TABLE OF CONTENTS Ultimately, all activities of an organization will be expressed in money, the common denominator within the accounts of the proprietor, be it a company, a partnership or a statutory organization. The accounting for these activities will be under the control of the finance department, which, in turn, will be controlled, through the financial director, by the board of directors.
A typical accounting organization is shown in Figure 7.1. These divisions, depending on the size of the organization, may be broken down further to provide accounting services at each plant or operating facility. There will normally be an accountant at each plant, or, in the case of very large organizations, at each major profit or cost centre at plant level. By this means, close liaison can be maintained with and management services information provided for the locally based operating management, in addition to providing the flow of information and appropriate documentation to enable the organization to prepare timely and informative accounts.
Many of the financial functions will tend to be centralized in order to enjoy economies of scale available through the use of specially qualified staff and of computers, but the modern trend is for all information to be made available at all levels within an organization thanks to the power and...
