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.

Technical Updates: VAT reduction measures

A recent opinion on Value Added Tax (VAT) from the advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has advised that businesses should be able ...

IASB moves to address accounting for reserves

A working party met in London last week to discuss possible definitions of oil and mining reserves as a first step towards developing a definitive sta...

Putting tax planning in the public domain

As a finance director, would you be comfortable with details of the tax avoidance scheme you have just implemented appearing in a national newspaper?M...

Companies play politics in donation power games

All you want to do is entertain a few politicians with a finger buffet and a glass or two of champagne at a party conference and immediately you get a...

Tackling corruption at home and abroad

Doing business overseas carries a variety of risks. One that is not always well managed, or even understood, is the issue of corruption.Probably the b...

The Revenue's audit restrictions

This leads the Revenue to be constantly trying to find out the latest tactics that tax advisors might be deploying against them. It is now fairly comm...

ECJ moves for greater VAT clarity

Customs and Excise had argued for an anti-avoidance doctrine based on the taxpayers motives. This subjective element would have allowed for different ...

Emission accounting confusion

The Independent Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee has published IFRIC 3 to advise on how to account for the scheme. Although IFRIC 3 is ef...

Technical Update: Deferred Tax Accounting under IAS 12

Deferred tax accounting is about compensating for the fact that the tax consequences of a transaction may occur in a different period to the transacti...

Cadbury moves to aid whistle-blowers

The helpline, which is run by a third party independent of Cadbury, is part of the company's new whistle-blowing policy, called 'Speaking Up', designe...