The Role of Accounting Company Scorecard in a Firm's Success
Metrics, scorecards, and key performance indicators are widely used by business organizations to help them see how far they have gone in terms of implementation of plans and achievement of goals. In the same manner, an accounting company scorecard is a beneficial tool that accounting firms can use to help them function more efficiently.
Accounting is a very important aspect in any business operation. It involves the measurement and provision of accurate financial information to managers, investors, tax authorities, and other stakeholders to help them make decisions about how they should allocate the resources of a company, organization, or public agency. Due to the nature of the accounting function, accounting firms provide critical support to their clientele. Among the most common financial services accounting firms offer are estate planning, accounting, taxation and investment, and retirement planning. Because what they offer are professional services, it is imperative for accounting firms to identify all factors and issues that would significantly impact their profitability and their reputation. Moreover, to increase their efficiency, management of accounting firms should always be ahead of everyone else when it comes to innovating and updating their knowledge and technology. In addition, there is a need for these companies to invest on their employees or workforce, as these people hold the key towards building lasting relationships with clients.
At present, accountants continue to do the traditional functions that are delegated to them. However, it is widely noted that there has been a tremendous change in the role that they play. Aside from recording and updating financial records and documents, they are now usually included when managers of business organizations formulate long-term plans. In short, they now become organizational strategic partners. Because of this new position that they play as members of a management team, there is an added pressure for them to foster improvement in all aspects of their operations. The Balanced Scorecard is a management system that would prove to be very useful for them. Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, this scorecard approach will help accounting firms assess their performance using not only financial measures but also non-financial metrics. In fact, this performance measurement system advocates that there should be a balance between strategies implemented and four perspectives of business operation namely; financial, customer, business processes, and learning and growth.
Metrics that are commonly categorized under the financial perspective include return on capital, economic value of assets, and operating income. Common examples of customer perspective metrics, meanwhile, include customer satisfaction, market share, and customer retention. Business process perspective metrics also include cost and quality of procurement, production, and fulfillment of orders. Lastly, metrics for learning and growth perspective may include employee retention and employee satisfaction.
While the metrics previously mentioned may not exactly be the metrics that accounting firms find most relevant, they give the idea that the Balanced Scorecard approach is a more effective performance evaluation system. After carefully deliberating and identifying key indicators of success in their organizations, they can integrate all these metrics as they develop an accounting company scorecard.