Commercial communications are not to centre around only profit, loss and opportunities. Commerce takes place within the communities , hence it is of paramount importance that the entire endeavor should have a community orientation and communication being the lifeline of commerce should also have the same.

This takes a different dimension, especially when in this age of globalization, business happens with the co-ordination between two or more enterprises notwithstanding geographical and cultural diversities. Located thousands of miles away two enterprises exchange activities in the form of contract and service , hence need to align with the law of the land and societal practices with utmost care. Otherwise, the non-conformity can create a situation where ulterior motives can take birth and ferment while the entire endeavor may suffer adversity.

Quoting a case study from the archives of University of Notre dame, Indiana, USA,  here below-

“Beginning in the late 1990’s, public accounting firm KPMG marketed and sold tax shelters specifically designed to help clients evade taxes. When the IRS challenged these tax shelters, KPMG resisted its investigation. In the face of mounting evidence against the firm, KPMG eventually realized it had no choice but to cooperate with the Justice Department and try to save itself from criminal indictment. Late in the summer of 2005, KPMG reached a settlement with the Department of Justice, which required KPMG to make a public admission of wrongdoing. This admission paved the way for the Justice Department to file suit against former KPMG employees involved with the tax shelters. Some argue that KPMG betrayed its former employees. With the risk of criminal indictment abated, now KPMG must turn its attention to rebuilding the trust of its partners and its clients.”
- Authors: Ragsdale, M.; Bucholz, E.; and O’Rourke, J. S. (Editor)

In the modern liberal open-market economies,  there has to have fair share of ethics to support a long standing entrepreneurial effort. A business effort should be driven by long  term vision  and should not be allowed to be affected by any individual shortsightedness.

To reiterate, in to-day’s commercial world , the corporations’ global spread  is the irreversible world scenario to achieve business results. So as to ensure an end to end financial management clearly aligned to take care of the regulatory and ethical requirements  of an expanding global market is of prime importance. It is the duty of the partner enterprises to be aware of the importance and criticality of  legal and ethical orientation of their business efforts which translates into their pro-community attitude.

Stylusfms bases its efforts in providing an end to end financial services to various companies spread around the globe on a rock solid foundation of ethics and values.

Stylusfms thrives to offer not only the best financial services to its clients on time but also to package its services with an uncompromising sense of duties of a corporate citizen.

“ The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”  -  Stephen R. Covey, American author

In a way we always try to invest various things in life to enhance our net worth. We invest our determination to achieve our goal. We invest our honesty to get social recognition of our goodness. We invest our courage to move forward. But we invest our time to achieve all other things. Time is pivotal.

For an enterprise , flawless investments are the key to success. Their investments in new technology, new product development, manpower development, marketing etc. assure them relevance in the fast evolving world. For all these the enterprises  need to take timely decisions on various related issues. The peak of  the decision  process , when the decision is taken, is the accumulation of various inputs. These inputs flow from different sources and through different methods has to create a confluence to produce required  synergy , not only in terms of content but more importantly, in terms of timing to effectively contribute in the decision making process. Therefore, we are back again to the issue of investing our time correctly to ensure this happens.

In the context of Financial and accounting service outsourcing, time plays an even more critical role. Here, it is not one enterprise but two enterprises , who are involved in ensuring accurate time management. For both of them timely input, timely processing and timely execution of the assignments are of utmost importance. This will ensure financial decisions are taken on time and correctly . It may not be out of context to discuss necessary conditions of proper time management , when service seeker and service provider come together , in a financial and accounting services scenario.

a.      Absolute clarity about each other and a mindset to treat each other as trusted partner in the endeavor.
b.      Availability of all input data for the service provider and clarity about operation system and staffing details for the service seeker. Clear expression on delegation and delivery hierarchy is vital precondition of a smooth arrangement in the subject financial and accounting services efforts.
c.       Time bound accounting activities at the service provider’s end  by way of in depth data mining, data processing and  conclusion reporting, using latest IT tools are critically important.
d.      Financial service provider’s ever-rotating radar should continuously search and analyze all available investment opportunities and regulatory updates to be able to advise the principal enterprise suitably and on time. This will enable them to take appropriate financial decisions.
e.      Financial service provider , also has to ensure necessary formal and informal interactions with the designated personnel of the service seeker enterprise .

These interactions will ensure cross-pollination of ideas and learning from  researches and all then can translate into a mutually beneficial association. This enhanced comfort level and trust will , in various ways, contribute to time management also.

Stylusfms is consciously practicing the above principles in their entrepreneurial efforts in offering world class financial and accounting services. Number of satisfied and long standing overseas clients are the testimony of the same.

“ Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.”  - Bill Gates

The fundamental input to Information technology is data. A modem is useless without data. A planning is incomplete without data. A decision is incomprehensible without data. But, raw data is like uncooked vegetables , glorious in appearance , assuring in availability but not savory till cooked. Likewise, data is meaningful only when analyzed; hence , the date with data.

Enterprises spend huge amount of money and resources to gather data. These data at the warehouse are meant for analysis to enable formulation of plan and policy besides daily routine management. Enterprises, especially small and medium ones, face an uphill task in analyzing the same and many cases, the collected / available data remain within the thickness of occupied space of a CD or in the fat files.

Data mining and analysis using effective analytics certainly delivers versatile outputs on the platter before the planners and executives. But interfacing of that analysis output with the action is the cross-road where enterprises experience road -blocks. At this point man supersedes machine and it is the dearth of qualified personnel which creates a mismatch between available data , analytical output and need to implement the same in taking decisions. Therefore problems are-

a.      Data analysis .
b.      Post-analysis output implementation in decision making.

In-house data based decision making process in enterprises are known to be affected by certain human behavioral traits. They are, at times, infested by an attitude full of mechanical outlook towards analyzed data output unmindful of  intuition or judgment.  But rarely, a combination of analysis and judgment in handling the said data analysis in taking decision is noticed. These can be the attribution of various factors in an enterprise – lackadaisical attitude  to even simple non-availability of expertise . Sometimes, even if the expertise is available in an enterprise, but the same does not percolate down vertically or does not spread horizontally  resulting  in confinement of the said expertise within a closed loop. These are detrimental to the enterprise.

Finance is one department , where business needs are clearly defined, stable, and relatively consistent among a wide group of users. Finance is also of utmost importance in  terms of decisional veracity as it encompasses entrepreneurial aspects as well as statutory obligations.

A specialist end to end financial service provider like Stylusfms , can play a pivotal role in this situation in making sure that all the financial data available with an enterprise is analyzed  using latest IT tools. Not only a platter full of analytical output is offered to the enterprise but also the action-chain is suggested to enable them to take a prudent decisions for the business.

Correct and informed decisions always pave the way for an enterprise towards its planned goal of success in its endeavor.

If we may quote the American Football coach, author and motivational speaker Lou Holtz , “ In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.”

The undertone of the above statement pointify towards the need to be aware of every small details of a commercial enterprise.

An entrepreneur has to have two different abilities- a bird’s eye view and an insect eye view ! He /she has to devote time in strategic thinking and planning for the progress of the business. At the same time utmost care has to be taken to be aware of daily health of the coffers. This poses an unique problem for the entrepreneur , who wants to ensure growth by strategic inputs . Despite his/her wish to do so, daily attention to proper bookkeeping suffers, making  his/her  finding  the way through the complex web of financial world difficult . This is a predicament , especially, for the small and medium entrepreneurs , whose business calls for much higher personal involvements.

Bookkeeping calls for diligence in recording financial transactions , without which financial situations cannot be interpreted and statutory regulations cannot be followed.
The mundane job of debit, credit , journal entries ; tracking of payments instruments are all meant to result into better preparedness for  statutory  submissions & audit and also enable the entrepreneur to align the daily business performance with the need for further resources to achieve his/her strategic aims. But, most of the small entrepreneurs either do not wish to get into this critical job  or do it in a disorganized way. This is enough to put them in unmanageable problems  when the financial statements are required or to be deprived of critical resources when the same is needed. After all, no lender will accord approval to fund requests, when the financial statements are not made methodically and clearly. Ironically, business cannot even understand the accuracy of pricing charged for the services or goods in the absence of Financial statements made out of proper bookkeeping.

What is the way out then from this difficult situation !

Help of an independent freelance bookkeeper  is not the complete solution. He/she may be of help for a while but may not be available when needed . Secondly, every business requires a clear understanding of the type of business by the bookkeeping professional. Hence, the best solution for the enterprise will be to outsource bookkeeping through an experienced and trusted Financial services enterprise. Advantages are as below-

1. Number of bookkeeping professionals are available with them, so service is available , virtually always.
2. Availability, affordability and deployment of modern bookkeeping software are ensured with the professional service provider, to ensure better deliverance – both in quantity and quality.
3. Analytic and decision support in Enterprise’s Business performance management.
4. From the basic data entry to bookkeeping to preparing financial statements like monthly Trial Balance, Balance sheet, Cash flow statements, Tax computations etc. could be better handled by a professional external Financial services enterprise.
5. Effective end to end accounting support is available to the fast growing Business Organization.

Entrepreneur  can then devote much higher time to strategic planning and executions to achieve growth in business.