Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices: The Best Ways for a Financial Manager to Save Money, 2nd Edition

Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices: The Best Ways for a Financial Manager to Save Money, 2nd Edition

by Institute of Management and Administration
Released August 2013
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780471739180

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Book description

Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices provides financial manages with no-nonsense, balanced, and practical strategies that are being targeted and used nationwide for controlling costs by thousands of companies in areas such as human resources, compensation, benefits, purchasing, outsourcing, use of consultants, taxes, and exports. These best practices are based on the trenches experience, research, proprietary databases, and consultants from the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA) and other leading experts in their fields.

  • Provides best practices and techniques for controlling costs within a company

  • New chapters focus on outsourcing costs, downsizing, consultants' costs, and business tax costs

  • Provides the latest strategies companies re using to control costs

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Chapter 1: Corporate Cost-Control Strategies
    1. Controllers’ Corporate Cost-Cutting Plans
    2. Bain Study Outlines Strategic Importance of Continuous Cost-Reduction Programs
    3. Should Your Company Do Away with the Budget Process?
    4. Use of Cost-Management Tools
    5. Ten Most Effective Techniques for Enhancing Corporate Value
    6. Computing the Value and Cost of a Flexible Capital Structure
    7. Planning Capital Expenditures
    8. Rooting out Corporate Fat During the Capital Budgeting Process
    9. Benefits
    10. Endnotes
  8. Chapter 2: Human Resource Department Costs
    1. Cost-Control Strategies
    2. How HR Managers use Technology Applications to Control Costs
    3. HR Technology
    4. Top Strategies for Improving HR Efficiency
    5. HR Metrics: Is “Roi or Die” A Myth or a Mandate for HR?
    6. Applicant Tracking is a Top HR Application
    7. Recruiting Function: Part of the HR Department?
    8. Cutting Costs in HR Departments
    9. Avoiding Costly Lawsuits
    10. Health Plan Sourcing on the Web
    11. Avoiding Costly Employment Lawsuits
    12. Saving Money for Your Organization
    13. Cost-Control Forum
  9. Chapter 3: Benefits Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Cutting Benefits Costs
    3. Data Analysis Can Help Cut Health Care Costs
    4. Get Employee Input to Redesign Benefits Package
    5. Creating a Culture of Wellness
    6. Few Employers Absorb Health Care Cost Increases
    7. Gathering Enough Information to Adequately Assess Health Care Costs
    8. Cutting Rising Drug Costs
    9. Costs Remain on Agenda: How Benefits Managers Should Respond
    10. Different Strategies Yield Health Care Cost Savings
    11. How Employers Fight Health Care Cost Increases
    12. Disease Management Programs: How Well do They Really Work?
    13. Why and How to Institute Disease Management for Employees
    14. Steps to Help Cut Workers’ Compensation Costs
    15. Cost-Control Forum
    16. How Benefits Managers are Cutting Costs
    17. Endnotes
  10. Chapter 4: Compensation Costs
    1. Cutting Compensation Costs
    2. Recognition Programs
    3. Pay Causes High Turnover Rates
    4. Pay Plans to Deal with Future Growth
    5. Using Salary Surveys for Market-Pricing Jobs
    6. Generous with Severance Pay
    7. Compensation Concerns: How to Handle Them
    8. Setting Pay Ranges
    9. Resolving Gender-Based Pay Gaps
    10. Choosing the Best Salary Structure
  11. Chapter 5: 401(k) Plan Costs
    1. Controlling 401(K) Plan Costs
    2. Tightening Oversight
    3. Judging the Success of the 401(K) Plan
    4. Negotiating Lower Recordkeeping Fees
    5. Prepare for and Resolve a Dol Plan Audit
    6. Avoiding Poor 401(K) Performance
    7. Providers Offer Sponsors Plan Evaluation Tools
    8. Dol Allows Plan Fees to be Charged to Participants
    9. Bear-Market Pricing Structure Emerges for Brokers and Providers
    10. Endnotes
  12. Chapter 6: Training and Development Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Training and Development Costs
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Outsourcing
    5. Getting a Training Budget Approved
    6. Calculating the ROI of Leadership Training
    7. “ROI Can’t” to “ROI Can-Do”
    8. Developing Online Learning in-House
    9. How to Sell an E-Learning Initiative to Management
    10. Using Rapid E-Learning to Deliver Cost-Effective Training
    11. Virtual Classroom Produces Immediate ROI
    12. Forecasting to Predict ROI Training
    13. Preparing for Growth Demands
    14. How Training Managers Control Costs
    15. Endnotes
  13. Chapter 7: Accounting Department Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Cost-Effective Change in Accounting departments
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity? Give Staff More Responsibility
    5. Shorten the Monthly Close and Reduce its Cost
    6. AP Cost and Processing Benchmarks
    7. Low-Cost T&E Automation
    8. Modifications that Shorten the Close and Reduce Cost
  14. Chapter 8: Accounts Payable Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Tactics in Accounts Payable Departments
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Cost-Cutting Initiatives in AP
    5. Key AP Department Operations Benchmarks
    6. Meeting Costs Come Under Corporate Scrutiny
    7. Getting T&E Under Control
    8. Form 1042-S and Form 1042
    9. Accounts Payable and Technology
    10. T&E Software: Reduce Report Processing Time
  15. Chapter 9: Credit and Collections Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Improving Credit and Collections Cost-Effectiveness
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Electronic Delivery of Invoices
    5. Improving Staff Productivity
    6. Improve Use of E-Invoicing
    7. Keep Sales from Selling to Customers that do not Meet Credit Standards
    8. Deduction-Smashing Game Plan
    9. Avoiding Credit Holds With Delinquent, Key Customers
    10. Selling to Financially Troubled Customers
    11. Collections
  16. Chapter 10: Purchasing Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Cost-Control “Get Tough” Attitude
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Sourcing Methods for Services Spend
    5. Improve Supplier Management Process
    6. Reverse Auctions
    7. Contract Renegotiation
    8. Framework Cost-Savings Programs
    9. P-Card Model Realizes “Hard”-Dollar Savings Goals
    10. Controlling Services Spend
    11. Manage and Control Indirect Spend
    12. Supplier Negotiation
    13. E-Sourcing Initiatives
    14. Rein in Less-than-Truckload Costs
    15. Benchmarks Help Achieve Performance Excellence
    16. Cost-Control Forum
    17. Cost-Control Practices
  17. Chapter 11: Inventory Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Emerging Cost-Control Practices
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, And Benchmarks
    4. Periodic Review
    5. Remove Spare-Parts Inventory
    6. Vendor-Managed Inventory Programs
    7. “Back-To-Basics” Techniques For Inventory Reduction
    8. Innovative Inventory Management Strategies
    9. Process Orientation
    10. Removing Obsolete Inventory From Storage
    11. Cost-Control Forum
    12. Tips For Controlling Inventory Costs
  18. Chapter 12: Export Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Strategies to Streamline Export Administration and Costs
    3. Low-Cost Programs to Gain Customers
    4. Internal Export Compliance Program
    5. Expensive Compliance Lessons Learned
    6. Ocean Freight Costs and Online Bidding
    7. Documentation and Compliance Programs
    8. Lc E-UCP Rules Reduce Letter-of-Credit Costs
    9. Export Insurance
    10. Exporting
    11. Shippers’ Associations
    12. Tradecard
    13. Ensure that Forwarders Cut Costs and Maximize Profits
    14. Pro Forma Invoices
    15. Relationship with Freight Forwarder
    16. Cost-Control Forum
    17. Best Cost-Saving Tactics
    18. Endnotes
  19. Chapter 13: Outsourcing
    1. Best Practices
    2. Most often Outsourced: Human Resources, Finance, and Information Technology
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Risks and Savings from Outsourcing and Offshoring
    5. Benchmarking Performance in HR Outsourcing Relationships
    6. Outplacement Firm can Meet Downsizing Challenge and Raise Productivity
    7. Leading Providers of Offshore Outsource Service Providers
    8. Building a Successful Outsourcing Relationship
    9. HR Outsourcing: Achieving Successful Outcome
    10. Making HR Outsourcing Decisions
    11. Outsourcing Finance and Accounting Functions
    12. Cost-Control Forum
    13. Tips on Outsourcing
    14. Endnotes
  20. Chapter 14: Downsizing
    1. Best Practices
    2. Downsizing at All Sizes of Firms
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Downsizing: When it does and does not Work
    5. Downsizing Plan
    6. Downsizing Best Practices
    7. Exit Incentive Programs
    8. Responsible Restructuring
    9. Endnotes
  21. Chapter 15: Consultants Costs
    1. Best Practices
    2. Buying Consulting Services
    3. Case Studies, Strategies, and Benchmarks
    4. Client Expectations for Consulting Services and Relationships
    5. How Consultants Bill
    6. What Managers Spent and Plan to Spend on Consulting Projects
    7. Consultants Fulfill Key Strategic Goals by Using It
  22. Chapter 16: Business Tax Costs
    1. Case Studies and Strategies
    2. Tax Strategies at Low-Tax Companies
    3. Employee Telecommuting
    4. No Age Discrimination when Company Cuts off Retiree Benefits for Younger Workers
    5. Section 179 Expensing
    6. Overpaying Top People
    7. Avoid Deduction Limit when Paying Contractor Expenses
    8. Endnotes
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices: The Best Ways for a Financial Manager to Save Money, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Institute of Management and Administration
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780471739180