Management & Execution

Management & execution are about highly effective delivery. The focus for good managers today is what makes a difference to the business in the immediate and medium term future. The focus is on surviving the recession and credit crunch, with operational issues front of mind.

We look at forecasting; pipelines; project management; working capital; cashflow; management and trading accounts; raising finance; capex v opex; asset management; dealing with banks; bank lending; stable finance; supplier relationships; tax relief; auditing and pensions.

APB moves to tighten up pension audit procedures

On risk, the APB says auditors should have a sufficient understanding of the control activities that exist in pension schemes to assess the potential ...

IFRS forces pension funds up the agenda

More than 55 per cent of finance directors surveyed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting cited cost efficiency and the asset allocation of their funds ...

Health check: National Grid Transco

But, as the company released its comparative figures under the new standards, the move clearly had some impact.Changes to accounting for goodwill amor...

The enterprise act has failed to earn respect

If you rearrange the letters of the words Enterprise Act, you end up with the phrase 'Respect? ...

Companies count the cost of reducing the finance team

Finance directors more used to cutting costs across their companies are increasingly turning their attentions to their own departments.Over a number o...

Individuals no longer liable

A breach of these duties is a criminal offence, prosecutable by the Health and Safety Executive. Companies can also be prosecuted if a director owed a...

A tax hit for foreign trading

Changes in the Budget made restrictions on relief available for foreign tax on dividend income. Traders in foreign equities and equity derivatives wil...

Losing the competitive edge

The Working Time Directive limits the amount of time employees can work, including that there is a maximum 48-hour working week. In the UK, the opt ou...

Technical Update: Treatment of share options under IFRS

Over the past few months, a number of European listed companies have provided investors with restatements of their 2004 annual figures under Internati...

GSK rues costly Sarbox compliance programme

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been forced to pay out £10m on a programme to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404, which, it revealed, has "added little...