the organizations’ need to capture, manage and leverage accounting and business data to enhance their performance in a competitive market. Dramatic changes in the business environment, such as increased globalization, changes in reporting requirements, rapid technological advancement, and the long-term impact of capital expenditures, have driven businesses to reevaluate the controller’s role. Most organizations now expect the controller’s office to be a central resource for critical business information to help drive strategic and critical decisions from the C-suite as well as across all operations.

• Identify the role of controllership
• Differentiate between the roles of controller and CFO
• Recognize the changing role and expectations of today’s controllers
• Recognize the challenges faced by controllers
• Identify strategies for building highly effective accounting departments
• Identify ways to improve cash management
• Recognize ways to accelerate cash receipts and/or delay cash payments
• Differentiate between cash forecasts and cash budgets
• Identify key steps involved in developing a cash forecast
• Recognize common instruments for cash investments
• Identify key control activities for cash receipts
• Recognize the impact of credit policies on accounts receivables
• Calculate the value of an organization’s accounts receivable
• Differentiate between the allowance method and direct write-off method
• Identify key control activities for accounts receivables
• Identify ways to optimize a business’ accounts receivable
• Identify the main characteristics of fixed assets
• Recognize the impact of fixed assets and depreciation on financial statements
• Identify the various types of depreciation methods
• Recognize the top issues associated with fixed assets
• Identify control activities related to fixed assets
• Identify the characteristics of merchandising, manufacturing, and service companies
• Identify several inventory costing methods including FIFO, LIFO, and the weighted average approach
• Distinguish between perpetual and periodic inventory systems
• Recognize important inventory management considerations
• Recognize the components of inventory cost
• Identify ways to optimize the Economic Order Quantity
• Identify key control activities for inventory and cost of sales
• Identify ways to optimize an organization’s accounts payable
• Recognize different techniques to prevent and detect irregularities in accounts payable
• Identify key control activities for accounts payable
• Distinguish between employees and independent contractors
• Recognize the responsibilities of a payroll department
• Calculate the gross earnings, withholding (payroll deductions), and net pay
• Recognize the best practices for leading a high-function payroll function
• Identify key control activities related to the payroll process
• Recognize the different financial statements and their uses
• Differentiate between the single-step and multistep income statements
• Identify the content of the statement of cash flows
• Identify differences for preparation of the statement of cash flows using the direct and indirect methods
• Recognize the purpose of notes to financial statements
• Identify the steps in the accounting cycle
• Record adjusting and closing entries
• Recognize the impact of adjusting entries on the financial statements
• Identify the purpose of closing entries
• Identify ways to improve the accuracy and speed of the closing process
• Recognize key financial ratios and how they can be used
• Calculate the value for different financial ratios
• Recognize various types of forecasts
• Identify steps in preparation of financial forecasts
• Identify the purpose of budgeting
• Recognize the major types of budget reports
• Identify advantages and disadvantages of budgets
• Recognize ways of increasing the value of budgets
• Identify examples of the master budgets
• Recognize the uses of capital budgeting
• Identify the different techniques used to evaluate business investments and their applications
• Recognize the concept of mutually exclusive projects