Costing Levels Maturity Model, published as a companion document to the International Good Practice Guidance, Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations, aims to help professional accountants decide what level of costing sophistication to use given organizational requirements and the needs of managers and employees.

The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a new International Good Practice Guidance publication, Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations, which establishes six fundamental principles that can help professional accountants and their organizations to evaluate and improve their approach to costing. The guidance recognizes the importance of distinguishing between the purposes and information needs of cost accounting to meet the demands of external reporting, cost measurement, and reporting for internal decision support. A companion document, Costing Levels Maturity Model, has also been published to help professional accountants decide what level of costing sophistication to use given organizational requirements and the needs of managers and employees.

"Professional accountants have a significant role to play in ensuring that they, and the costing models and systems they use, provide relevant information and analysis to support performance evaluation and planning and management decisions," says Roger Tabor, Chair of the PAIB Committee. "Good costing information is essential to interpret and analyze past performance. And it can be used predictively to guide decisions about many aspects of an organization's future operations. These activities are different, and the guidance is designed to help professional accountants provide valuable information to their management customers."

This IFAC guidance is targeted to professionals working in commerce and industry, as well as the public sector, education, and the not-for-profit sector. It recognizes that, when used effectively, costing can provide clear and timely information. The guidance cautions, however, that all cost information is not created equal: Highly aggregated cost information, for example, which is compiled for external reporting purposes, may not reflect such relationships closely enough to support future strategic and operational decisions.    

The new Costing Levels Maturity Model can also help professional accountants exercise professional judgment to assess their organization's existing costing capability for supporting internal managerial analysis and decisions. The PAIB Committee seeks comments from professional accountants and IFAC member bodies on the model to help its continued development.

Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations and Costing Levels Maturity Model can be downloaded free of charge from the PAIB section of the IFAC online bookstore at www.ifac.org/store. The PAIB Committee welcomes all feedback, which can be emailed to paib@ifac.org.

About IFAC
IFAC (www.ifac.org) is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 157 members and associates in 123 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

This International Good Practice Guidance establishes six fundamental principles that can help professional accountants and their organizations to evaluate and improve their approach to costing.

Introduction
Good morning. I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak on this wonderful occasion, and to say how very pleased I am to be here today.

As you may know, the ICAI was one of the founding member bodies of the International Federation of Accountants, IFAC, and has always been one of our key members. So it is even more gratifying to offer my personal congratulations on ICAI's Diamond Jubilee.

I also bring greetings and congratulations from IFAC's President, Bob Bunting, and Chief Executive, Ian Ball, who cannot be here today.

I'm here to look ahead this morning, and speak to you about the changing dimensions of the accountant's role. In other words, I will speak about what is expected of our profession today and tomorrow, and how we can better live up to those expectations.

In the course of my remarks, I will tell you about a few things that the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the standard-setting Boards that operate its auspices are doing to help professional accountants keep the public interest in mind as they function as accountants and auditors.

Financial leadership, measuring board performance, and managing strategic risk are among the topics covered in a new publication, Articles of Merit, released by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). This publication includes 11 previously published articles that were selected by IFAC's Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee as part of its annual Articles of Merit Award Program for Distinguished Contribution to the Roles and Domain of Professional Accountants in Business.

The winning article for 2008 is "Black Holes in Accounting" by Ron Lutka. First published in CMA Canada's monthly members' magazine, CMA Management, the article focuses on how professional accountants may better identify and address areas within their organizations that may be negatively impacting performance. It also aims to assist professional accountants in recognizing and preventing the causes of the problems within these areas.

For the first time in the history of the award program, professional accountants were invited to participate in the selection process. The PAIB Committee took into account these views when selecting the winning articles. Votes were collected through an online public voting process.

Although the articles were originally published before the extent of the financial crisis was fully known, many of the articles promote financial leadership and better practices for professional accountants in business, which are relevant in today's financial and economic climate. Other articles of merit cover topics and issues that have been highlighted as challenges for improving organizational performance and achieving sustainable growth.

The 2008 Articles of Merit, together with past issues, can be downloaded from the IFAC online bookstore (www.ifac.org/store). The 11 articles in the 2008 publication may also be individually downloaded from the IFAC bookstore.

About IFAC
IFAC (www.ifac.org) is the worldwide organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is currently comprised of 157 professional accountancy bodies in 122 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce. IFAC, through its independent standard-setting boards, sets international standards of ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting. It also issues guidance to encourage high-quality performance by professional accountants in business.

Following the March 2008 publication of the report, Financial Reporting Supply Chain: Current Perspectives and Directions, and in response to recommendations made within it, the IFAC Board established a Business Reporting Project Group, chaired by Charles Tilley, to study progress in the areas of governance, financial reporting, and auditing around the globe.

The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is recognizing World Accountancy Week -- December 7-13, 2008 -- by launching an initiative to reach out to more professional accountants in business. The committee is inviting their participation in selecting the winner of its 2008 Articles of Merit Award Program. The program seeks to identify and promote outstanding articles on financial and management accounting topics that have been published by IFAC's 158 member bodies and associates.  This is the first time that individual accountants worldwide have been invited to be part of the selection process.

"IFAC is dedicated to making its materials more useful and relevant to professional accountants in business," states Ian Ball, IFAC chief executive officer. "The best way to do that is to involve them more directly in our work." 

Ten articles focused on leading-edge issues that PAIBs are addressing today have been selected by the PAIB Committee for global distribution and have been nominated for the top Article of Merit Award. Professional accountants in business are invited to rate their usefulness.  This input will be used to select the winning article.

The ten articles may be viewed by going to http://web.ifac.org/PAIB/articles-of-merit-2008. They focus on the following topics, among others:

• Outsourcing the finance and accounting function;
• Measuring board performance;
• Analyzing mergers and acquisitions;
• Managing strategic risk;
• Planning multi-year strategies; and
• Achieving employee alignment and motivation.

Individuals are requested to review and rate these articles by January 11, 2009. The winning article will be announced in early 2009.

About IFAC
IFAC is the worldwide organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is currently comprised of 158 professional accountancy bodies in 122 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry and commerce. IFAC, through its independent standard-setting boards, sets international standards of ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting. It also issues guidance to encourage high quality performance by professional accountants in business.

This information paper contains the results of a survey conducted by the Professional Accountants in Business Committee (PAIB) in the spring of 2008, designed to identify similarities and differences in performance measurement structures in public sector entities and to assess the extent to which these structures help meet their objectives.

As part of its mission to serve all professional accountants in business, including those working in the public sector, IFAC's Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee has conducted a survey to obtain information about the development of financial and non-financial performance measurement and reporting structures in various public sector entities around the world.

The results of this survey, contained in the information paper Developments in Performance Measurement Structures in Public Sector Entities, will help professional accountants in business, and others who work in the public sector, in evaluating and further improving their own financial and non-financial performance measurement structures. This will enable them to better plan, execute and control their organization's service delivery and to achieve a higher level of accountability. The results will also help IFAC's PAIB Committee to consider specific public sector aspects when developing International Good Practice Guidance for professional accountants in business.

The survey received 250 responses from public sector organizations at all levels of government and in a variety of sectors, including local councils, public utilities and various ministries from countries all over the world. The survey results clearly demonstrate that respondents are much more satisfied with the performance measurement structures in the public sector entities for which they completed this survey, if these structures possess the following, more advanced elements:

• A balanced combination of relevant financial and non-financial objectives, supported by specific measurement indicators (financial and non-financial KPIs);
• Accrual accounting for the budgeting, the (legislative) appropriation and the financial reporting processes;
• Capability for capturing, processing and reporting useful information on both financial and non-financial developments;
• Independent external review of the figures to report on financial and non-financial performance;
• A formal structure for measuring and assessing risk, and developing strategies to control it; and
• A regular review to ensure that the performance measurement structure remains effective and efficient.

IFAC (www.ifac.org) is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 157 members and associates in 123 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry and commerce. Through its independent standard-setting boards, IFAC sets international standards on ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting. It also issues guidance to encourage high quality performance by professional accountants in business.

Mid-sized enterprises, compared with their small and large counterparts, face unique challenges in virtually all aspects of their businesses, including strategic management, organizational and financial structure, corporate governance, risk management and internal control, management accounting, and business reporting. Recognizing that professional accountants in business play an important role in each of these business areas, the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a new publication entitled The Crucial Roles of Professional Accountants in Business in Mid-Sized Enterprises.

This information paper features interviews conducted by Eric Krell, an experienced financial journalist, with 10 senior-level professional accountants in business on their experiences in mid-sized enterprises. The interviews illustrate the critical roles that professional accountants in business play in identifying and addressing the unique challenges that mid-sized enterprises face.

"While the professional accountants in business who were interviewed for this paper are from different enterprises all over the world, they confront similar challenges and their solutions point in the same direction," states Edward Chow, Chair of the PAIB Committee. "The experiences and the lessons that they share can help professional accountants in business and others in addressing similar issues, as well as in driving performance and creating value for their organizations."

This interview-based information paper is part of a larger PAIB Committee project on mid-sized enterprises. It will serve as the basis for the development of principles-based good practice guidance on the typical challenges that mid-sized enterprises confront and how professional accountants in business can help in responding to those issues.

The paper, along with a range of other publications on topics of interest to professional accountants in business, can be downloaded from the IFAC online bookstore. 

IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 157 members and associates in 123 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry and commerce. Through its independent standard-setting boards, IFAC sets international standards on ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting. It also issues guidance to encourage high quality performance by professional accountants in business.