PACE Moments

In this podcast, we interview Prashanth H Southekal, PhD, MBA, ICD.D who leads the Data Analytics interest Group for PACE and also recently published his 3rd book “Data Quality: Empowering Businesses With Analytics And AI”. We talked about how Business Analytics and AI support accounting and finance, where he sees them going in the future, how the Profitability Analytics Framework is supported by...

Anders Liu-Lindberg is a co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and social media influencer. In this episode we find out why becoming a business partner is so important for finance now, where he sees the future of the profession going, and how the PACE Profitability Analytics Framework supports business partnering for finance so well. If, as a finance professional, you find yourself...

Many of our PACE Forum podcasts have a recurring message: To nudge, and more strongly push, CFOs and accountants to get out of the 1960s and into the 21st century by applying and using progressive management accounting methods. The problem begins with the imbalance of emphasis of external statutory and compliance financial reporting for government regulatory agencies (e.g., the USA’s SEC) dominati...

Management accounting has been very methodology focused since the advent of Activity Based Costing, now almost 50 years ago. Profitability Analytics focuses on principles and deep understanding. Understanding principles guides you to an effective methodology for your organization. Money is generally a lagging indicator for revenue, cost, and investment performance. A central tenant of the IMA Conc...

Management accounting should enthusiastically embrace the concept of professional optimism!  It is truly a differentiator within the accounting profession. Business needs accountants who focus on creating possibilities and designing new solutions.  Larry White discusses how the change in the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (published by the International Federat...

Two similar stories. One from two centuries ago, and the other present day. In each case the navigator (the management accountant in the present day) knew his equipment was faulty and that he was providing the captain (executive) with bad information on which to base important decisions that would adversely affect a lot of people. Instead of informing the captain (executive) he kept it to himself...

Some of the “expenses” recorded in financial accounting should be treated as “investments” and some amounts not spent during a financial accounting period included as “expenses.” Doug Hicks, CPA discusses why and when this should be the case. It's important to distinguish between measurements made from the financial accounting perspective and those made from the managerial accounting perspective....

In the teaching profession, there is an ongoing debate over the value of standardized testing – testing designed to measure the performance of both the student and the educator. One of the more powerful arguments against standardized testing – or at least standardized testing in its current form – does not relate to the testing itself but to one of its unintended consequences. That unintended cons...

A gatekeeper is an individual who controls access to something. Ancient cities had gatekeepers whose job was to keep out undesirables. A college admissions officer is a gatekeeper who controls the makeup of the school’s student body. A newspaper editor is a gatekeeper who decides which stories will be included in that day’s edition. Gatekeepers are critical to an institution’s security, quality, a...

Finance is charged with being the ethical concience of their organizations helping to ensure adherence to company policies. Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Blockchain have impacted how financial employees capture, analyze, and report finanical and non-financial data. In this episode, Raef Lawson discusses possible ethical risks. To lea...

One major informational gap, from an internal decision support point of view, with typical financial accounting and reporting information is insight into intangible investments as they are typically lost in the operating budget and expenses. Today, the capital market value of companies across the market as a whole is 10 times their capital asset value.  This is because of two primary factors:...

PACE’s Profitability Analytics Framework is a strategic management framework that can be used by organizations to not only increase their profitability, but also to achieve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.  In this podcast, Raef Lawson describes the components of the framework and how they help organizations focus on simultaneously achieving these diverse objectives. T...

Finance is often primarily focused on cost management. Cost and revenue management are two sides of the same coin, yet accountants often fail in being familiar with both of these and how they can impact the organization's profitability. In this podcast, Raef Lawson explores how to work cross-functionally to be more involved in the revenue creation process and contribute to organizational value.&nb...

In this podcast, Raef Lawson interviews Kip Krumwiede, former Director of Research at IMA and currently a business consultant. Kip shows how anything really can be measured and gives several examples relating to revenue modeling, cost modeling, investment management and making forecasts when our COVID world seems so uncertain. To make it actionable, Kip gives tips on ways to implement and improve...

A new role is opening up for accounting and finance professionals - that of analytics translator. This entails serving as a bridge between the technical expertise of data engineers and data scientists and the operational expertise of frontline managers. Serving in this role, accounting and finance professionals help harness the power of Big Data and create value for their organizations.  This...

This podcast addresses the role of resource and activity information in improving organizational profitability. Analyzing and managing resources and activities, particularly from a traditional financial point of view, can be fraught with potential missteps.  This podcast provides a simple, causal solution to analyzing and improving profitability across your organization. To learn more, visit...

In order to exploit the digital transformation of business, finance professionals need to be able to effectively communicate the “story” in the data. Listen to this podcast to learn about the various types of visualizations and best practices.  To learn more, visit the PACE website and follow our LinkedIn page and Twitter page .

When considering depreciation there are two perspectives to consider, financial and tax accounting (which is backward-looking) and managerial accounting (which is forward-looking). In this podcast, Doug Hicks discusses why depreciation measured by financial or tax accounting has no place in managerial costing and what can be used to be more realistic. To learn more, visit the PACE website and foll...

Advocates of modeling and decision support often tout financial accounting and reporting data as the "one version of the truth". In this podcast, Larry White discusses why this is not the case for decision support and how causality should be considered when "assigning" cost. To learn more, visit the PACE website and follow our LinkedIn page .

There are many principles, concepts and laws that apply to product and service pricing.  In this podcast we discuss three laws that companies often violate or ignore.  To learn more, visit the PACE website and follow our LinkedIn page .

Management accounting practices at most organizations are stuck in the 1960s.  In this podcast, we discuss nine factors that have recently caused the interest in the adoption of better management accounting techniques to accelerate.  To learn more, visit the PACE website and follow our LinkedIn page .

The accounting profession is facing challenges as disruptive technologies change its practices at an ever-increasing rate. Machine Learning and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) are eliminating the need for many entry-level accounting positions and some higher-level positions as well. In this episode, we examine the future role of the finance function and how accountants can remain relevant and bec...

To many people, management accounting is almost synonymous with cost accounting, yet management accounting can and should be, so much more. The role of management accountants is changing due to three main factors, changing expectations around the role management accountants should play, the rapid evolution of technology and data analytics, and the pressures placed on companies by the pandemic. In...