
The scope of this book does not encompass all of the best practices that acompany should consider, only those used by the accounting department. Thisarea is especially susceptible to improvement through best practices, since it is heavilyprocedure-driven. When there are many procedures, there are many opportunitiesto enhance the multitude of procedure steps through automation, simplification,elimination of tasks, error-proofing, and outsourcing. Thus, of all the corporatefunctions, this is the one that reacts best to treatment through best practices.Chapter 2 covers a variety of issues related to the implementation of bestpractices, such as differentiating between incremental and reengineering changes,circumstances under which best practices are most likely to succeed, and how toplan and proceed with these implementations. Most important, there is a discussionof the multitude of reasons why a best practice implementation can fail,which is excellent reading prior to embarking on a new project, in order to beaware of all possible pitfalls. The chapter ends with a brief review of the impactof best practices on employees. This chapter is fundamental to the book, for itserves as the groundwork on which the remaining chapters are built. For example,if you are interested in modifying the general ledger account structure for use byan activity-based costing system, it is necessary to first review the implementationchapter to see how any programming, software package, or interdepartmentalissues might impact the project.
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