This is a similar question to the previous discussion post we had, and I
have a similar answer: accountants need to be involved in the process
at every step. There are a few reasons for this I believe. First and
foremost, as we discussed previously, this will ensure that there is
minimal or no communication gap. Since accountants are the users
that will be supplying the information for these reports, there could
be information that is either difficult to understand and needs
explanation, or something that is included on the report and not
needed or vice versa. This could lead to issues down the line. I had a
very small issue similar to this at a previous company that I worked
for. There was a report that we accountants completed and provided
to management and that was disseminated to the employees.
However, due to the terminology and the way our report was ran,
there was a criterion that we filled out each week that was
unnecessary. This caused issues when management asked why we
kept including it and we stated that upper management requested it.
There was no discussion with us about the usability of the
information, just the inclusion of it. While this is a very minor example
since this was a small business that employed less than 50 employees,
in larger companies it can translate much the same. Accountants are
providing information that is unnecessary or not providing necessary
information. Since we would be the ones using the information
systems it stands to reason that we should have a say in the
information contained therein. And we should have a say from
beginning to end regardless of if the information is strictly financial
information. If it has to do with accounting, we should be involved.
Without accounting involvement there would be no guarantee that
the non-financial information would be relevant to the other
information provided.
