Account reconciliation is an underappreciated control, one which has become increasingly important with the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). In the past, when inconsistencies were discovered, a Staff Member could simply create an adjusting entry to ensure that the company financials were accurate. But section 404 of SOX requires a whole new level of diligence. In [...]
Archive for the ‘Financial Governance, Risk Management and Compliance’ Category
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Balance Sheet Reconciliation
Automating Financial Reporting: It’s All About Momentum
Financial Reporting has been overlooked in finance reengineering initiatives – mostly because it’s not a huge source of financial risk, and is not generally a significant cost center. In most companies the financial reporting process remains largely manual: document roll-forward, gathering input from around the globe, assembling packets of redlines, data input – all are [...]
PCI-DSS: What the Chief Compliance Officer Needs to Know
If you’ve tried to consolidate your merchant banking relationships recently, you’ll understand the importance of PCI-DSS, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which regulates how businesses must handle customer credit card data to ensure the privacy of cardholders. Most banks are now charging higher rates to customers who don’t comply with PCI-DSS, and some [...]
Getting Better All The Time
In a past life I worked as a database marketing consultant, helping retailers understand how to capture, analyze, and act upon customer data in the hopes of predicting or influencing future purchasing behavior. It was a strange and exhilarating discipline, equal parts art and science. We analyzed things like “affinity maps”, which essentially relate the [...]
The Production Platform for Finance: Imagine the Possibilities
Manufacturing is replete with examples of technology employed to manage and execute processes, since at least the time of Henry Ford. More recently, Customer Relationship Management has moved the effort from sales teams to technology, allowing global coordination of customer relationships and complete visibility into the status of any given sales effort. But Finance is [...]
Welcome to Trintech’s “Last Mile of Finance” Blog
Trintech’s Last Mile of Finance Blog is maintained by a team of financial professionals with a singular focus on helping bring the Office of Finance into the twenty-first century. Contributors identify and comment on interesting and topical developments in the software technologies, processes, and strategies employed by financial departments to reduce risk, maximize profits, and [...]
