Turn Arounds: 1. Stop the Bleeding

This is an occasional series about the accounting side of business turnarounds, where a company makes a serious effort to get back on its feet.

Two things that all turnarounds have in common: high stress and low money. Even if you are backed by someone with deep pockets, you have to prove your worth first.

Clearly the first step is like triage in a war hospital: determine what injuries need to be examined first. Start with the cash inflows and outflows. What cash needs to be paid immediately, what deferred and what cash can be collected? Ensure that the procedures are in place to update those lists daily.

The next priority for the accountant should be information: who needs what reports when? Ensure that operations (e.g. the warehouse, the factory, the sales locations etc.) are getting what they need, so that the business can continue to run. Check that the other stakeholders are getting what they need, particularly the funders such as the bank and active shareholders. Make an appointment to see each funder personally, particularly if you have been parachuted into the situation. Your goals are

1. To establish or maintain a good relationship,
   
2. To demonstrate that the situation is under control and
   
3. To establish a line of communication so that the stakeholder knows when to expect updates on the situation.
   

Don't forget financial reporting, particularly to the government. Companies in trouble often have poor internal financial reporting. Set a target, such as having the monthly financial reports available in 5 business days after the month end. Setting and meeting targets will go along way to re-establishing trust in the financial statements.

Equally important is the accounting team. They will need to be re-energized. Accounting is often the unsung hero of the company: if you drop in late at night and there is one light on in the office, chances are it will be the accountant. To the extent that you are able, tell the accounting team on what the plan is. You want to fight rumors with facts. Create a calendar of all the tasks that need to happen in accounting each week, month, quarter and year and ensure that someone is responsible for each one. Look for chances for people to take on additional responsibilities. You may not be able to pay them more, but you can certainly recognize and praise their efforts. One failing many accountants have is the tendency to take too much on ourselves and burn out.

Next installment: Technology Triage.

Competitive Edge: Your Accounting System

The Toronto Globe and Mail ran a story about Analytics, saying that a company's statistics can be a powerful tool in the right hands. Harvey Schachter, the Globe's "Monday Manager" quoted from Competing On Analytics, a Harvard Business School book by Davenport and Harris, which highlights the need to have the right data and the right management support in order to reap the rewards of good analysis.

How well I know that story. Every time I implement Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains or Navision), I offer the client the ability to integrate operational data in the accounting system, but I am rarely taken up on the offer. One glowing exception was a felt manufacturer where the President had a one page report of key performance indicators that he used to run his business. It was quite a challenge to make the new system fit the summary cash, balance sheet, income statement and statistics (with a separate column for each subsidiary) onto one page, but it was worth it!

Try this: picture your company as a sports franchise competing in the major leagues. What statistics would help you manage the team? Think in terms of:

• Output: How much do you really earn per unit, after all discounts?
  
• Input: How much waste is there, and at what stage does it occur?
  
• Human Resources: How many hours go into your product or service? How high or low is your utilization?
• Equipment: How long do your machines sit idle?

Often managers feel they know the answers to this type of question already. As the Production Manager of a tool and die shop said to me, "You're not going to replace me with a computer!" when I implemented a job tracking program for the General Manager. But that same manager was really surprised at how busy his plant turned out to be. He had been considering whether to replace his older drill presses with computer aided equipment, but he ended up keeping both the old and the new equipment when he saw the report of his order backlog.

Even if you have an older accounting system, you would be amazed at the quality of report that can be obtained from standard microcomputer software such as Crystal Reports or even Excel, when they have detailed financial and operational data to work with.

Good News or Bad News

Have you ever read an accounting analysis that sounded something like this:

The negative variance this month is due in part to budgetary timing differences offset by expense accruals . . .

Is that news good or bad? Who knows? What's clear is that accounting jargon is distorting the message. Now, most analysis doesn't get quite this bad, but jargon is a big issue in financial statement analysis. Here's a little primer:

Variance - the difference between two numbers, e.g. this year and last year or this year and budget. A positive variance is good. A negative variance is bad.

Timing Difference - typically means that an expense was expected but it occurred in a different month (either earlier or later) than originally forecast. This is neither good nor bad news. It just explains why the number is different.

Accruals - see below for a more detailed description. Accruals mean you recognize your income when you earn it, not when the money comes in and you record your expense when you owe the money or have used the good/service, not when the money is actually paid.

For me the biggest issue with financial analysis is not the jargon, however, it's the tendency to say what happened, but not why. Decision makers need to know things are going right (or wrong) in order to make good decisions. Knowing that an expense went over budget is only half the battle. You need to know why as well.

Accruals

I first was promoted to Controller during a shakeout at an insurance brokerage which went right to the top. After a couple of months, the new president called me into his office to explain why "my" sales number was different than his. He was trying to understand the financial statements and he had copied all of the invoices issued to customers in the month. I explained that some of our policies went for more than one year and we had to wait until we earned the commission in the future years before we could include the money in our sales numbers. It made sense to him. It also helped de-mystify the whole accounting process for him.

But I think the final word has to go to the Vice-President who cured me of my accounting financial analysis jargon. He said to me, "Bill, from now on I want to see the words, 'Good News', or 'Bad News' at the top of your analysis reports."

That's what it all comes down to, isn't it?