Accounting and Finance Policies and Procedures »

Rose Hightower, Accountant, MSc, has been the owner of IDEAL Consulting Solutions International, LLC for ten years, consulting in implementation of internal control and policy and procedure programs for large companies. Bringing over twenty years of experience from IBM and serving as finance manager, her program contains practical lessons and simple solutions for any size company. She is known as "The Policy Guru" and offers advice and counsel to clients from her Web site, idealpolicy.com, and through auditnet.org.

Praise for Accounting and Finance Policies and Procedures

"This comprehensive and practical tool enables accountants to produce documentation on policies and procedures in a quick and thorough manner. The URL download eliminates the tedious administrative setup work, and the detailed description within each section assists in the prevention of overlooking what we very often take for granted. This is not a how-to book; it is a tool that . . . will make your company documents look like you are part of a Fortune 500 company."

—— Leslie Kessler Brand, CPA

Corporate Controller, Porta Systems Corp.

"For contract training on or off-campus, there is no faculty member more concerned with student learning and process than Rose Hightower. Rose is the preferred adjunct by numerous companies for their staff development in project management and finance and accounting especially for the non-financial manager. She, like her book, Accounting and Finance Policies and Procedures, takes a complicated subject and breaks it into manageable components."

—— Maureen Connolly, Dean

Berkeley College

"Rose has developed a comprehensive policies and procedures program that allows you to standardize, train and assure compliance with financial policies on a worldwide basis. In today's age of ever increasing technical complexity along with the global and diverse nature of organizations, a practical guide to establishing, formally documenting, and maintaining accounting policies will be of use to many firms, big and small. This guide will enable those firms to hit the ground running and significantly accelerate their completion of a solid policies and procedures program."

—— Douglas Robinson, CFO

Verint Systems Inc.

"Policies and procedures are the foundation of internal controls for organizations. It is therefore very important that they be clearly written, current and comprehensive. Accounting and Finance Policies and Procedures by Rose Hightower provides an excellent framework for any organization to create this foundation. The merging of an online component recognizes the importance of a digital tool to update policies and procedures in a timely manner."

—— Jim Kaplan, President and CEO

AuditNet, LLC (www.auditnet.org)

Getting Started - How to Use this Manual.

Preface.

Program.

A01 Introduction.

A02 Policy and Procedure Program Charter.

A03 Overview - Getting Started – Presentation.

A04 Create, Issue Revise Policies and Procedures.

A05 Request for Deviation from Policies and Procedures.

A06 Rescind Policies and Procedures

Policies and Procedures.

B01 Account Reconciliation.

B02 Accounting for Compensated Absences.

B03 Accounting for Goodwill and Intangible Assets.

B04 Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions.

B05 Accounting for Post Employment Benefits.

B06 Accounting for Restructuring and Reorganization.

B07 Accounting for Sales Compensation: Expense, Accrual, Reconciliation.

B08 Accounts Payable - 3rd Party Trade.

B09 Accounts Receivable - Allow for Doubtful Accounts.

B10 Accounts Receivable – Credit, Collection and Cash Applications.

B11 Accruals.

B12 Addressing Accounting and Audit related Complaints.

B13 Authorization – Delegation, Sub Delegation of Authority.

B13 Authorization – Delegation, Sub Delegation of Authority matrix.

B14 Bank Reconciliation.

B15 Business Combinations and Consolidation.

B16 Business Licenses.

B17 Cash and Banking.

B18 Communication with Financial Community.

B19 Escheat, Abandoned Property, Unclaimed Checks.

B20 Finance Code of Ethical Conduct.

B21 Financial Indicators.

B22 Financial Planning and Analysis.

B23 Fixed Assets, PP&E, Long Lived Assets.

B24 Foreign Currency and Risk Management.

B25 Funding and Financing Risk Management.

B26 Hire and Use of External Auditors.

B27 Income Tax Preparation and Reporting.

B28 Insurance and Risk Management.

B29 Intercompany Transactions.

B30 Inventory.

B31 Investment and Marketable Securities.

B32 Journal Entries and Non Routine Transactions.

B33 Leases - Capital, Operating and Real Estate.

B34 Letter of Representation, Quarterly Sub Certification.

B35 Payroll / Salary Expense.

B36 Petty Cash.

B37 Physical Count for Inventory and Fixed Asset.

B38 Prepaid Assets / Expenses.

B39 Revenue Recognition.

B40 Source and Use of Exchange Rates.

B41 Travel, Entertainment and Expense.

B41 Travel, Entertainment and Expense – Manual.

Bonus Policies and Procedures.

C01 External Communications.

C02 Material Non Public Information and Insider Trading.

C03 Procurement.

C04 Records Information Management.

Index.