تالار تخصصی حسابداری

1. Political & legal factors
2. Economic factors
3. Social, cultural and demographic influences
4. Technological factors

The Chief Financial Officer and the Controller
The chief financial officer (CFO)—also called the finance director in many countries—is the executive responsible for overseeing the financial operations of an organization. The responsibilities of the CFO vary among organizations, but they usually include the following areas:
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 Controllership —includes providing financial information for reports to managers and shareholders, and overseeing the overall operations of the accounting system
 Treasury—includes banking and short- and long-term financing, investments, and cash management
 Risk management—includes managing the financial risk of interest-rate and exchange-rate changes and derivatives management
 Taxation—includes income taxes, sales taxes, and international tax planning
 Investor relations—includes communicating with, responding to, and interacting with shareholders
 Internal audit—includes reviewing and analyzing financial and other records to attest to the integrity of the organization’s financial reports and to adherence to its policies and procedures

Exhibit 1-6 is an organization chart of the CFO and the corporate controller at Nike,the leading footwear and apparel company. The CFO is a staff manager who reports to and supports the chief executive officer (CEO). As in most organizations, the corporate controller at Nike reports to the CFO. Nike also has regional controllers who support
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regional managers in the major geographic regions in which the company operates, such as the United States, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. Individual countries sometimes have a country controller. Organization charts such as the one in Exhibit 1-6 show formal reporting relationships. In most organizations, there also are informal relationships
that must be understood when managers attempt to implement their decisions.Examples of informal relationships are friendships among managers (friendships of a professional or personal kind) and the personal preferences of top management about the managers they rely on in decision making.
Ponder what managers do to design and implement strategies and the organization structures within which they operate. Then think about the management accountants 'and controllers’ roles. It should be clear that the successful management accountant must have technical and analytical competence as well as behavioral and interpersonal skills.The Concepts in Action box on page 15 describes some desirable values and behaviors and why they are so critical to the partnership between management accountants and managers. We will refer to these values and behaviors as we discuss different topics in subsequent chapters of this book.[/color]
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Professional Ethics
At no time has the focus on ethical conduct been sharper than it is today. Corporate scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen have seriously eroded the public’s confidence in corporations. All employees in a company, whether in line management or staff management, must comply with the organization’s—and more broadly, society’s-expectations of ethical standards.
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Institutional Support
Accountants have special obligations regarding ethics, given that they are responsible for the integrity of the financial information provided to internal and external parties. The Sarbanes–Oxley legislation in the United States, passed in 2002 in response to a series of corporate scandals, focuses on improving internal control, corporate governance, monitoring of managers, and disclosure practices of public corporations. These regulations call for tough ethical standards on managers and accountants and provide a process for employees to report violations of illegal and unethical acts.
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Professional accounting organizations, which represent management accountants in many countries, promote high ethical standards.3 Each of these organizations provides certification programs indicating that the holder has demonstrated the competency of technical knowledge required by that organization in management accounting and financial management, respectively.
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In the United States, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has also issued ethical guidelines. Exhibit 1-7 presents the IMA’s guidance on issues relating to competence,confidentiality, integrity, and credibility. To provide support to its members to act ethically at all times,the IMA runs an ethics hotline service. Members can call professional counselors at the IMA’s Ethics Counseling Service to discuss their ethical dilemmas. The counselors help identify the key ethical issues and possible alternative ways of resolving them, and confidentiality is guaranteed. The IMA is just one of many institutions that help navigate management accountants through what could be turbulent ethical waters.