Many business owners and company managers feel intimidated by the idea of an internal audit, thinking it akin to an external audit. However, these two processes are actually quite different and have very different objectives. Unlike an external audit that looks specifically at financial accounts, internal audits actually examine a...
Fortune Magazine’s 2011 ranking of the world’s largest corporations lists these top ten: Wal-Mart Stores, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, Sinopec Group, China National Petroleum, State Grid, Toyota Motor, Japan Post Holdings and Chevron. Of these corporate giants, only Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil and Chevron...
Like most financial professionals, I have a thing about numbers. I am often amazed by what numbers can reveal – how they can tell a story, indicate a trend or expose a looming problem. Right now our nation is looking at a set of numbers...
With correct buy-side due diligence, the acquisition of a company or division can help a firm broaden its product lines, increase geographical diversity, acquire key personnel, obtain access to patents and other intellectual property, and create cost synergies in production, sales, legal and purchasing activities,...
Successful companies look for payroll and payroll tax processing solutions that are fast, accurate, versatile, reliable and easy to use. For companies with multi-state, multi-regional or multi-national operations, solutions must also be able to deliver functionality across geographic jurisdictions. All businesses with employees have responsibilities relating to payroll taxes. Payroll taxes...
A business plan means a lot of different things to different people. There are software programs that assist a new business to map out its plan, strategy, and goals. Or professionals in business plan writing can craft complex documents that include such items as detailed financial analysis and forecasts,...
Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is a special costing model that manages business costs or expenses by identifying activities used for the production of products or services. The costs of associated activities are assigned to all products or services in order to ascertain the actual value of the output. This model...
Los Angeles business owners contemplating a business sale should engage in exit planning early – and not wait until the economy improves – to achieve premium sale prices for their companies.
Many companies are in an acquisition mode right now. Strong companies with solid credit ratings...
A family office is defined as a private company that oversees the fiscal well-being of a single family. As a business run by and for a single family, the family office operates by centralizing the management of a single family’s finances. This generally includes a wide array of various...
In these trying economic times, many companies are looking for ways of cutting business expenses. As more and more businesses are floundering and failing under economic pressure, it is becoming increasingly important to find means of keeping companies not just out of bankruptcy, but financially successful as well. For struggling businesses,...