About

This seminar is designed to equip you with an action plan for increased success and efficiency. In just two days you will learn how to improve your overall performance and grasp highly effective strategies for managing workloads. 

Especially created around the needs of those involved with the preparation of accounts, this training seminar will help you to develop effective accounts payable techniques, understand essential tax updates and learn how to successfully close-off month-end. Importantly, all discussions will be applied to the ‘workplace’ through interactive group discussions and practical examples. 

Your course trainer, Kevin Lee, is a qualified chartered management accountant with 16 years experience. Kevin specialises in helping non-finance managers and staff to develop relevant financial skills and knowledge. He is passionate about making finance relevant, understandable and fun, and enabling people to develop their business acumen.

After completion of this programme, you will be able to:

• Fully understand the key issues impacting your day-to-day AP function

• Use effective strategies and techniques to dramatically improve efficiency and productivity in your AP systems and procedures

• Utilise essential strategies to achieve accurate and timely close off

• Be knowledgable about the essential tax issues facing the accounts assistant

• Understand what you need to know about Fringe Benefit Taxation (FBT)

• Use successful techniques for managing credit receivables and collections

Past delegates at our previous “The Effective Accounts Assistant” seminar said:

“I appreciated having the exercises to do at the end of each session – It helped to reinforce the sessions teaching and tied it all together for me”.

Dawn Hill, Senior Accounts Clerk, Paper Coates Ltd.

“Good for getting ideas on how to improve ways of doing my job”.

Bhanu Patel, Accounting Assistant, Rayonier NZ Ltd.

“Really good interaction between participants and with trainer”.

Ruth Turner, Accounts Administrator, Workbase Education Trust

Who should attend?
•  Accounts Officers
•  Accounts Clerks
•  Accounts Supervisors
•  Accounts Controllers
•  Accounts Managers
•  Accounts Administrators

This seminar is particularly suitable for:
•  Accounts Payable departments
•  Accounts Receivable departments
•  General Administrators
•  Credit departments

Training style:
This seminar is run like a workshop with an emphasis on practical examples where possible. We aim to make the course stimulating, with a mixture of interactive sessions and practical exercises. Each participant will receive a detailed coursebook and a certificate of attendance to take away.

Outline

Day one:

8.30 Registration and Coffee

Accounting refresher
This session will demystify accounting for non-accountants.  It considers the purpose of finance and looks into how the professional accountant works
•  The purpose of finance
• Accounting rules
Practical exercise: To demonstrate the need for accounting rules

Strategies to achieve accurate and timely close-off
Do you find month-end close-offs stressful? Are you rushing at the last minute to produce your management reports and do you dread the 3-5 days preparing the management accounts? This session will provide you with practical tips and strategies that will help you to smooth the close-off period, while still providing timely and accurate management reports.
•  Planning for timely month-end and tips to shorten your close-off period
•  Standardising procedures and simplifying the process – getting your files in order
•  Learning how to delegate tasks to other staff members involved in the process
•  Preparing subsidiary information away from the close-off period to free-up more time
•  Using estimates and accruals effectively during your close-off period
•  Looking at the reports that management actually use and eliminating unnecessary information
•  Managing the year end cut off
•  How to avoid stock counts and valuation hold-ups while waiting for stock figures
•  Debtor/creditor reconciliations
    
The essential tax update for the accounts assistant
This session will provide a general legislative update. There will be a focus on GST and employee tax issues, changes in IRD policy and rulings and procedures relating to tax management.
•  GST: Ensuring that your procedures are up to date to account for obligations under changing employee tax and GST requirements
•  Income tax and IRD filing
•  Managing provisional tax
•  Recent IRD statements and rulings – avoiding the pitfalls
•  Common mistakes and compliance issues found during tax audits
Practical exercise: How to calculate a GST return

Fringe Benefit Taxation (FBT): Everything you need to know
FBT is an area that has become more complex and there is now a greater risk of getting it wrong. This session will provide an overview of the various rules of FBT and examine some of the common areas where mistakes are made.
•  An overview of the workings of the multi-rate system
•  Examining FBT calculations on motor vehicles
•  Looking at the relationship between FBT, GST and income tax
Practical exercise: How to calculate a FBT return

Day two

Purchasing and recording expenses
This session will explain how to save money when purchasing and why it is important to record expenses accurately.
•  Effective purchasing and how to save money
•  Purchasing procedures and authority levels
•  The distinction between capex and opex
•  Recording expenses in the fixed asset register
•  Internal and external auditing
Practical exercise: Completing an expense claim form

Practical techniques to help you improve your accounts payable systems
Accounts Payable forms an integral part of any accounting system but needs to be enhanced to achieve its full potential and recognition.
•  What AP techniques can you implement in your accounts department to increase efficiency?
•  Staffing requirements for accounts payable: How can it be made more effective and profitable?
•  Capitalising on technological developments to enhance the operations of your AP department
•  How can you make time for the “value-added” tasks as well as the routine tasks?
•  Techniques for successfully minimising manual work and improving processing methods
•  Developing effective AP management reporting tools in your accounts department

Successfully managing credit receivables and collections
All companies are striving to improve their cash flow situation and are increasingly looking to their accounts receivable departments and the timing of all payments, for the answers. The importance of a credit policy is well recognised. Your credit policy should be designed to take account of your agreed credit and collections goals and of your company size and cash flow exposure. Your credit policy should also be designed to enhance your customer relationships.
•  Creating a comprehensive credit policy for your organisation
•  Tools and techniques for successfully managing and maintaining your credit policy
•  Designing a good credit application and critical terms that you should include
•  Assessing a customer’s creditworthiness: A checklist of factors that you should utilise
•  Working in with your organisation’s sales department for successful outcomes
•  Analysis of the different collection techniques available and their comparative
strengths/weaknesses
•  Using early payment incentives, customer rewards and receivable team incentives for successful outcomes

Effective management reporting skills
•  Where to obtain financial information
•  Understanding cost centre statements
•  The importance of permanent and timing variances
•  The use of financial projections as an effective management tool
•  Using Key Performance Indicators in your management reports
•  How to use the balanced scorecard
•  Providing the information that management and the board actually require
Practical exercise: How to use financial information and financial reports

Interpretation of financial statements
•  How to interpret published accounts
•  How to use the non financial information

Facilitator

Kevin Lee, Director, Business Skills Training

Kevin Lee BA (Hons), Pg Dip, MBA, ACMA runs a consultancy for business skills development.  He is a Chartered Management Accountant with 20 years experience of Government Agencies, Corporates and SME’s.  Kevin is a member of the New Zealand Association for Training and Development, the Human Resources Institute for New Zealand and accredited as a Belbin Team Role facilitator.  His post-graduate qualifications include a post-graduate diploma in business administration with distinction and an MBA in which he majored in finance.  

Kevin specialises in helping managers and staff to develop practical financial skills and knowledge.  He is passionate about making finance relevant, understandable and fun.  He enables people to develop their business acumen and to apply financial management practices that suit their organisation’s needs and circumstances. 

Kevin’s clients include: Ministry of Justice, Department of Internal Affairs, ANZ National Bank, Meridian Energy, Auckland District Health Board and Auckland City Council.   

Kevin’s approach is highly practical, using only the financial theory that people need to know, and then building skills and knowledge through case studies, examples and small group work.  He is able to provide “real life” advice based on his experience in CFO roles and his experience of managing major Capex projects, implementing financial systems, improving financial processes and procedures and achieving ongoing efficiency savings.   

Kevin’s passion, enthusiasm and commitment result in excellent feedback from participants at all levels: Directors, General Managers, Accountants, Senior Managers, Middle Managers, Supervisors and Support Staff.     

Kevin Lee is also facilitating:

• Budgeting and Cost Control for Non Financial Managers
• Cash Flow and Liquidity Management for improved performance
• Commercial Approaches for Government Agencies
• Effectively Managing & Organising Accounts Payable
• Effectively Managing and Organising Accounts Payable
• Essential Finance Skills for EAs, PAs & Administrators
• Finance & Accounting Skills for Managers in the Health Sector
• Financial Machinery of Government
• Managing Credit, Accounts Receivable and Debt Recovery
• Managing the Numbers: The Financial Skills for Non Financial Managers
• Practical Budgeting and Forecasting for Accountants and Senior Managers

In-house Training