Your Finance Department Is Second-Rate

Procedures that aren't sharply defined, processes with too much wiggle room, moving targets for deadlines, inadequate staffing, systems that don't support job functions — all are incentives for employees to walk.

Some CFOs believe that substandard transaction systems are the most common cause of dissatisfaction in the finance department. Accountants detest the idea of manually extracting numbers from a system that should deliver them automatically.

Bill Hurley looks instead to procedural breakdowns as a major cause of discontent. The practice leader for Parson Consulting points a finger at departments that wait until the last day of the month to run the numbers, instead of updating receivables, payables, inventory, and cost of goods sold on a daily or weekly basis.

No one likes to "do the big cleanup" — especially when it's the one thing that seems to arrive on schedule, month after month. (For more on best practices and motivating employees, see "What Works: Building a Strong Finance Team.")

The best reason to keep staff turnover low might be to help communication flow more freely within the finance department. When your finance professionals and other staffers are unhappy or untrusting, word of potential problems may not reach your ears until it's too late.

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