Documenting Your Organization's Financial Processes

Workshop objectives:

This workshop teaches you how to document your organization's financial work processes and prepare a detailed task-based procedures manual. A current and comprehensive manual of essential operational procedures helps ensure that an organization's processes meet required standards, that the organization can survive unexpected employee turnover, and that their financial controls meet corporate governance and disclosure obligations for publicly traded companies.

This workshop focuses on documenting an organization's financial processes, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, asset management, treasury, accounting, cash management, accruals, journal entries, and payroll processes.

Topics include:

• Benefits of documenting financial work processes
• Outlining and prototyping
• Conducting procedure walk-throughs with staff
• Capturing screen shots and other essential information
• Writing and formatting drafts
• Reviewing and approving drafts
• Maintaining and revising your procedures manual

What you will take away:

You'll be able to download free Microsoft Word templates that you can use to create a professional-looking print manual quickly and easily.

What the workshop will cover:

Planning

• Why document financial processes?
• Establish purpose and audience
• Determine documentation needs
• Establish documentation criteria
• Documentation hierarchy
• What is a "chapter"?
• What is a "procedure"?
• What is a "task"?
• What is a "step"?
• Prepare outline
• Benefits of prototyping
• Prepare prototype
• Should SMEs draft?
• Establish style sheet
• Estimate time required

Drafting

• Walk throughs
• Developing consensus
• Capture screen shots
• Start drafting
• Write in plain English
• Add related policy
• Crop screen shots
• Delete personal info
• Show reports and forms
• Insert hyperlinks
• Proofread your drafts

Review and Approvals

• Review with SME
• Review with stakeholders
• Testing
• Get approval

Distribution and Maintenance

• Consider your options
• Pros and cons of print manual
• Modularize for ease of maintenance
• Revision register template
• Access to files
• Revision
• Establish change control process