Corporations are placing a greater emphasis on converting credit sales into bank deposits. In most cases, accounts receivable represent the company's most important asset. Conventional collection techniques have not kept pace with changing times. Various laws, debtor attitudes, the cost of money, liberal credit policies, and increased competition have created a brand-new climate. Yet credit executives and financial management continue to follow antiquated policies. The Collection Management Handbook shows them how to redefine their credit collection techniques.

"Applications of Management Science" is a blind refereed serial publication published on an annual basis. The objective of this research annual is to present state-of-the-art studies in the application of management science to the solution of significant managerial decision-making problems. It significantly aids the dissemination of actual applications of management science in both the public and the private sectors. Volume 14 is directed toward the application of management science to multi-criteria decision making, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and financial performance analyses. This volume is arranged in three sections. The first section focuses on multi-criteria decision making; the second focus is on the application of DEA to public schools, paper mills, nursing home quality, retailing, health care services, and performance efficiencies in cities. The third section focuses on multi-dimensional performance of a national stock market and the effect of organizational structure on micro-financial institutions. This volume will prove to be most valuable to those interested in financial performance measurements, productivity measurement and analysis, and management science, both as practitioners and researchers.

This concise volume evaluates the cause and significance of recent corporate failures and financial scandals, and how they reflect on the fitness for purpose of the external auditors, financial reports, financial watchdogs, boards, directors and senior management. Failures like the disastrous collapse of Carillion, examined at length, have ultimately led to a crisis of confidence not only in the audit process but in the entire process of financial reporting. Revealing the shortcomings in audit quality, independence, choice and the growing expectation gap, Financial Failures and Scandals questions if the profession, its regulators or government watchdogs, are adequately prepared for the challenges of increasing regulation, public outcry and political scrutiny in the face of inevitable future financial failures. The fundamental structures of financial reporting, annual reports, boards of directors and senior management are often found to have failed. Tighter regulation and new requirements for reporting will inevitably result. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with insiders, users and experts, this unique book provides a compelling account of the profoundly disruptive impact of financial failures on corporate and financial accountability. Topical and readable, this book will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals in accounting and auditing, as well as to policy makers and regulators.

AN INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL REPORTS--WITH NEW TACTICSFOR BUDGETING AND PINPOINTING KEY FINANCIAL AREASFinancial decisions impact virtually every area of your company. As a manager, it's up to you to understand how and why. Finance for Nonfinancial Managers helps you understand the information in essential financial reportsand then shows you how to use that understanding to make informed, intelligent decisions. It provides a solid working knowledge of: Basic Financial Reports--All about balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and moreCost Accounting--Methods to assess which products or services are most profitable to your firmOperational Planning and Budgeting--Ways to use financial knowledge to strengthen your company Briefcase Books, written specifically for today's busy manager, feature eye-catching icons, checklists, and sidebars to guide managers step-by-step through everyday workplace situations. Look for these innovative design features to help you navigate through each page:Key Terms: Clear defi nitions of key terms and conceptsSmart Managing: Tactics and strategies for managing changeTricks of the Trade: Tips for executing the tactics in the bookMistake Proofing: Practical advice for minimizing the possibility of errorCaution: Warning signs for when things are about to go wrongFor Example: Examples of successful change-management tacticsTools: Specific planning procedures, tactics, and hands-on techniques

The volume provides information on the career and life of Marida Bertocchi, and is representative of her broad research interests on the development of numerical algorithms and their applications in energy, finance and logistics. It includes some of her early publications, her significant papers on the development and application of stochastic optimization to financial and logistics problems, and her later work on robust optimization for risk management in renewable energy systems, finance and logistics and modelling mortality risk.

The volume provides information on the career and life of Marida Bertocchi, and is representative of her broad research interests on the development of numerical algorithms and their applications in energy, finance and logistics. It includes some of her early publications, her significant papers on the development and application of stochastic optimization to financial and logistics problems, and her later work on robust optimization for risk management in renewable energy systems, finance and logistics and modelling mortality risk.

Currency fluctuations cause more financial losses to business than any other single factor. Exchange rates between one currency and another can change dramatically in a short period of time, leaving the unprepared business exposed to potentially crippling losses.
Every business that traders internationally or relies on imported goods is exposed to the effects of currency fluctuations. The efficient management of this risk is essential for the survival of a company and any business that is exposed to such a risk should ensure that it is fully prepared to manage it.
Aimed at senior managers within businesses, this book is a practical primer on how to reduce risk from volatility in the foreign markets.

Cost-benefit analysis is the only method of economic evaluation that can effectively indicate whether a health care treatment or intervention is worthwhile. In this thoroughly updated and revised second edition, Robert Brent expands the scope of the field by including the latest concepts and applications throughout all regions of the world. This book attempts to strengthen the link between cost-benefit analysis and the mainstream health care evaluation field, which is dominated by non-economists. The need to build a bridge between the two is more important than ever before, as the general understanding of cost-benefit analysis appears to have regressed.Case studies are used throughout to explain and illustrate the various methodologies being examined. In addition, the author now covers more of the statistical requirements that are necessary to understand and carry out health care evaluations, and follows an applied economics approach. Ultimately, he resolves a number of disputes and makes some new, but subtle, contributions by reinterpreting, correcting and extending existing work. The book covers the topic in an accessible manner, from the foundations to the frontiers of the field, and clearly explains all the necessary economic principles along the way. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations, Second Edition will be invaluable to students and researchers of health economics, public policy and health care policy, as well as policymakers and health care practitioners. It can also be used as a comprehensive introductory text by anyone with an interest in cost-benefit analysis. From this perspective, the new additional final chapter is particularly useful as it supplies a summary of CBA that highlights the main conclusions of the text in a single chapter. Contents: 1. Introduction to Health Care Evaluation 2. Cost Minimization and the Definition of 'Cost' 3. Types of Costs and their Measurement 4. External Costs 5. Social Cost of Taxation 6. Fundamentals of Cost-effectiveness Aanalysis 7. Further Issues of Cost-effectiveness Analysis 8. Fundamentals of Cost utility Analysis 9. Measuring Utilities in Cost utility Analysis 10. Cost-utility Analysis and Equity 11. Cost-benefit Analysis and the Human Capital Approach 12. Cost-benefit Analysis and Willingness to Pay 13. Cost-benefit Analysis and Equity 14. Methods for Measuring the Benefits of HIV/AIDS Interventions Index

A practical, real-world guide for implementing enterprise risk management (ERM) programs into your organization Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a complex yet critical issue that all companies must deal with in the twenty-first century. Failure to properly manage risk continues to plague corporations around the world. ERM empowers risk professionals to balance risks with rewards and balance people with processes. But to master the numerous aspects of enterprise risk management, you must integrate it into the culture and operations of the business. No one knows this better than risk management expert James Lam, and now, with Implementing Enterprise Risk Management: From Methods to Applications, he distills more than thirty years' worth of experience in the field to give risk professionals a clear understanding of how to implement an enterprise risk management program for every business. * Offers valuable insights on solving real-world business problems using ERM * Effectively addresses how to develop specific ERM tools * Contains a significant number of case studies to help with practical implementation of an ERM program While Enterprise Risk Management: From Incentives to Controls, Second Edition focuses on the "what" of ERM, Implementing Enterprise Risk Management: From Methods to Applications will help you focus on the "how." Together, these two resources can help you meet the enterprise-wide risk management challenge head on and succeed.

"Applications of Management Science" is a blind refereed serial publication published on an annual basis. The objective of this research annual is to present state-of-the-art studies in the application of management science to the solution of significant managerial decision-making problems. It significantly aids the dissemination of actual applications of management science in both the public and private sectors. Volume 13 is directed toward the application of management science to financial management, specifically in portfolio analysis and in productivity management such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Arranged in two sections, the first comprises a collection of financial applications papers, while the second focuses on the use of DEA in such wide-ranging environments as airport operations, freight railroads, gynaecological departments, severe coastal storms, and performance evaluation and classification of universities and public schools. This volume will prove valuable to researchers and practitioners of management science and operations research, as well as being a vital companion to portfolio analysts and industrial and financial engineers alike.

Philipp Plank analyses the question, what drives the quality of cost-systems and is the quality of cost-systems directly and at best positively related to the firms' performance. In other words, is it worth investing in complex cost allocation systems or are there environmental and/or production settings in which less enhanced systems perform adequately. Using simulations, a benchmark firm (first-best solution) perfectly allocating cost to products is compared to firms implementing heuristic cost-allocation schemes (second-best solution) to identify the profit gap resulting from decisions based on limited information. Into this discussion, the idea of cost-stickiness is integrated, thereby indicating a new planning approach.

The Logic Model Guidebook offers clear, step-by-step support for creating logic models and the modeling process in a range of contexts. Lisa Wyatt Knowlton and Cynthia C. Phillips describe the structures, processes, and language of logic models as a robust tool to improve the design, development, and implementation of program and organization change efforts. The text is enhanced by numerous visual learning guides (sample models, checklists, exercises, worksheets) and many new case examples. The authors provide students, practitioners, and beginning researchers with practical support to develop and improve models that reflect knowledge, practice, and beliefs. The Guidebook offers a range of new applied examples. The text includes logic models for evaluation, discusses archetypes, and explores display and meaning. In an important contribution to programs and organizations, it emphasizes quality by raising issues like plausibility, feasibility, and strategic choices in model creation.

The fast and easy way to grasp cash flow management

"Cash Flow For Dummies" offers small business owners, accountants, prospective entrepreneurs, and others responsible for cash management an informational manual to cash flow basics and proven success strategies. Cash Flow For Dummies is an essential guide to effective strategies that will make your business more appealing on the market. Loaded with valuable tips and techniques, it teaches individuals and companies the ins and outs of maximizing cash flow, the fundamentals of cash management, and how it affects the quality of a company's earnings.

Cash flow is the movement of cash into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It is usually measured during a specified, finite period of time, and can be used to measure rates of return, actual liquidity, real profits, and to evaluate the quality of investments. "Cash Flow For Dummies" gives you an understanding of the basic principles of cash management and its core principles to facilitate small business success.Covers how to read cash flow statementsIllustrates how cash balances are analyzed and monitored--including internal controls over cash receipts and disbursements, plus bank account reconciliation and activity analysisTips on how to avoid the pitfalls of granting credit--evaluating customer credit, sources of credit information, and overall credit policyAdvice on how to prevent fraud and wasteCovers cash-generating tactics when doing business with dot-coms, other start-ups, and bankrupt customers

"Cash Flow For Dummies" is an easy-to-understand guide that covers all of these essentials for success and more.

The authoritative, practical guide to internal control after COSO (Committee on Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission)

Beyond COSO unravels the complexities of the COSO Report while providing clear-cut guidelines on how to implement the various internal controls it mandates. Just as important, it builds on the COSO framework to provide a more rigorous system that corporate executives and directors can use to transform the internal control function into a valuable strategic tool for leveraging corporate strengths and improving performance.

The first practical guide to complying with COSO Report mandates, Beyond COSO:

• Clearly explains the intricacies of the COSO Report
• Describes proven techniques for complying with COSO requirements
• Provides a detailed account of the internal control oversight process
• Offers expert recommendations on how to carry out internal control responsibilities more efficiently
• Supplies a wealth of ready-to-use internal control documentation

Beyond COSO is an invaluable working resource for internal and external auditors, CFOs, members of audit committees, and corporate directors.

www.wiley.com/accounting

The most complete guide to business valuation written by industry-leading valuation specialists! Handbook of Business Valuation Second Edition In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of the number-one guide to business valuation, nearly 50 experts provide expert advice and guidance on all facets of the subject. This is a single-source guide to valuation approaches and methods, in addition to all of the procedures necessary to accurately value a business. The Second Edition of the Handbook of Business Valuation enables you to find precisely the information you need; just go directly to the chapter concerning the topic you are interested in. There is no need to read the entire volume—it’s quick and easy. This is the only valuation book you need. It provides chapters on valuing specific businesses, such as: software companies, radio and cable stations, medical practices, home-based businesses, and many more, plus a special chapter on researching business valuation information on the Internet.

• An entire chapter on commonly used rules of thumb
• Business valuation from the perspective of the buyer, seller, lawyer, lender, and others
• All updated information, plus much that’s new
• Important sections on family limited partnerships, intellectual property issues, minority interests, and much more

"Marilyn Bancel has written a highly accessible, readable guide to a very complex process, which is no mean feat. Even if you have been through a capital campaign before and think you're ready-and especially if you're new to the capital campaign process-read it! Preparing Your Capital Campaign provides valuable insights and practical planning tools that will bolster your capacity to take on a campaign's challenge."
--Clara Miller, president, Nonprofit Finance Fund

In this hands-on workbook, fund raising expert Marilyn Bancel shows you how to prepare your organization to embark on a successful capital campaign, detailing each step that must be taken before the launch.

Preparing Your Capital Campaign--part of the Excellence in Fund Raising Workbook Series--breaks down the preparation stage into practical, manageable parts, outlining in straightforward language such essentials as creating a campaign timetable, setting up the campaign committee, determining a campaign goal, and getting the whole organization ready for a fund raising drive. Packed with useful resources, this nuts-and-bolts workbook includes a campaign skills checklist, strategies for estimating fund raising costs, a sample campaign budget, and a list of Web sites tailored to the specific needs of fund raisers.

If you are brand-new to fund raising, the book offers a concise introductory chapter that lays out the basics and answers the key questions about capital campaigns. More experienced fund raisers will benefit from a wealth of reminders for avoiding common mistakes and a framework for staying focused on the factors that are most important for success. Preparing Your Capital Campaign will show you how to make the most of this critical fund raising strategy.

Research shows the majority of small businesses fail in their early years due to poor financial management, turning the dreams of many business owners and novice entrepreneurs into nightmares. This book serves as a guide to prevent these financial disasters. In an applicable fashion, Karadag explains how financial management in an enterprise can be conducted strategically to attain significant improvement in business performance. Karadag takes the basic strategic management model of environmental scanning-planning-implementing-feedback as a framework, and approaches the core financial practices and instruments as elements of strategic financial management, which any small or medium sized enterprise can use as tools for sustainable organizational performance and growth. With its unique strategic outlook, this text is a vital reference for nonfinancier small or medium sized enterprise owners and individuals who aim to successfully establish and run their own businesses.

This text covers the technical aspects of capital investment decision-making, including the selection of an appropriate discount rate, and also its human and behavioural characteristics. It is a book that will be of value to accounting and finance students, general business students, and also to those actively involved in the capital decision-making process at all levels.

This book examines the relationship between digital innovations on the one hand, and accounting and management information systems on the other. In particular it addresses topics including cloud computing, data mining, XBRL, and digital platforms. It presents an analysis of how new technologies can reshape accounting and management information systems, enhancing their information potentialities and their ability to support decision-making processes, as well as several studies that reveal how managerial information needs can affect and reshape the adoption of digital technologies. Focusing on the four major aspects data management, information system architecture, external and internal reporting, the book offers a valuable resource for CIOs, CFOs and more generally for business managers, as well as for researchers and scholars. It is mainly based on a selection of the best papers - original double blind reviewed contributions - presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Italian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

In the two years since the publication of The Handbook of Risk Management and Analysis interest and the practice of management, modelling and control of financial risks has grown enormously. The author/editor has produced two stand-alone or companion volumes. Only one third of the original material remains. Measuring and Modelling Financial Risk has been structured in four parts: the first three chapters survey standard approaches to measuring and modelling financial risk from the risk manager perspective, Chapters 4 and 5 are aimed primarily at quantitative risk analysts whose job it is to put the systems in place. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss important issues in IT and systems design, and the last two chapters cover pricing and risk management of credit-risky products. Leading figures in the field contribute: Michel Crouhy, Dan Galai and Robert Mark, Stan Beckers, Thomas Wilson, Mark Broadie and Paul Glasserman, Nigel Webb, Ron Dembo, Robert Jarrow and Stuart Turnbull, and Lee Wakeman.

"Risk management is becoming an increasingly important activity for financial institutions, fund managers, and corporate treasurers. It used to be the case that the brightest ‘quants’ were used to design and value ever-more-exotic derivatives. Now increasingly they are finding that their talents can best be put to work in risk management. In this volume Carol Alexander has gathered together nine articles concerned with different aspects of risk management and analysis. The topics covered include the regulatory framework, volatility and correlation models, value at risk, and credit risk. The book will provide a valuable source of reference material for both market participants and students." John Hull, August 1998

Strategy decision making and action used to be off limits to all but the select few at the very top of an organization. It was a largely cerebral activity focused on grand long-terms plans made at annual off-site retreats away from the daily challenges of the business. That is no longer the case. The current business environment does not wait for companies to slowly adjust in an annual meeting. The relentless pace of change renders today's long-term future tomorrow's history. Rapid innovations and ever-increasing complexities limit executives' ability to make decisions with perfect information. Does this mean strategy is no longer useful, or even feasible? No. Good strategists are needed now more than ever. But today's high-performing organizations think of strategy differently than in the past. These companies make strategy part of every manager's role; they strategize continuously and tackle strategic problems through individuals from all parts of the organization. Strategy in this new, fast-paced world is about diagnosing the diverse array of complex challenges confronting organizations, deciding on novel solutions to address those challenges, and delivering by taking action on those solutions. Including a novel organizational framework and never-before-published application examples, Strategy in 3D helps build these foundational skills and prepares the reader for success as a strategist in the 21st century.