عرض العناصر حسب علامة : الاقتصاد
الأربعاء, 15 سبتمبر 2021 09:03
كيفية الارتقاء بتجربة العملاء في عالم ما بعد كورونا؟
بالنسبة للشركات الاستهلاكية التي تجد نفسها في الوضع الطبيعي التالي، حان الوقت الآن لإعادة تصور ما يعنيه الوضع الطبيعي الجديد.
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
How to elevate customer experience in a post COVID-19 world
By Sukesh Choubey
EY Global Delivery Services SAP, Microsoft and Supply Chain Leader
6 minute read
15 Feb 2021
Related topics
Consumer products and retail Supply chain E-commerce
Upvote 10
For consumer businesses finding themselves in the next normal, now is the time to reimagine what the new normal means.
Three questions to ask
How has COVID-19 shaped consumer behavior?
How can CPG companies gain a competitive advantage by embracing this new reality and adopting emerging trends?
How will frictionless shopping solutions help CPG companies gain competitive advantage?
How EY can help
Customer experience
When it comes to serving the customer of the future, the answers lie in being client-centric, especially in today’s world.
Read more
Related article
How digital transformation opened new channels for growth
How digital transformation opened new channels for growth
With help from EY professionals, Royal Caribbean’s digital-first approach is trans…
26 Mar 2021 EY Global
We are all living in unprecedented times and the pandemic has radically impacted our everyday life. Each one of us has seen the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the consumer psyche and businesses alike. During the lockdown, consumers stockpiled essential goods such as groceries, dry foods, and other household products, in wake of the impending crisis. This spike in demand for essentials disrupted the supply chains for most of the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies. On the other hand, non-essential (good-to-have-goods) product companies, such as apparel and luxury products, witnessed a sharp decline in sales. Other factors familiar to many included restricted travel, remote working and growing economic concerns.
Some of these changes in customer behavior seem to be an irreversible trend, forcing consumer goods companies, more than others, to realign themselves to the new normal. Consumer Products and Goods (CPG) companies can gain a competitive advantage by embracing this new reality and adopting emerging trends would help consumer businesses thrive in the new normal.
1. eCommerce acceleration
Online presence is no longer optional for CPG companies. Many small and medium companies did not invest in eCommerce until recently. With consumer shift to online channels, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there has been a growing demand for eCommerce platforms. Leading grocery retailers prefer to reduce online friction by simplifying the buying experience for essentials with the use of apps. Curbside pickup has proved to be one of the most conducive frictionless solutions for both retailers and customers. A leading sports retailer converted some of its stores into fulfilment centers to manage online orders. Food and beverage players identified the shift in consumer behavior and launched online D2C channels during this period. In addition, there was growing disintermediation using B2B eCommerce portals by CPG companies for their sales representatives, especially during the pandemic.
Business buyers seek simple, flexible, on-demand ordering experiences – a process that works best for them, at the time they desire. Back in 2015, Forrester found that nearly 75% of B2B buyers said that buying from a website was more convenient and efficient than buying from a sales representative.1 It would seem very likely that, were the same research conducted in 2021, the percentage would be even higher. In the future, digital adoption is expected to grow further and would be a key driver for growth for many consumer businesses.
2. Digital In-store experience
With a growing affinity for online shopping, CPG companies need to reinvent the in-store experience to reduce friction and ensure customers see value in coming back to stores. Digital engagement has accelerated tremendously, and leading companies have innovated quickly to replace traditional, in-store experiences. As the economy has begun opening, physical stores have seen a slight uptick in consumer traffic. This indicates that physical outlets will have to test modified in-store layouts to prevent customers from being in crowded situations and enable contactless shopping solutions to address health concerns.
Leading retail chains have been testing store traffic control using advanced queue management techniques, one-path shopping designs, and queueless buying options for popular products. Frictionless solutions (e.g., scan-and-go, click-and-collect, drive-through checkouts), buying/try-out kiosks are also some formats that are being used to reduce physical touchpoints for customers. Athletic footwear (A&F) players have seen store shutdowns but have also benefited from continued technology investments. Some A&F organizations have ramped up content marketing and adjusted subscription prices for digital fitness programs. It’s likely stores will become more conceptual and experiential, with customers being engaged in a better way through digital athlete training regimes.
There is also a growing preference for AI store assistants to supplement the customer experience with product information and recommendations. AI can also answer questions as well as take orders for customized products that have a different color, stitching, size or accessories. Now is the time for consumer companies to invest in the data, technology and systems required to deliver exceptional consumer experiences. Organizations that can understand customers better and adapt faster are likely to be the next customer-experience leaders.
Consumer companies must invest in the data, technology and systems required so they are able to deliver the kinds of exceptional consumer experiences that will give them a competitive edge and position them as the next customer-experience leaders.
How EY can help
Customer engagement
In today’s world of empowered customers, competitive advantage shifts from being purely competing over product and price to building trust. To prosper, you need to consider a customer-centric marketing model built on unwavering trust and loyalty.
Read more
3. Dynamic and agile supply chain planning
During the lockdown, inventory management became a problem as people started stockpiling and manufacturing went on freeze temporarily. A spike in online sales, abrupt consumption patterns, disrupted supplies and unpredictable future have made organizations realize that what worked till now, will not work in the future. How can companies accurately forecast demand and capture the impact of situations such as a pandemic? An effective way would be greater collaboration for demand sensing between retailers and manufacturers, especially for anomalies. Furthermore, automation of sales operations and creating a digital environment to manage their entire supply chain is critical if companies need to build sales resilience.
4. Innovation in customer connect
While people continue to remain socially distant, bringing offline experiences online will ensure they continue to connect with the brands they identify with. Even though digital marketing has been a focus for CPG companies, greater impetus must be placed on leveraging new age communication channels to create deeper engagement with consumers. Some social media platforms have already enabled CPG companies to gain higher traction by personalizing communication compared to traditional marketing channels.
Additionally, influencer marketing, YouTube channels, blogs, etc., are all being used to create excitement around brands, new launches, etc., and drive the end-users toward purchase. Companies are constantly innovating new ways of connecting with consumers. Adopting technologies, including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), will completely change the way brands communicate, launch new products and engage with consumers, all while ensuring the safety of consumers is not compromised.
As social distancing continues to be the norm, bringing offline experiences online will ensure continued customer engagement with an organization’s brand. The next step, however, must now be a bigger focus on leveraging new age communication channels with the aim of creating deeper consumer engagement.
To remain relevant and adapt to changing consumer behaviors, CPG companies must adopt agile operating models to lead in this dynamic environment. Digital is becoming an integral part of the customer’s purchase journey. Organizations need to analyze consumer consumption data in existing digital channels, modify assortments, build a robust network, and simplify and optimize UI/UX to enable a better customer buying experience. Physical stores should allow frictionless shopping, redesign store layouts, streamline store operations and reevaluate store networks to increase consumer confidence in physical channels. This must be supported by flexible delivery models and robust supply networks (fungible stores and warehouses).
A superior personalized experience can be achieved by enabling a seamless purchase journey for the consumer with close collaboration between physical and digital channels and being innovative in building omnichannel capabilities. In the long run, achieving these objectives will future-proof organizations and help them retain their competitiveness.
Show article references
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has created what many expect to be irreversible trends in customer behaviors. But there is a competitive advantage to be gained by CPG companies that embrace this new reality and adopt emerging trends, such as agile supply chain planning and innovative ways to connect with customers.
نشر في
موضوعات متنوعة
الإثنين, 16 أغسطس 2021 14:53
المشاورة العامة لمنهجية موحدة لمحاسبة رأس المال الطبيعي للأعمال
المشاورات العامة حول منهجية محاسبة رأس المال الطبيعي الموحدة الشفافة مفتوحة الآن من 28 يوليو إلى 30 سبتمبر.
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Transparent is an EU LIFE funded project that will develop standardized natural capital accounting and valuation principles for business in line with the ambition of the European Green Deal.
The public consultation on the Transparent Standardized Natural Capital Accounting methodology is now open and will run from July 28 to September 30. Participate in the consultation and help to shape European legislation.
Only a tiny fraction of the current global economy can be considered to be sustainable according to leading financial institutions and multinational agencies, but the EU has set out an ambition to achieve a sustainable financial system and economy by 2050.
The EU has recognized that in order to achieve this ambition, a shift is required in the way that businesses understand and account for their relationships with nature and people, and that accounting for the value of nature in decision making is crucial to achieve this shift.
The lack of a comprehensive sustainable management system and standardization across corporate environmental assessment methods – including natural capital standards and practices – continues to hamper the mainstreaming of sustainable economic activity across Europe and the rest of the world.
In order to enable this shift, the business community is calling for holistic datasets and standardized methodologies that allow them to include the value of nature and people in their internal decision making and their external disclosure. Integrated datasets will also enable businesses to better understand how best to align their organizations with broad societal ambitions such as the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Through the Transparent Project, the Value Balancing Alliance – consisting of international companies and supported by pro bono consultants from the four largest professional services firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG & PwC) – and the Capitals Coalition – a global collaboration of more than 370 organizations – have joined forces with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to develop a set of natural capital accounting principles to business to empower the private sector and to enable a shift towards a more sustainable financial and economic system.
In line with the European Green Deal, we will develop a standardized natural capital accounting and valuation methodology that provides decision-makers with the information necessary to generate long-term value and to improve business resilience while providing a clear picture of the overall impacts and dependencies of businesses on the environment, communities and broader society.
The Transparent methodology will achieve this by integrating financial and environmental information and accounts. It will encourage companies to better manage environmental risks and opportunities and apply best practice in order to establish a prescriptive industry standard that generates widely comparable results.
The model will build on international accepted and harmonized principles and frameworks such as the Natural Capital Protocol, and other approaches used by international companies, such as those highlighted by the Value Balancing Alliance.
The Transparent project is targeting a widespread adoption by companies worldwide.
نشر في
محاسبة و مراجعة
موسومة تحت
الأربعاء, 11 أغسطس 2021 15:01
ندوة الويب: المصرفيين والمحاسبين في الاقتصاد التوقعي
معلومات إضافية
- البلد عالمي
- نوع الفعالية مجانا
- بداية الفعالية الخميس, 12 أغسطس 2021
- نهاية الفعالية الخميس, 12 أغسطس 2021
- التخصص أخرى
- مكان الفعالية أونلاين
نشر في
فعاليات مهنية
موسومة تحت
الإثنين, 02 أغسطس 2021 15:09
دعوة ندوة عبر الإنترنت: التحول النموذجي: تطوير اقتصاد العمل الحر في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا
معلومات إضافية
- البلد عالمي
- نوع الفعالية مجانا
- بداية الفعالية الثلاثاء, 17 أغسطس 2021
- نهاية الفعالية الثلاثاء, 17 أغسطس 2021
- التخصص أخرى
- مكان الفعالية أونلاين
نشر في
فعاليات مهنية
موسومة تحت
الخميس, 15 يوليو 2021 11:49
توقعات المحاسبين بالنسبة للاقتصاد هذا العام
يتوقع المحاسبون انتعاشًا اقتصاديًا قويًا هذا العام
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Accountants are anticipating the global economy will return to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of this year, despite worries about inflation, according to a new survey.
The quarterly Global Economic Conditions Survey, released Tuesday by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants, indicated a swift and strong recovery in global confidence in the second quarter among the more than 1,000 senior accountants and finance professionals polled. There was a slight dip in global confidence in Q2, but it came after the biggest jump in confidence in the 10-year history of the survey during Q1.
The results revealed that accountants are mostly feeling optimistic about the economic recovery after global confidence plunged in late 2019 and 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world. However, inflation fears and the persistence of the coronavirus, including the virulent Delta variant, are tempering confidence a bit.
Health care workers test people at a COVID-19 testing site in the parking garage for the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida.Eve Edelheit/Bloomberg
Why Lease Accounting Software Fails
9 Key Functional Deficiencies Driving Companies to Replace ASC 842 Software
PARTNER INSIGHTS
SPONSOR CONTENT FROM COSTAR
Compared with the Q1 survey, inflation expectations have increased significantly in North America, while in Western Europe, the accountants and finance professionals polled anticipate a modest increase in inflation over the next five years.
“To a large extent, the rise in inflation will be temporary, the result of collapsing demand last year, followed by a strong rebound that has resulted in rapid increases in commodity prices and supply shortages in some sectors,” said Michael Taylor, chief economist at ACCA, in a statement. “The rise in inflation can therefore be seen mainly as a welcome reflection of a strong recovery in demand that has resulted in supply shortages and a rebound in commodity prices, both of which are likely to prove temporary. For now, at least, underlying inflationary pressures are generally subdued.”
While survey respondents across various regions of the globe expect a modest increase in inflation over the next five years, a significant minority in North America anticipate much higher inflation. In all regions, at least two-thirds of the survey respondents expect inflation to be slightly or much higher than now.
Global activity indicators, such as orders, showed further improvement in the Q2 survey and are now above the level seen in Q4 2019, right before the pandemic began spreading widely across the world.
Overall, the global economy has now returned to its pre-pandemic size, driven largely by rapid growth in the U.S. and China, the two largest economies, but most other economies around the world still have plenty of ground to recover.
The two “fear” indices in the poll — measured by concern that customers and suppliers may go out of business — both fell in the Q2 survey, indicating that the extreme uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has dropped back toward more normal levels.
The index of concern about operating costs grew in the Q2 survey and is now at its highest level since Q3 2019, probably due to inflation worries and labor and supply chain constraints. But concern remains below the level that would indicate a sustained large rise in inflation.
The survey found a very strong recovery underway in North America through the second half of 2021. While confidence remains high, it fell back slightly after an extremely strong bounce in the Q1 survey. The orders and employment indices on the survey both increased and reached their highest level on record. Continued progress with vaccinations, allowing economic conditions to return to normal, and the huge U.S. fiscal stimulus are driving recovery in the region.
Vaccines will be key in maintaining the recovery in the U.S. and helping other regions of the world. “In addition to rapid deployment of effective vaccines, advanced economies have been able to deploy massive fiscal support measures that have maintained household disposable incomes, supported businesses, and prevented large rises in unemployment,” said Raef Lawson, vice president of research and policy at the IMA, in a statement. “Buoyant housing markets have supported consumer spending. This means that as economic conditions move toward normalization, economies are likely to recover very rapidly. In many emerging markets, vaccinations have made little progress, leaving them vulnerable to renewed waves of COVID-19 and variants with consequent restrictions that curtail economic recovery. This pattern seems likely to persist well into 2022.”
The U.S. economy is likely to grow by approximately 7% this year as COVID cases decline and vaccinations continue, according to the ACCA and IMA. Second-quarter GDP growth is likely to be close to the 7% annual rate, helped by a strong rebound in consumer spending. Growth may even strengthen during the second half of the year as employment continues to recover. A return to more normal economic conditions is being helped by the massive fiscal stimulus which by itself may add over three percentage points to GDP this year. Despite the recent spike in inflation, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep monetary policy in place, with interest rates close to zero.
نشر في
موضوعات متنوعة
الثلاثاء, 02 مارس 2021 14:07
هل يمكن أن تكون حالة عدم اليقين اليوم هي أفضل فرصة لك للاستعداد؟
بشكل عام، ظل نشاط الاكتتاب العام في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا هادئًا نسبيًا في عام 2020
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Could today’s uncertainty be your best opportunity to prepare
At the start of 2020, the IPO market in MENA had looked promising, but the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in fewer listings muting the rest of the year. According to the MENA IPO Eye Q4 2020 report, total proceeds of the nine IPOs amounted to US$1.86b, which was still down by 94% compared to 2019 , primarily due to the listing of Saudi Aramco during 2019.
Naturally, during 2020, many IPOs were placed on hold, though activity picked up toward the end of the year. In fact, in Q4 2020, four MENA IPOs accounted for the strongest quarter of 2020, raising US$925m in total. During that time, three MENA markets, Dubai, Qatar and Morocco saw IPOs in markets that have been otherwise quiet in previous years.
The resulting impact of reduced oil demand and declining prices, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had a considerable effect on both the drop in economic growth in the region and the MENA stock performance. Though valuations and equity markets in MENA experienced increased volatility and significantly higher daily trading values, the Tadawul recovered from its drop of nearly 30% to finish the year with a positive return of 3.60%.
Saudi Arabia remains a resilient active IPO market. With high valuations and government incentives, the region expects an additional ten listings to hit in 2021. In 2020, Tadawul introduced new initiatives as well as direct listings on Nomu, and the launch of their derivatives market supported by Muqassa, Tadawul’s clearing house. In Q4 2020, disclosures became mandatory in both Arabic and English and daily price fluctuation limits increased. All four IPOs on Tadawul reached their price fluctuation limit on the first day of listing (20% for Nomu and 10% on the main market). Nomu (the parallel market) price fluctuation limits were permanently increased from 20% to 30%. The region’s largest exchange is preparing for its own IPO, with the listing expected in 2022, which will make it the third publicly listed stock exchange in the region.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a big year for the UAE with new initiatives and its first IPO in years (Al Mal Capital REIT). The region’s new regulations offer added flexibility with the objective of increasing the number of listings. These developments include: changes to nationality requirements, flexibility in foreign ownership, and more. The ADX Second Market in Abu Dhabi saw four listings in 2020, while its shareholder ADQ launched Q Market Makers (QMM) which expects to enhance market liquidity on ADX. DFM also launched their equity derivatives platform and saw their first REIT IPO, bringing the total REIT listings to three in the UAE. Nasdaq Dubai also announced its expected 2021 launch of Growth Market for SMEs, supporting the frameworks developed by Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). Key amendments were also made to the UAE Companies Law including:
IPO, mergers and acquisitions: public offerings from founders of private joint-stock companies (PJSCs) have increased from a cap of 30% to 70%, and will only be subject to a six-month lockup from the date of conversion to a PJSC.
Flexible foreign ownership: LLCs can now be 100% foreign owned as opposed to the previous 51% UAE-owned, unless carrying on “Activities of Strategic Effect”.
PJSC board members nationality requirements: The chairman and majority of directors are no longer required to be UAE nationals, unless related to Activities of Strategic Effect, which will then be determined by the cabinet.
In Qatar, news of a market introduction of the book-building process followed a meeting between Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) and the Qatar Financial Market Authority (QFMA). The IPO of QLife and Medical (QLM) Insurance Company was the first for QSE since Baladna in 2019 and the third largest IPO in MENA in 2020, raising over US$179m. In Q4 2020, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) acquired 10% of Borsa Istanbul A.S, the main stock exchange in Turkey, for US$200m.
After its IPO in Q4 2019, Boursa Kuwait officially became a listed company during Q3 2020 and saw its shares surge more than ten-fold on the first public trading day. Prior to the listing, the shares were being traded in the local OTC market. Shamal Az-Zour Al-Oula Power and Water Company also completed its listing in Q3 2020 after raising capital in 2019 and became the first publicly traded PPP company in Kuwait. In an otherwise quiet year, Kuwait also entered the MSCI Emerging Markets index in Q4 2020, which now includes seven companies, including the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), Zain and Agility, among others.
In Oman, the pandemic resulted in reduced spending and new noteworthy tax implementations. As of April 2021, a VAT of 5% will be due, and income tax on high earners is expected in 2022. In 2020, the first IPO in MENA came from Aman REIF in Oman raising US$52.5m, the next expected IPO is Oman REIF scheduled for early 2021. The highly anticipated listing of government owned OQ (Oman Oil and Orpic Group) was scheduled to IPO in 2020 but never actualized, though in Q4 2020, they reported plans to invest in alternative energy projects.
In 2020, Bahrain Bourse announced its enhanced delivery-versus payment (DVP) model to activate the custody model in the market. In Q4 2020, it was also elected to become a member of the board of directors at the Arab Federation Exchange (AFE). 2020 was a year of expansion and sustainability focus. According to the Bahrain Economic Development Board, the country attracted US$885m in direct investments. This while, environmental social and governance (ESG) voluntary guidelines were introduced to promote sustainability and transparency in the market.
Though 14 companies were expected to IPO in Egypt in 2020, only Emerald Real Estate Investments managed to list, raising US$13m in Q1 2020. Privatization plans for state-owned companies were suspended mid-year, though Egypt announced plans to privatize three army-affiliated companies by early 2021. Parliament also approved a reduction of stamp duty on the sale of securities, and the Financial Regulatory Authority (AFRA) announced new Egyptian Accounting standards set to implement in 2021.
نشر في
موضوعات متنوعة
موسومة تحت
الأحد, 07 فبراير 2021 14:41
كتاب نظرية القيادة الذكية
نظرية القيادة الذكية – مشاريع قوانين وقرارات - أول كتاب عربي مرجعي لطلبة الماجستير والدكتوراه في الهندسة المالية
نشر في
كتب و مجلات
موسومة تحت
الأربعاء, 27 يناير 2021 15:18
هل تتلاشي فرص التعافي السريع وسط عودة ظهور COVID-19؟
يرى المحاسبون أن فرص التعافي السريع تتلاشى
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Accountants see chances of swift recovery slipping away
By Michael Cohn
Accountants around the world are seeing the prospects for swift economic recovery slipping away amid a resurgence in COVID-19.
The latest edition of the quarterly Global Economic Conditions Survey from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants found that confidence fell in North America in the fourth quarter of 2020, after surging in the third quarter. On the other hand, there was a big improvement in confidence in the Middle East, perhaps due to a rebound in oil prices. More than 50 percent of the accountants who responded to the survey in the Asia Pacific region, North America and South Asia expect sustainable recovery in the second half of this year.
Expectations for an economic recovery rose late in 2020 as pharmaceutial companies began producing coronavirus vaccines, but the slow pace of the rollout due to manufacturing and distribution delays is likely to dampen optimism further. Accountants report that the companies and firms where they work anticipate pent-up demand for products and services once vaccines are widely available and people are able to travel more freely, although the mutating strains of the virus are adding uncertainty to those prospects.
Health care workers test people at a COVID-19 testing site in the parking garage for the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida.Eve Edelheit/Bloomberg
“Last year was the worst for the global economy for several decades,” said Warner Johnston, head of ACCA USA, in a statement Tuesday. “2021 will see recovery, but precisely when and how strong it will be is very uncertain. We anticipate a weak start, followed by a recovery gathering momentum through the second half. Much depends on the evolution of the COVID virus and variants relative to the progress of vaccination programs, and there is great uncertainty surrounding these developments.”
Confidence among accountants fell in the ACCA and IMA’s Q4 survey, after jumping by the greatest percentage on record in Q3. Orders and capital spending showed little change in Q4 and remained well below their pre-crisis levels of a year ago. Employment recovered significantly in Q4 on the index, thanks to a relatively good jobs market rebound since the early weeks of the pandemic. Overall, the survey indicates expectations among accountants for continued economic recovery in early 2021.
Concerns and fears about customers and suppliers going out of business edged lower worldwide in Q4 but remain elevated, highlighting the extreme uncertainty in the global economic outlook at the beginning of 2021. More than half of the respondents in Asia Pacific, North America and South Asia expect sustainable recovery in the second half of this year.
However, in many parts of the world, the likelihood of a swift recovery is dim for this year, especially where the vaccine rollout has barely begun at all.
“The pandemic has forced millions into extreme poverty as emerging markets suffered recession for the first time in decades last year,” said IMA vice president of research and policy Raef Lawson in a statement. “Policy responses to the pandemic have left the public finances of most economies in a perilous state with budget deficits in the range of 10 percent to 15 percent of GDP in many countries with debt to GDP ratios well over 100 percent.”
In Africa, for example, the renewed rises in infections toward the end of 2020, along with a continuing absence of foreign tourists, point to a weak start to 2021. The declining amount of GDP per capita across the region, according to the World Bank, will push tens of millions of people into extreme poverty.
نشر في
موضوعات متنوعة
موسومة تحت
الثلاثاء, 19 يناير 2021 13:49
اقتصاديات الأعمال في عالم متغير
بحث مقدم للمؤتمر العلمي الأول الذي تنظمه كلية الاقتصاد والعلوم الإدارية جامعة العلوم التطبيقية
نشر في
كتب و مجلات
موسومة تحت
الأربعاء, 30 ديسمبر 2020 19:56
تركيز المنظمات الغير الربحية علي مواردها المالية
حان الوقت للمنظمات غير الربحية للتركيز على مواردها المالية
معلومات إضافية
-
المحتوى بالإنجليزية
It’s time for nonprofits to focus on their finances
By Amy Karson
December 23, 2020, 9:00 a.m. EST
Across the country, nonprofits are facing unprecedented financial challenges just when their services are needed most. Nonprofits contributed over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2016, but nearly one-third expect to close within the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, charitable giving declined 6 percent in the first quarter of 2020. This paints a grim picture, but something is changing in the nonprofit sector that gives me hope for its future.
I’ve seen outreach to my accounting and financial firm, which specializes in small to midsized nonprofits, skyrocket in recent months. There seems to be a renewed awareness of how important clean financial books are for a nonprofit’s overall viability. The folks who run nonprofits are experts in their missions, but don’t always have the business experience to guide their teams to a clean bill of financial health. That’s why their fiscal challenges often stem from their bookkeeping.
As organizations prepare to turn the page on what has been a challenging year, here are three reasons why they should prioritize clean accounting and finances in 2021.
Managing Your Firm in a Post-COVID World
Think beyond the pandemic with exclusive resources to help you build a thriving virtual practice.
SPONSOR BY INTUIT ACCOUNTANTS
The power of clean books
Financial hardships for nonprofits are not unique to 2020. Approximately 62 percent cited financial sustainability as a top challenge in 2018, according to Nonprofit Finance Fund’s annual State of the Nonprofit Sector survey. Clean accounting not only puts an organization on a path to stability, it fixes other areas that may have suffered as a result of disorganized accounting.
My firm recently engaged a client with a stagnant board. Their mission was worthy of support but a lack of fiscal transparency turned off potential recruits. If the books don’t tell a clear story, it makes it more difficult for boards to understand the financial health of the organization. We cleaned their books within six months and proved the financial stability of the organization. We soon saw board recruitment and charitable contributions increase as a result.
A bookkeeper is not a CFO
Clean books allow a nonprofit to be nimble and make necessary improvements. Accountants record the past while financial analysts plan ahead. Nonprofits need both skills to thrive. That is problematic for organizations with budgets that don’t always allow for a bookkeeper, let alone a CFO. The trend of nonprofits relying on volunteers as bookkeepers is slowly subsiding, but too often, nonprofits run into trouble by expecting their accountants to do the job of a CFO.
There are three tiers that support an organization’s finances: a bookkeeper, a controller and CFO. Just one or two of those means only half the financial story is told. Nonprofits must make strategic decisions to get a full and accurate picture of their past expenses and an understanding of what those mean going forward. If bringing in both a bookkeeper and a financial manager isn’t feasible for an organization, an outside accounting firm specializing in nonprofits can efficiently fill in the gaps.
A nonprofit is not an ordinary corporation
What’s the difference between nonprofit and for-profit accounting? The answer lies in the name. In the nonprofit sector, success is measured by how funds are spent. Revenue streams are different and there are complex federal and state standards that must be followed to the letter. Abiding by those guidelines is challenging enough without forcing corporate accounting standards onto a nonprofit enterprise.
Whether you go with an in-house hire or an external firm, a financial manager must understand how nonprofits operate. The smallest nuances can mean the difference between success and failure. For example, one of our clients was awarded two restricted grants days before their fiscal year ended. Because revenue in the nonprofit sector isn’t matched against expenses and funds have to be paid down over time, they were set to begin the new year in a big hole. Knowing this, they were able to take the appropriate steps to make up for the loss.
I have never been more confident in the future of the nonprofit sector. That faith only grows as more nonprofits take a fresh look at their finances. I urge all nonprofit leaders to do the same. At a time when nonprofits are more important than ever, healthy finances can help them focus on the most important aspect of their nonprofit: its mission.
نشر في
موضوعات متنوعة
موسومة تحت