Financial Management Functions Research Articles

Exploring the management abilities of spaza shop owners in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality

South African entrepreneurs have a poor skills record, which often leads to business failure. To effectively manage a spaza shop requires applying management functions and some management skills. The implementation of simple systems can assist spaza shop owners to manage their businesses more successfully and even grow. A quantitative study was done, by interviewing sixty spaza shop owners in the township. The empirical results identified the gaps in the management abilities of spaza shop owners in terms of the eight management functions and show that the purchasing, financial and information management function is the most neglected. Guidelines on how each of the functions could or should be applied are given. This research clearly indicates that spaza shops can assist in economic growth and relieve unemployment in the country.

Symposium: modernising the financial management and revenue functions of the state—lessons for policy and performance management

Symposium: modernising the financial management and revenue functions of the state—lessons for policy and performance management

Assessing the Information Management Requirements for Behavioral Health Providers

Behavioral health agencies will soon implement automated information-management systems to support their administrative, financial, and clinical care functions. Assessing current information-management capabilities and delineating future needs are prerequisite to recommending a specific information technology solution. Quantifying the discrepancy between current information-management capabilities and future requirements highlights the areas of greatest unmet need for information management. Selecting an information system that addresses the most critical areas of unmet need is a prudent purchase decision. This article describes the results of a process to assess the information-management requirements for agencies that were considering implementation of an integrated behavioral health information-management system. The assessment revealed that these agencies already employed automated systems to manage most financial functions and many administrative functions. Few agencies, however, utilized automated systems to manage clinical care functions. Selection of a behavioral health electronic medical record (EMR) effectively addressed clinical care information-management needs without duplicating existing financial and administrative management functions. Also, the EMR included features that addressed some administrative functions for which a discrepancy between current capabilities and future needs was found. Selecting an EMR instead of an integrated behavioral health information system was associated with a significant reduction in information system acquisition costs.

Analytical auditing and risk analysis in government

The subjects of risk assessment and analytical auditing are recent important developments in the general area of auditing; they are also subjects that are equally important to the general function of government financial management. First focuses on analytical auditing because it directs attention to situations where analysis indicates that there are unusual, unexplained relationships that should receive attention. Next, determines the degree of importance of the indicated aspects, the process of risk analysis.

The Management of Foreign Exchange Risk in US Multinational Enterprises: An Empirical Investigation

This study examines how US multinational enterprises manage foreign exchange risks by exploring the concepts applied by management, the objectives followed, and how management has organised this important function of multinational financial management. Despite the change in generally accepted accounting principles from SFAS8 to SFAS52 and the fact that translation exposure is not real exposure, 19 of the 22 surveyed companies closely monitored accounting exposure and would take action under certain circumstances. Further, transaction exposure management still plays a significant role in foreign exchange risk management. Economic exposure management, which focuses on foreign exchange‐induced changes in future cash flows, was also perceived as essential, although the degree of sophistication varies. The majority of the participating companies are risk averse and have centralised their foreign exchange risk management.

The chief financial officers act of 1990: a new approach to solving federal financial management problems

The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-576) promises to be a new era not only in federal management and accountability, but also in efforts to gain financial control of government operations. The CFO Act provides for broad reforms that will (1) properly organize the financial management function in government agencies, (2) provide the necessary systems and control to manage government programs, and (3) measure performance through financial statements, cost information, and other data, so that prompt corrective actions can be taken. The CFO Act is expected to bring fundamental change to the federal government's weak, outdated, and inefficient financial systems. Meeting the CFO Act's challenge will be difficult, but should result in (1) improved financial systems and information with which to manage government operations, (2) better ability to foresee problems, and thus deal with them, and (3) greater accountability by those managing government programs.

Regionalization of Advantages

Economies of scale, capital resource pooling, and improvement in operation are some of the advantages of regionalization. A large proportion of the hundreds of thousands of small water systems in the U.S. could benefit through regionalization. Unified purchasing, operation, maintenance, monitoring, planning, and financial and administrative management functions could be carried out by a single staff.

Wisconsin's Progress with Productivity Improvements

1. U.S. Bureau of the Budget, Measuring of Federal Government Organizations (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964). 2. Thomas D. Morris, William H. Corbett, and Brian L. Usilaner, Productivity Measures in the Federal Government, Public Administration Review, Vol. 32, No. 6 (1972). 3. U.S. General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget, Civil Service Commission, Phase III-Summary Report: Measuring and Enhancing in the Federal Government (Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office, June 1973). 4. The General Services Administration became one of the central sponsoring agencies of the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program in June 1973 when the Office of Federal Management Policy was established in GSA to carry out certain financial and other management functions transferred from the Office of Management and Budget. This relationship and the GSA central role in productivity were discontinued at the end of 1975 when the Office of Federal Management Policy was eliminated and most of the functions transferred back to OMB. 5. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, Annual Report to the President and the Congress: Programs in the Federal Government (Washington, D.C.: JFMIP, July 1976); Volume I: Trends and Current Efforts; Volume II: Case Studies; Supplement to Volume I: The Measurement Data Base. 6. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 1. 7. Ibid., p. 14. 8. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, op. cit., Vol. I, Chap. 7, and Vol. II, Chap. 12 and 13. 9. National Commission on Improvement (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1975). 10. National Center for and Quality of Working Life, Annual Report to the President and Congress, 1976 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office), pp. 49-65. 11. Ibid., pp. 67-90. 12. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, Report on Federal Productivity-Volume II: Case Studies (Washington, D.C.: JFMIP, June 1974) Chap. 9. 13. Ibid., Chap. 7. 14. Frank B. Elliot, A Comprehensive Financial Management Program for the Farmers Home Administration, The Bureaucrat, Vol. 5, No. 4, January 1977. 15. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, Implementing a Program: Points to Consider (Washington, D.C.: JFMIP, March 1977).

Application of the Financial Management Function in the Family Size Farm Firm

S UCCESS in family farm firms requires that the household farmmanagement complex make concurrent production and financing decisions to achieve realistic financial objectives set by the household. Economic theory of the firm has not evolved usable models in which the dynamics of production, capital, and finance are integrated [1, 5]. However, the increased rate of change in the mix of inputs used in production and marketing, lower profit margins per unit of output, firm growth, and income tax considerations are suggesting that researchers need improved insights on financial management, and farmers need improved financial management knowledge and skills. This paper is addressed to the newer areas of financial management in family-sized farm firmnns, a subarea and interrelated area of farm management.1