All to often business owners lament that their accounting departments are not providing them with the information they need.  In addition, when information is presented it may later be found to be  inaccurate.  Accounting may be seen as just a score keeper and not much of a business partner.  Staff recruitment and retention may be a challenge.  Your team may be just going through the motions and not adding any value. They rarely answer questions posed by their stakeholders in an insightful manner, leading to more questions and the erosion of organizational respect.

Have you found yourself in this situation?  How can you change it?  While many companies instill and continually reinforce their core values, how those values are interpreted in individual departments may be left to chance.  Creating a company culture takes time, consistency in the message and continual reinforcement.  Your company may be investing in the care and advancement of its culture, but what are you doing for your accounting team?

True leadership requires vision.  Do you have a vision for your accounting team?  Is your vision merely to produce financial statements required by management within so many days of month end?  Do you have a plan for developing your team, introducing new members and creating a culture that motivates and enhances your team?  If you’re not leading with vision, then you are merely going through the paces of a work a day life yourself. 

What follows are suggestions for core values of an accounting team.  While they are transferable to other disciplines, they form a solid foundation upon which your team can develop and thrive.  But, it should be acknowledged that introducing core values does not make a culture.  These values need to be reinforced daily in a consistent manner and proper planning and execution of actions to drive this culture must be maintained.  As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.  So too is the successful  deployment and establishment of a culture.  It will take months, maybe years for the culture to truly take root and bear the fruit of success.  

Core Values for Accounting Team Success

No Surprises – Develop effective controls and make sure they operate consistently.  Where transactions result in unidentified differences, don’t let an extended period of time pass before that difference is resolved; whether through correction or write-off. Where material, enlist others to help resolve, especially those outside of your department.

Know and Own Your Role and Responsibilities – Does each team member have a job description and is it current?  Has the team member been provided the proper tools and training to effectively perform their role?  Have you established regular internal training and where appropriate periodic external training for all team members to improve their skills?  Is their work regularly reviewed by a more experienced team member to ensure its accuracy and completeness and does that review lead to appropriate feedback and one-on-one coaching?

Be Audit Ready Every Month – Are all accounts reconciled on a monthly basis and differences resolved? Is information necessary for disclosures accumulated and updated regularly and not just in a hurried fashion when the auditors request it?

Exceed the Expectation of Your Stakeholders – All to often, senior management sees an anomaly in a financial report and it leads to a question.  First, it is best to work with a mindset that seeks to identify those questions before they are asked and be ready with the answer.  In addition, when a question is asked, the appropriate response isn’t just to produce a transaction listing that results in the amount in question. The appropriate answer is to explain what has lead to the question.  Be properly prepared to anticipate and intelligently respond to the question.  Don’t leave it to the questioner to draw his or her own conclusion.

Take Pride In and be Passionate About Your Work – Does every member of your team like their job?  Are they doing the work they expected, and do they enjoy it?  Do they feel they are contributing and add value to the organization?  Are they appropriately cast in the right role and do they see how they are moving towards growth and happiness? If your team members are just going through the motions and are not engaged in and challenged by their work, work which they enjoy.

You may find the above useful to develop your own vision.  These are not presented as the only means to enhance the performance of your department.  Make sure you involve your team’s senior leaders in developing and implementing plans like this.  But, if you are to be a true leader, you must have a vision and your vision must be shared with your team.  Otherwise, you are all just going through the motions.