Tsfu decryption. From CFA to CFA

Financial Accounting Center(CFU) is a structural subdivision of an enterprise that carries out economic activities and keeps records of the specified indicators of income and expenses, for the achievement of the target levels of which it is responsible.

The main difference from the Central Federal District lies in the degree of responsibility and, in proportion to it, the degree of authority that this accounting center has. The Central Federal District is distinguished by a large degree of authority in the conduct of its activities, in contrast to the center of financial accounting. In the literature, different definitions for CFU are indicated; a single definition has not been developed in this regard. We propose to consider the following features as defining for the center of financial accounting: less freedom in making decisions regarding its activities, a narrow focus, differentiation in relation to a relatively wide range of activities of the Central Federal District.

Financial accounting center budgets

The financial accounting center maintains a budget of income and expenses, the functional budgets it needs. Balance sheet budget (BBL) and movement budget Money(BDDS) for the financial accounting center are not compiled, since it does not manage the activities that reflect the indicators included in these budgets.

Responsibility of the financial accounting center

It cannot be said that the financial accounting center is not responsible as a CFD, it is not. Another thing is that the responsibility of the financial accounting center is limited, incomplete. If for the Central Federal District the achievement of the goals facing it is primary, then for the financial accounting center the primary is the fulfillment economic activity in order to meet the standards, restrictions and limits.

Place of financial accounting centers in the financial structure

DSFs are not found in the upper two levels of the financial structure of an enterprise, since the investment center as a center of financial responsibility is usually located at the highest level, and the centers of financial responsibility for the activities of an enterprise or an association of enterprises are located at the second level. When automating, the FSC is usually not separated in some special way, by standard means, from the FSC in the financial structure, unless specifically set for this purpose, since the main differences between them are visible in the activity itself, its nature, and not in financial reports, which are only and pass into automated system budget management.

Financial Responsibility Centers (FRCs) are an integral part of budgetary management, involving the division of responsibility within the enterprise.

Key Features

Key aspects:

• financial hierarchical structure, including the Central Federal District;
• a budget structure that allows preparing reports and plans for different CFDs.

Budget management through the CFD has the following distinctive features:

• transfer of tasks for individual indicators to different levels within the company, those who form this factor are appointed responsible;
• formation of plans and their implementation, working in a single system of coordinates of the enterprise;
• focus on financial performance;
• analysis of the results obtained, taking into account the factors noted in the plan;
• identifying the correspondence between the goals and the obtained indicators.

Terminology

The centers of financial responsibility of the enterprise are separate structural units within the organization. Their performance affects the economic efficiency of the company. The main task is responsibility for the correct preparation of financial plans and the achievement of the declared results.

In addition to the CFA, the CFA (financial accounting) plays an important role in the company's activities. These units affect the economic performance of the company and are designed to keep track of what has been achieved. A cost center (cost center) is a unit that provokes a known level of costs already by the fact that it exists. The CFD is responsible for the cost center, and the CFS performs current accounting.

financial structure

A typical cost center is a technology object. For its correct functioning, it is necessary to regularly invest in raw materials, materials and other items of expenditure. From a managerial point of view, the costs associated with the operation of the cost center are too small, so it is unacceptable to single out an object as an independent CFD.

The financial hierarchical structure is a system that combines all the company's CFDs. It determines what subordination is in the organization and at what level of nesting this or that center is located. This logic of work allows you to achieve increased efficiency in the integrated management of financial performance.

Classification: indicators

The centers of financial responsibility of an enterprise can be classified in different ways - there are a lot of theories that offer original approaches. Each of them has positive aspects and weak sides. Finding a universal solution is not easy. Experts recommend paying attention, first of all, to economic indicators for which the considered CFDs are responsible. A division according to this principle is equally suitable for all enterprises, regardless of their size, industry affiliation and scope.

The main economic indicators on the basis of which the centers of financial responsibility are distinguished in the budgeting system:

• profit in a given time period;
• expenses for the same period;
• subtotals (conditionally they can be designated as "marginal income");
• investment indicators as a percentage of invested funds and the profit received through them;
• indicators of profit received on all items of income, minus the costs incurred for the same period.

CFD classification

Based on the indicators described earlier, the financial responsibility centers of an organization can be categorized as follows:

• Responsible for costs (purchasing, production process, administrative department, commercial services).
• Revenue centers that form the direction of the enterprise.
• CMD (marginal income), responsible for a specific direction and the profit that it brings to the enterprise. The composition necessarily includes a CZ that reflects direct production costs, and a CSD that shows the profitability of a direction. CMD can be a separate structure or a combination of several points of the organizational entrepreneurial chain.
• CPU (profits) responsible for the positive balance after taking into account all costs. Typically, the CPU is an enterprise or a group of them and combines the Central Office, the Central Office, the Central Office (depending on the characteristics of the structure of a particular organization).
• CI (investment). These types of financial responsibility centers are engaged in investment, their functions include changing non-current assets. The main task of CI is operational efficiency in the context of invested funds. This is calculated by the ROI coefficient. CI structure: several joint CPUs, an enterprise, a holding, a group of companies. Often the CPU, QI are the same object. This situation is typical when considering an independent company that makes a profit and invests in some projects.

Central lock: features and activities

When studying the indicators of financial responsibility centers, first of all, attention is paid to costs directly related to the efficiency of the use of resources and the activities of the company in general.

TsZ - these are units that are engaged in similar work. These can be divided into two groups:

• production;
• functional.

PCRs are capacious both in terms of material investments and labor costs. This includes all manufacturing units. These elements do not directly participate in pricing, but they consume the company's resources and accumulate expenses. The leaders of the PHC are responsible for the costs: they know the planned level and control its observance. The main task of the chief is to minimize costs.

FZZ are responsible for general business needs, costs associated with economic transactions, financial and legal transactions.

Financial structure of an enterprise: financial responsibility centers by example

The construction of the CFD begins with an analysis of the organizational structure of the company. For this:

• allocate organizational links, form a list;
• build a hierarchy of subordination between links (start with the general director, end with lower positions - individual performers);
• links are numbered, taking into account nesting.

From the organizational structure and analysis of activities, it is possible to draw correct conclusions about the direction of the company's business. Next comes the financial structure. To do this, a directory is compiled, where each link is indicated and it is noted that it is characteristic of it: TsD, TsI, TsP, TsZ. Some rows will have marks in several columns of belonging to the centers, others will have only one column. The resulting matrix helps to classify the links in the organizational chain.

For example, for our conditional company, this will give the following result:

• Qi: firm.
• CPU: firm.
• CD: sales.
• TsZ: marketing, administration, financiers, personnel officers.

Based on the information received, a hierarchical list is compiled, reflecting the subordination between departments by nesting. Further, for each identified CFD, a leader is selected, and responsibility for the work of the center is assigned to him. Structured information is stored in tabular form.

CFD and management accounting

The center of financial accounting and the center of financial responsibility in the company are tools that allow decentralizing the management of the organization, partially transferring responsibility from top managers to middle and lower levels of personnel. It is worth remembering that the work done, the products manufactured and the services provided cannot always be quantified by income.

Not every financial structure, whose responsibility centers are correctly distributed, is built in such a way that responsible managers have the right to distribute the profits received by the CFD, despite the fact that they are the ones who deal with both the expenditure and income components of the enterprise. The more complex the organizational, technological structure of the company, the more shaky this question is. At the same time, it is only thanks to accountability that it is possible to evaluate, measure, weigh plans and their implementation within each individual center.

According to established practice, management accounting is considered to be the most effective, since only it allows you to access up-to-date data, on the basis of which you can make the correct financial decision. The work uses relevant information generated by accounting, if a specific financial management goal has been put at the forefront. Formation of databases and creation of reports is carried out by:

• structural divisions.

Analyzed:

• financial decisions;
• technological introductions;
• specific products.

It is recommended to use a convenient, simple information system to implement this in practice. This is developed taking into account the decentralized power in the enterprise and the fact that managers are personally responsible for the financial performance of the company.

Decentralization and company structure

If the company is built on the idea of ​​decentralized responsibility, if there is a center of financial responsibility, budgeting, a hierarchical structure that takes into account the characteristics of a particular type of activity, you can achieve quick and positive success. Why is this happening? The traditional approach places too much emphasis on what mistakes were made by line managers. But with the option under consideration, the focus is only on the result of the workflow, and not on technical issues. Managers are not afraid to take the initiative, the company often introduces innovative, innovative ideas, which leads to a quick and high-quality solution of routine tasks. As a result - optimization of the activities of the entire company as a whole.

Financial responsibility centers are not required to coincide with the structure of the company (organizational, production). It is necessary to assign auxiliary, main directions of the firm's work to some interconnected and top-managed CFDs. It is also important to provide information infrastructure.

Algorithm of V. E. Khrutsky

A well-known domestic economist and analyst proposed the method described below, which makes it possible to single out the Central Federal District, on the basis of which to implement effective financial planning by responsibility centers.

1. A list is formed that includes all types of economic entrepreneurship within the organization. They also make a list, including the products sold.
2. Analysts identify the organizational management structure. There are two types: linear functional and divisional.
3. They distribute the types of activities among departments within the company, highlighting those that are not sources of profit.
4. Calculate expenses, incomes, expenses for each department. Separately, the regulated and unregulated components of the enterprise's expenses are singled out.
5. Allocate units that are responsible for financial flows and their adjustment.

Financial and organizational: what is the difference?

The centers of financial responsibility, which form the financial structure of the enterprise, are built taking into account the relationship of monetary, economic. Organizational is formed on the basis of the functionality of a particular department. Each of the cost centers is occupied with one type of finance, while the organizational structure involves a grouping of such functions, the performance of which is associated with the presence of specific skills and knowledge.

The financial structure shows the hierarchical system of responsibility in the company. For her, the key will be the concept of "result". For the organizational structure, the main concept is "subordination". When creating such a structure, it is allowed to resort to compromise solutions, based on personal factors. The financial structure is built strictly on the realities of the market, without discounts on personal impressions and relationships.

Obviously, these two structures are fundamentally different. This is associated with certain managerial difficulties: as if you are driving a car with distorted controls. For maximum efficiency of the enterprise, it is necessary to adjust the organizational structure to the financial one.

What else to pay attention to?

A mandatory concept is the budget of the financial responsibility center. This is carried out taking into account all expenses, profits of the unit that accompany the operation. In this case, it is allowed to neglect:

• BBL (according to the balance sheet).
• BDDS (movement of money).

This is due to the fact that the CFD does not control the activities that are reflected in these documents.

The responsibility inherent in the CFD is rather limited. This is due to the fact that the centers of financial responsibility are formed to achieve specific indicators. At the same time, one should remember about financial accounting centers, which, in turn, monitor compliance with standards and restrictions. CFU is also classified as CFD.

CFD classification: features of a commercial enterprise

If the firm is commercial, then for it the most correct method of classifying the CFD is considered to be based on the functionality and tasks of the centers. Allocate:

• auxiliary;
• basic.

The main ones work on the manufacture of products, the provision of services and the execution of works. The cost here is the cost of the product. Workshops and sales departments are classic representatives of the main CFDs.

Auxiliaries are those that serve the main ones. It is customary to subdivide their costs according to the CFFR, sum up the obtained values, and only then evaluate the real cost. VTsFO is AHO, technical control, repair, tool workshops.

Responsibility and costs

At some enterprises, such hierarchical systems have been introduced in which the centers of responsibility are identical to the CZ. Then they talk about coinciding CFDs. Otherwise, they are called "non-matching". Costs arise in specific structural units that consume resources. In relation to such units, they make plans, set standards and keep records designed to control costs and ensure self-financing within the organization.

If the cost center corresponds to the CFD, such a structure is considered optimal. In practice, the CFD is often responsible for several departments at the same time. At the same time, the head of a structural unit may refuse to take responsibility for the costs associated with the work of another department. In such disputable situations, the final decision will be with the administration of the company. Analysts decide how to classify costs and how much detail should be considered in the process of their formation. Based on the decisions made, expenses are attributed to a specific CFD.

Background

The state of today's management systems at Russian enterprises is characterized by the search for approaches and tools to improve the efficiency of business activities. It is difficult to say whether the period of initial accumulation of capital has really ended, which is characterized by rather harsh methods of redistributing property and spheres of influence than by improving management. But, one way or another, more and more management teams are appearing, striving to organize the activities of the businesses entrusted to them with the greatest return. In this sense, domestic managers go through a path similar to the path of their foreign counterparts in a historical retrospective, albeit in a much shorter time frame. Such a pace, on the one hand, seriously compensates for the long-term lag in managerial culture, and on the other hand, it leads to a lack of development of the most important management technologies. There is simply no time to rethink them, adapt them in accordance with the realities of the domestic economy and psychology, and theoretically substantiate them. Many methodologies and techniques carefully polished in other countries are being tested in Russia immediately at the level of implementation and operation, “in combat”.

The first elements of regular management in domestic practice were part of a functional approach to management, since this approach was, in principle, one of the main legacies of pre-market administration systems (if we consider current management, and not ideological, anti-crisis in the field of industrialization or project management in science, these are separate Topics). In this and subsequent articles, we will often use the concept "functional management". Under it, it is proposed to understand the system for achieving the company's targets by developing and executing action plans in the framework of the implementation of the functions assigned to the relevant organizational unit (service, department, branch, etc.). In other words, the main control lever in the functional approach is the control of the physical performance of certain actions.

By itself, a functional approach is necessary for every organization, since its activities are the consistent implementation of certain actions, the implementation and effectiveness of which is necessarily monitored. This can also be seen in historical terms: the functional approach was the first (and this already says a lot about its necessity) from a galaxy of management technologies. But "necessary" does not mean "sufficient". And in the history of management, the functional approach began to be quickly supplemented by alternative views on the management system.

Today, there are already dozens of such alternative views. Among them are the process approach, project management, outsourcing, supply chain management, customer relationship management, etc. Each of the methodologies, in fact, offers its own complex and conditionally “sufficient” tools for enterprise management. In other words, with a certain measure of reliability, we can say that by choosing any of them as a priority, you can effectively manage your business.

In this series, I would like to highlight the enterprise management system through the financial component of its activities - the so-called budgetary management(or budgeting), and among the reasons for attention to budgeting are:

1. Financial and economic indicators are a universal language for evaluating business performance and a criterion for comparing businesses with each other. If they cannot be unequivocally recognized as sufficient, then they are indisputably mandatory.

2. The budgeting methodology, for numerous reasons, was the first serious alternative to the functional approach in new history Russian management.

3. The development of budgeting systems today is one of the most popular products in the consulting services market, both in general in the world and in Russia (and this market, to a certain extent, is an indicator of the general interest in a particular management system). Thus, according to the results of studies conducted at the University of Manchester, budgeting was the most demanded management technology in most Western companies in 1996–2001. (up to 82% demand compared to other technologies in the surveyed companies), and the same trend will continue (up to a minimum of 76% by 2006).

To understand the place of budget management in modern views on management, it is necessary, among other things, to understand the history of the development of management technologies. Briefly, this development can be presented in the form of a table. 1 (see The Economist's Handbook, No. 8, 2006).

All described in Table. 1 factors (especially the large scale, complexity and geographical distribution of the business) have re-evaluated the views on what is an effective control lever. The principle of functional subordination, which has proven itself in the conditions of the close proximity of the administration to production and the relative simplicity of accounting, now began to falter, since it did not directly link the results of the enterprise's activities (financial and economic indicators) with measures to achieve them (physical actions to fulfill plans).

With the expansion of enterprises and the emergence of powerful business lines within the structures of companies that needed a certain independence to implement their comprehensive long-term plans, it became clear that a one-dimensional organizational structure no longer ensures business efficiency.

Initially, this problem was solved with the help of modifications within the organizational structure, namely:

a) the transition from purely functional structures to divisional ones by product, region or market, with a distinction between business areas and corporate services;

b) the transition from one-dimensional structures to matrix ones, in which functional areas of activity were projected onto products or business projects.

Work on divisional and matrix structures has increased flexibility quite a lot event management in Western companies, but the problem arose at the other extreme.

A contradiction became noticeable: as business results, owners and managers wanted to see a number of financial indicators(revenue, profitability, return on investment, etc.), while in fact they controlled the execution physical actions their subordinates. Faced with this, management researchers in the United States developed an alternative ideology that, in addition to functional view on the enterprise, another dimension has arisen for planning, controlling and analyzing its activities - financial. The search for new effective technologies led to the development of a system budgeting- delegation of authority based on financial planning and accounting at various levels of corporations (according to the so-called centers of financial responsibility) through budget systems.

Comparative analysis of functional and budgetary approaches to management

If we imagine the management system of any object (including an enterprise) in the form of a cycle: Goal-setting à Planning à Execution à Control à Analysis à Correction of actions (we propose to consider this cycle universal for any management technology), then this cycle can be used to conduct a comparative analysis of the functional approach and budget management (Table 2, see Economist's Handbook, No. 8, 2006).

The above comparison in no way defines the functional approach as obsolete, having no place in the management system at a modern enterprise.

On the contrary, since the functional goals of departments, action plans to achieve goals and the evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of measures will always be an integral part of enterprise management, a functional approach will always be needed. The question is: how expedient is the use of a functional approach as an isolated from others or (at best) a priority management method?

In our opinion, with the isolated use of the functional approach (which is typical of many Russian enterprises), misalignment of goals activities of the enterprise (most often they are formulated in financial and economic language: profit, income, cost level, liquidity, etc.) and methods to achieve them(their language is functional: “it is necessary to improve the quality of products”, “it is proposed to conclude such and such an agreement”, “it is necessary to train employees in a certain technology”, etc.). In a situation where the formulation of goals and the development of plans to achieve them sound different, the enterprise loses sight of the prospects for its development, therefore, controllability decreases.

What is Budget Management?

Let's give "budget management" the definition that we will use for our series of articles.

budget management, or budgeting(English budgeting) is a management technology based on the distribution of responsibility through the financial component of the enterprise.

We have already considered the concept of "management technology" above, all its general properties also apply to budgeting. Responsibility distribution system, in turn, consists of:

a) financial structure of the enterprise - hierarchies of specific links (the so-called Financial Responsibility Centers (FRC));

b) budget structure of the enterprise - systems of financial planning and reporting documentation (budgets) of the enterprise in various areas of its activities and divisions (CFD).

The salient features of budgetary management are:

1. Delegation of responsibility for specific financial and economic indicators to the level of the enterprise where these indicators are directly formed.

2. The choice of various financial indicators as a result, and not the success of activities (as in the functional approach).

3. Planning financial results and accounting for their actual achievement in the same form and structure.

4. Analysis of financial indicators (primarily through plan-actual deviations) and checking them for compliance with the set financial goals.

CFD and financial structure

Center for Financial Responsibility (CFD) is a specific structural unit of an enterprise that, in the course of its activities, has a direct impact on the economic results of this activity and is intended to be responsible for planning and achieving

This definition needs to be supplemented with auxiliary but important definitions:

· Center for Financial Accounting (CFU)- a specific structural unit of the enterprise, which in the course of its activities has a certain impact on the economic results of this activity and is intended for the correct accounting of these results.

· Cost center (cost center)- a separate object within the enterprise, which, by its existence and functioning, generates a certain level of costs, and the responsibility for which is borne in the higher CFD (or is kept in the CSF).

As an example of a cost center, we can name a technological object (a production line, an electric power substation, an assembly site, etc.) that has a specific set of costs, but is not significant enough, from the point of view of management, to be separated into an independent structural entity - CFD (or CFU) .

The term "CFD" must be associated with the concept of "financial structure".

financial structure- this is a hierarchical system of the Centers of financial responsibility of the enterprise, which determines their nesting and economic subordination and is intended for the integrated management of the economic results of the enterprise.

CFD classification

Theorists and practitioners of budgeting, thanks to a variety of different approaches, distinguish various classifications of the CFD, but we would like to choose the most universal of them. The criterion for such a classification may be the nature of the economic indicators imputed to the responsibility of the respective centers. This criterion seems to be invariant to the sphere, industry and scale of business, which determines its universality.

We single out only 5 basic types of economic indicators (asserting that all other indicators used in the practice of enterprise management are analytical and derived from those indicated):

• costs for the period;
• income for the period;
• interim financial results - "profit" from business lines, affiliates, product lines and other relatively autonomous business units - as the difference between the income of these lines and their direct costs. Let's call it conditionally "marginal income" for the period;
• profit as the difference between all the income of an enterprise (group of enterprises) and all its costs for the period;
• the return on the capital invested in the enterprise, expressed as the ratio of profit and the value of all assets of the enterprise that generated this profit.

If we accept such a classification of indicators, then on its basis the following division of the Financial Responsibility Centers arises:

1. Cost Center (CZ) responsible for the costs incurred. The most common examples are: production, purchasing, administration, cost departments of commercial services (marketing, etc.).

2. Revenue Center (CDC) is responsible for generating income for a business area or the entire enterprise, for example, a store, a wholesale depot, a sales department, a sales manager.

3. Marginal Income Center (CMD) is responsible for the profit (margin) from the business line. The CMD must consist of at least one CMD, where the direct costs of this area are formed, and at least one CSD that receives income from the direction (the CMD can also consist of several CMD of a lower level, if, for example, independent product groups are distinguished within the business area). From the point of view of the organizational structure, the CMD can consist of both a separate link (a division, a store, a sales team) and a set of independent organizational links (part of the sales department, docked with the shops that produce a certain product).

4. Profit Center (CPU) is responsible for profit, calculated as all income minus all costs. Most often it is a single enterprise or a group of enterprises. CPU is a combination of all CSD and CZ (for mono-enterprises) or several CMD and corporate CZ (for an enterprise with business lines).

5. Investment Center (CI)- an entity that has the right to make investments and disinvestments (that is, change the composition of the company's non-current assets) and meets the performance indicators of their operation, for example, through the ROI coefficient (English Return on Investments - return on investment). Financially, CI is a set of CPUs, and organizationally, it is an enterprise, a group of enterprises, a holding (but, we emphasize, not only the management company itself, as, unfortunately, is often understood, but everything that is included in the holding). It is very common for CI and CP to coincide (an independent enterprise making a profit and investing).

An example of building a financial structure

Let us illustrate the principles of building a financial structure described above on the example of some conditional enterprise.

The structure of the enterprise is shown in fig. 2 (see The Economist's Handbook, No. 8, 2006).

At this stage, the actions can be decomposed into the following steps:

· compiling a complete list of organizational units;

· the construction of all departments in order of subordination "from top to bottom", that is, starting from the upper levels of the hierarchy (general director, service heads) to the lower levels (workshops, departments, sections, sectors, brigades, individual performers);

numbering of all organizational links in the form of a multi-level list with an indication of all levels of nesting:

1.1. CEO

1.1.1. Personnel service

1.1.1.1. Human Resources Department

1.1.2. Marketing Service

1.1.2.1. Marketing department

1.1.2.2. Sales department

1.1.2.3. Purchasing department

1.1.2.5. central warehouse

1.1.3. production service

1.1.3.1. Workshop No. 1

1.1.3.2. Shop №2

1.1.3.3. Department of tech. ensure

1.1.3.4. Transportation Department

1.1.3.5. Purchase department

1.1.4. Finance Service

1.1.4.1. Accounting

1.1.4.2. Financial department

1.1.5. Administrative service

1.1.5.1. Security Department

1.1.5.2. Legal Department

1.1.5.3. Secretariat

1.1.5.4. Administrative and Economic Department (AHO)

Based on the analysis of the organizational structure and activities of the enterprise, the directions of activity (businesses) of the enterprise are distinguished.

To distribute organizational units in the Central Federal District, it is necessary:

1. Build a table (Table 3) - a directory of organizational links with rows and columns; enter the types of CFD in the columns, and the organizational links in the rows (in accordance with the order of the directory).

Table 3. Directory of organizing links

2. Classify organizational links: moving along the columns of the matrix, determine to which type of CFD each organizational link can be assigned, depending on its functional purpose; in the cell at the intersection "organizational link / type of CFD" set the sign of the correspondence (+).

3. Form the composition of the CFD.

Analyze the organizational links assigned to each type of the CFD and group them according to the selected feature in the CFD (Table 4). Assign the names obtained in this way to the CFD:

• Investment Centers - Company;
• Profit Centers - Company;
• Revenue Centers - Sales Department (as part of the Marketing Service);
• Cost centers - Marketing Service (excluding the revenue part of the Sales Department), Personnel Service, Production Service, Finance Service, Administrative Service.

Table 4. Distribution of organizational units in the Central Federal District

4. Formation of a hierarchical list of CFDs with groupings by types of CFDs

The next step is to compile a complete list of CFDs, taking into account their subordination to each other:

1. CI "Company"

1.1 CPU "Company"

1.1.1 CD "Sales and Marketing"

Organizational links

Sales department

1.1.2. CZ "Sales and Marketing"

Organizational links

• Marketing department
• Sales department
• Purchasing department
• Advertising department
• central warehouse

1.1.3. CZ "Production"

1.1.3.1. CZ "Plant"

Organizational links

• Workshop No. 1
• Workshop No. 2

1.1.3.2 CZ "Infrastructure"

Organizational links

• Technical support department
• Transportation Department
• Purchase department

1.1.4. Central Hall "Finance"

Organizational links

• Accounting
• Financial department

1.1.5. CZ "Administration"

Organizational links

• CEO
• Human Resources Department
• Security Department
• Legal Department
• Secretariat

First, for each CFD, an official is determined who will be responsible for it. Next, a list of responsible persons is compiled, those responsible for the Central Federal District are allocated. The data are summarized in a table (Table 5, see Economist's Handbook, No. 8, 2006).

Further work on building budget management is to create a system of budgets, but this is the topic of our next publication.

P. Borovkov, head of the "Budgeting and management accounting" direction of the group of companies "INTALEV"

Mislavsky A.V. Head of the Accounting Systems Design Department of the Department of Management Technologies and Accounting Systems Design of CJSC ACG RBS
Double entry #10 - 04.10.2005

The formation of the financial structure of the enterprise, namely the allocation of financial responsibility centers (CFR), is the first step towards creating a budgeting system. Each division of the company contributes to the final financial result of the company (in the form of attracting income or incurring expenses) and must be responsible for their actions: plan, report on the results. It is on the delegation of responsibility that the budgeting process is built.

The advantages of transition to CFD management are obvious. Sharing responsibility between departments, we determine who is really responsible for what at the enterprise, we get the opportunity to evaluate the results and quickly coordinate the actions of departments, create a competent system of motivating employees to complete the tasks. The attention of the head of the department is focused on the performance of the center entrusted to him, the efficiency and validity of managerial decision-making is increased. Top management, on the contrary, frees up time for strategic tasks.

Centers are different.

Based on the understanding of budgeting as a management technology, and budgets as a management tool, the enterprise in this case will be the object of management.

A commercial enterprise as an object of management in the simplest version can be considered as a set of current activities (creation and sale of products, works or services) and investment. Current activities are characterized by expenses (purchase of raw materials or finished products, production, sales costs) and income (revenue) from the sale of products, works or services. The difference between current income and expenses is defined as profit (or loss) from current activities.

Responsibility for income in a commercial company, as a rule, lies with the sales department (sales department or trading house). The costs are borne by all departments, but to a greater extent the supply (purchase) department, production departments, warehouses. Profit, in most cases, is determined for the entire enterprise, and decisions on its use are made by the company's management.

Thus, the activity of an enterprise as a management object can be decomposed into separate processes: procurement, production, marketing, investment. Accordingly, the structural units that manage these processes can be considered as centers of responsibility for their implementation.

Based on the above functions, we define four main (1) types of responsibility centers:

• revenue center;
• cost center;
• profit center;
• investment center.

In practice, there are many more types of responsibility centers (for example, marginal income centers responsible for marginal profit, or venture centers responsible for the company's innovative activities).

Consider the main types of CFD in more detail

Revenue Center - a structural unit responsible for the sales activities of the company. Its effectiveness is determined by maximizing the company's income within the resources allocated for these purposes. The question may arise as to whether the division responsible for sales is the cost center for product sales (advertising campaigns, wage sales managers, etc.)? Of course, it is possible to define the sales department as a cost center, but, given their insignificant share in comparison with the amount of income (which is the income of the entire enterprise), we will still call it a center of income. The budget management tools for this type of CFD are the Sales Budget and the Sales Cost Estimate (the purpose, structure of these documents and the procedure for working with them will be discussed in the following publications).

Cost center - a structural unit responsible for the performance of a certain amount of work (production task) within the resources allocated for these purposes. As a rule, most divisions of the company belong to this type of CFD. First of all, production (shops of the main and auxiliary industries, service units). At the same time, the cost center may also have income (for example, revenue from the sale of services by the transport division to the side), but if their value is insignificant, and the provision of these services is not the main business of the company, the CFD is defined as a cost center. The budget management tools for this type of CFD are the production budget (production program) and the cost budget (or cost estimate). As a kind of cost centers, procurement centers and management cost centers can be distinguished.

• The procurement center is a kind of cost center, it is responsible for the timely and full supply of the enterprise with the necessary material resources within the limits allocated for this purpose. Such responsibility centers include, for example, supply departments. Budget management tools for this type of CFD are the Procurement Budget (may include transportation costs) and the Cost Estimate.
• The management cost center is a kind of cost center, it is responsible for the quality performance of management functions. This type includes the company's management apparatus, in most cases without dividing it into structural components (departments, departments). The budget management tool for this type of CFD is the Estimate of management costs.

Profit center - a structural unit (or the company as a whole) responsible for the financial result from current activities. In most cases, the responsibility for the current profit (or loss) lies with the management of the company. In some cases, profit centers responsible for the financial result for any type of activity may be allocated within the company. A profit center may contain lower income centers and cost centers. The budget management tool for this type of CFD (not counting the sales, purchases, and costs budgets) is the Income and Expenditure Budget (BDR).

Investment Center - a structural unit (or the company as a whole) responsible for the effectiveness of investment activities. A traditional misconception is the definition of a unit involved in planning and controlling investment activities (for example, investment management) as an investment center. The fact is that the final decisions of an investment nature are made by the company's management and bear full responsibility for them. The budget management tool for this type of CFD is the Investment Budget, as well as the Forecast Balance (or Balance Sheet Budget). On the scale of the entire enterprise, as a rule, the center of investment coincides with the center of profit and, in this case, the center of responsibility is defined as the center of profit and investment.

Thus, the CFR type determines the rights and responsibilities of the structural unit for the financial indicators assigned to it, which are an integral part of the financial result of the company as a whole.

The set of interconnected and subordinate responsibility centers represents the financial structure of the company, which is based on the organizational and functional structure, but does not always coincide with it. Several divisions of the company can be defined as one CFD (for example, the services of the management apparatus can be defined as a cost center headed by the head of the company), at the same time, several CFDs can be identified within one structural unit (for example, within a trading house the center of income of wholesale trade and the center of income of foreign economic activity can be singled out separately). When allocating a center of financial responsibility, it is necessary to take into account the possibility of clearly defining the list of products, works or services provided to external customers or internal structural divisions. The center of financial responsibility is characterized by financial independence, that is, its head should be able to determine and manage the financial result of the CFD. The activity of the responsibility center is planned and controlled through a system of key indicators.

"Key" retreat

The purpose of this article is not a complete description of the system of key performance indicators of the CFD, so we will only briefly define them.

The key indicators for the income center are the volume of sales, cash receipts, the state of receivables, the volume of costs associated with the sale of products, for own maintenance, etc.

The key indicators of the cost center are the volume of work performed (production tasks), quality indicators for output, the value and structure of costs for output and its cost, indicators of the efficiency of the use of means of production and labor resources, etc.

The activities of the profit center are evaluated according to all of the above indicators, as well as in terms of financial and economic efficiency of current activities: profitability, working capital structure, return on assets, etc.

Indicators of the center of profit and investment, in addition to those indicated, include indicators of the effectiveness of investment activity (payback period, ROI) and the financial condition of the enterprise as a whole (such as the coefficients of financial independence and stability, etc.).

The system of key performance indicators of the Central Federal District serves as the basis for building a budget model. Some of them can be directly included in the budget forms (for example, the target for revenue), some are not directly related to budget indicators (for example, profitability). When using top-down budgeting, performance indicators also serve as the basis for the formation of budget targets. In any case, when defining key performance indicators, it should be taken into account that they must have a numerical value, be unambiguous and be contained in accounting systems.

Step by step

Returning to the topic of financial responsibility centers, let us define the main stages in the formation of the financial structure.

First, it is necessary to determine the center of investment, that is, the unit responsible for the efficient use of the profit received in the framework of current activities. In practice, in most cases, the enterprise itself as a whole is appointed as the investment center, since only its management determines the investment policy, structure and amount of fixed assets and controls the financial condition of the company as a whole. Responsibility for the activities of the enterprise includes the control of current activities, therefore, most often this center is defined as a center of profit and investment.

The profit and investment center includes dedicated revenue centers and cost centers. If there are structural divisions responsible for the financial result for certain types businesses (for example, manufacturing enterprises that are part of the holding, have separate sales markets, their own suppliers, independently determine the pricing policy, but do not make decisions on investing the profit received as a result of current activities), along with income centers and cost centers form profit centers . Profit centers can be formed not only on the basis of a separate structural unit, but also as part of several structural units of various company divisions that are within the same technological or product chain. Further, as part of such a profit center, its subordinate income centers and cost centers are distinguished. The subsequent allocation of centers depends on the complexity of the organizational structure and the need for delegation of authority (for example, cost centers that are lower in structure can be allocated as part of the cost center). An example of such a structure is shown in fig. one.

Rice. 1 Complex structure of the CFD

Thus, a hierarchy of financial responsibility centers is built, which determines the financial structure of the company. The formed set of responsibility centers and their hierarchy is fixed by an internal regulatory document - "Regulations on the financial structure of the company", which includes a description of the types of CFD, their composition and hierarchy, the powers of managers, the procedure for calculating (planning and accounting) financial performance based on the application of the system key indicators. This document is developed by the financial director (or a division reporting to him) and approved CEO(president) of the company. Heads of structural divisions are entitled to make proposals for changes and additions to this document.

Summing up, it can be noted that we have considered only one of several components of the budget management technology - management by financial responsibility centers. Other important components are: the system of key performance indicators of the Central Federal District, the budget model (the composition and relationship of indicators of budgetary forms), budget regulations, the method of plan-fact and factor analysis of budget execution, and others. We will describe them in detail in future issues of the magazine.

Sooner or later, every company is faced with the need to streamline the system of operational financial planning. To make it workable, sometimes it is enough to create a detailed regulation. It is advantageous to automate simple but time-consuming operations.

The problem of time and money

L'Etoile has an extensive branch structure. The central office is located in Moscow, it manages branches located in more than 50 major cities. Historically, the accounting department of the corporate center was engaged in the execution of payments. It also kept registers of periodic payments, collected primary documents (waybills, invoices, etc.) from all branches. Accountants in the branches independently managed settlement accounts and made payments on the basis of existing contracts, invoices, invoices.

With this approach, the company did not have the ability to quickly control the execution of payments. Often, payments were made not according to the urgency determined by the contractual terms, but upon receipt of documents. Therefore, payments that could be postponed were carried out ahead of time, while the primary ones, on the contrary, were delayed. A one-time payment of a branch turned into a problem - the consent of the central office was required for its implementation, for which it was necessary to conduct electronic correspondence. The center, in turn, for the purposes of control, requested confirmation from the branches of the fact and date of payment, which means that again they had to spend time on correspondence and providing documents.

It was very difficult to plan financial flows. Several dozen branches received registers of upcoming payments in Excel spreadsheets. It took several days just to draw up a master plan. Since the settlements with counterparties were carried out by branches independently, it was not at all easy to single out intra-group transactions. In addition, branches entered information about counterparties into accounting systems at their own discretion; due to the lack of unification, up to 20–30 identical counterparties appeared in the consolidated data. This state of affairs posed a threat to the company's solvency, worsening relationships with customers and suppliers.

To get rid of these problems, the management of the financial department decided to create a detailed planning regulation. The document strictly delimited the functions and areas of responsibility of all participants in the planning and management of payments. According to the regulations, responsibility for the formation of operational financial plans and the execution of payments was assigned to the treasury, which is part of the financial department. Typical operational planning procedures were automated in the Treasury module of the 1C: Accounting 7.7 system.

Preparatory work

During the preparation of the regulations, the financial and management structures of the company were described 1 . This made it possible in the future to easily identify the initiators of payments and control the execution of applications. In addition, a unified classification of costs and payments was developed.

Financial structure

In the financial structure, financial responsibility centers (CFR) were identified, which became the functional divisions (departments) of the company. Within their powers, they are responsible for revenues and expenses and are the owners of budgets. They also act as initiators of payments. The management structure consists of financial accounting centers (FAC) - divisions allocated according to the places of income and expenses. In the L'Etoile company, these are stores. Thus, each business unit is a participant in both the financial and management structure.

Company information

First Store "L'Etoile" opened in Moscow in September 1997. To date, business is represented by several dozen legal entities operating in almost all Russian regions. More than ten thousand perfume and cosmetic products are sold under the L'Etoile and Sephora brands through 500 stores opened in 120 Russian cities. In December 2006 LLC "Alkor and Co", which owns brands, placed a bonded loan in the amount of 1.5 billion rubles.

The relationship between the CFD and CFU is matrix. For example, the IT department is responsible for all IT related costs for any company store. From the point of view of the financial structure, these expenses belong to the IT department (as the CFD - the owner of the budget for IT expenses), and from the point of view of financial accounting - to the store for whose needs they were made.

Payment classification

It was decided to distribute all payments by cost items and categories. Consequently, a single classifier of cost items was required for the entire company. It is based on the management chart of accounts. Articles are divided into three groups depending on the type of activity: operating, investment or financial. A fragment of the developed classifier for operating costs under the item "Sales costs" is given in Table. 1 on p. 22. In total, the classifier has about 100 articles.

Table 1 Fragment of the classifier of cost items

Depending on the nature of all company payments are divided into three categories.

Periodic payments. The same type of payments with a predetermined amount, for example, rental payments, operating expenses. Previously concluded contracts serve as a source of information on periodic payments.

One-time payments. Payments that are random in nature, or the amount of which is determined on the basis of actual expenses in the current period, as well as advance payments for goods. These include, for example, taxes, payment for staff training, household needs, advertising costs. Payments are made on the basis of the invoice or application of the initiator of the payment.

Payments under contracts for previously purchased goods. Contractual conditions with a particular supplier are laid down in the warehouse accounting system, where each delivery of goods at the time it is reflected in the accounting system is assigned a date of payment.

Personal experience
Maxim Shchibrik

In our company, payments are grouped by type of activity - operating, investment and financial. The company has a unified corporate directory, which lists typical items of income and expenses for each of the groups of payments.

Payments for the financial activities of manufacturing companies are controlled by the central treasury. Payments for investment activities are under strict control of financial services management company and are subject to monthly approval. Direct financing of current investment payments is carried out by crediting funds to the accounts of investment companies according to agreed financing schemes from the central treasury. Investment payments are made by the financial services of individual holding companies. Payments for operating activities are carried out by the enterprises of the group independently on the basis of applications accepted by their financial services in accordance with the monthly BDDS, protected and approved by the holding's management company.

The Central Treasury redistributes revenue among the group's production enterprises, taking into account the daily needs for financing operational, investment and financial payments, and, if necessary, provides additional funding through open credit lines.

Formation of applications for payment

The main documents in the payment management system are applications for payment. Depending on the category of payments, they can be made in several ways.

Picture 1 Standard payment schedule

Figure 2 Application for a periodic payment

Recurring payments. For periodic payments, a standard schedule 2 is maintained (Fig. 1). This is, in fact, a directory that stores the same information that is entered in the application. Since the payments of this group are repeated from month to month, it is convenient to indicate not a specific payment date, but the day of the month for the invoice. For example, under a lease agreement, the same amount is transferred to the landlord's account on the 20th of each month. Consequently, the 20th day becomes the day of the corresponding current month for which the payment is scheduled (in January - January 20, 2008). The conditions for periodic payments are agreed upon by the owner of the budget at the stage of concluding an agreement with counterparties.

At the end of each month, based on a typical schedule, applications for next month(Fig. 2).

One-time payments. The initiator of a one-time payment prepares an application in paper form. It indicates the necessary details: the payer, the counterparty, the payment term, the account number for which the payment is made, the CFD (the owner of the budget from which the payment will be made), the CFU (the unit to which the costs will be attributed), the payment item. The application with the attached invoice is signed by the owner of the budget and submitted to the treasury (the representative of the treasury in the branch) no later than one week before the upcoming payment. To reduce the volume of document flow, the initiator can submit to the financial department only an invoice for payment indicating all the missing data directly on the invoice.

It is necessary to delimit the functions and responsibilities of all participants in the planning and management of payments

An application for a one-time payment (account) received by the Treasury is entered into the accounting system, in the form of the same name “Application for payment” (Fig. 3). It can be completed both at the branch and at the central office for the branch. AT last case after approval, it is automatically transferred to the branch.

The "Application for payment" form has the following fields, which are filled in based on the data specified in the paper application or invoice:
- "Payer": the branch that makes the payment;
- "CFD": the owner of the budget from which the payment is made;
- "CFU": the unit to which the costs are related;
- "Counterparty" and "Contract in accounting": details required for uploading to the "Bank-Client" system and posting a bank statement;
- "Account number": document number - the basis for payment (an invoice issued by a counterparty or an agreement, or an invoice);
- “Expense account”: cash flow account;
- "Date of payment": the date by which the payment must be made;
- "Currency";
- "Amount of payment";
- Application status.

At the initial input, the application receives the status "For consideration", which does not yet make it possible to make a payment on it. In order for the application to be accepted, the Treasury must assign the status “Payable” to the application. If a treasury officer has doubts about the correctness of the payment or additional approvals are required (for example, funding sources are outside the budget), then he can set the application to the status “Suspended” or “Rejected”.

If the payment is made on one account (base document), but for several departments, then the “Deciphering” section is filled in - this is the detailing of information about the CFS, which is necessary for management accounting purposes.

Payments for previously purchased goods. Applications are received from the warehouse inventory accounting system, which is integrated with the online accounting system. Entries in the inventory accounting system are formed on the basis of invoices and payment terms reflected in the contracts. All conditions are agreed in advance, as in the case of periodic payments, and are reflected in the accounting system as additional details when each of the counterparties is entered. After making a new entry, a payment request is generated automatically within a few hours.

Personal experience
Viktor Ostapenko, Head of the Planning and Economic Department of the Euroservice Group of Companies (St. Petersburg)

The regulations of our company establish that the application must be signed by all responsible persons: the head of the “authorized” CFD, the chief accountant of the legal entity making the payment (the company that is the payer, the party to the contract or entity, from whose settlement account funds are transferred to the account of the paying company). In some cases, the application is signed by the CFO of the product company, and sometimes also by a security representative.

Each application must be documented by invoice, invoice and contract. The signature of the accountant proves that he has been provided with the documents that are the basis for the payment. The signature of the head of the Central Federal District indicates that the purpose, recipient and amount of payment have been verified and payment under the specified item should be made.

Figure 3 Application for a one-time payment

Figure 4 Payment schedule

table 2 Report on the execution of the application No. 05-02502 dated 26.07.07

Payment planning

Taking into account the approved applications, registers of periodic payments and requests received from the warehouse system, the treasury draws up a payment plan for the month.

Consolidation of all applications, including those submitted by branches, is carried out using the built-in 1C function "Management of distributed databases" (completely transfers data from one database to another). Based on the applications, the report “Payment Schedule” is built (Fig. 4) - this is one of the main reports of the Treasury. To work with it, the Treasury can use the settings: a multiple filter that allows you to limit the data output to individual indicators, such as payment items, CFR, CFU, counterparties, as well as a grouping function that allows you to sort applications by status, payers, dates, articles. Based on the payment schedule and updated information on one-time payments, a single weekly payment calendar is formed for the company. It is detailed by day, cash flow items, as well as by CFR and CFU.

The payment calendar is approved by the financial director, after which the applications are sent to the branches, where payment orders are formed on their basis.

Personal experience

Viktor Ostapenko, Head of the Planning and Economic Department of the Euroservice Group of Companies (St. Petersburg)

In our company, the application agreed with the responsible persons is transferred to the financial manager - the initiator of the payment. He checks the compliance of the application with the approved budgets for the month (in terms of amount, terms of payment and item of expenditure), puts his resolution on the application (with the date), the date of payment. In the resolution, the financial manager indicates whether the application is in line with the approved budget. An application that does not meet the budget is subject to inclusion in the next budget period or, if the payment is of an emergency nature, it is subject to additional approval. In this case, the financial manager can put a later payment date on the application. The approved application is included by the financial manager in the register of payments on the day appointed by the budget committee for making payments, and serves as the basis for issuing payment orders.

Each financial responsibility center (product companies of the holding) submits to the central treasury a register of payments for the next month. Based on the registers, a single payment plan is formed. When the payment is included in this plan, the initiator of the payment (an employee of a food company belonging to a specific department of the Central Federal District, for example, a manager of the production department of a sugar company) draws up a request for payment. On the basis of approved applications daily registers of payments for the day are formed.

Making payments

Since payments are made by the company's branches in the field, after the formation and approval of the payment calendar, approved applications are sent to e-mail. In this case, the built-in functionality of 1C "Management of distributed databases" is used. With its help, applications made centrally are “uploaded” to branches. The status of applications entered into the database by branches is updated. As a result, branches receive a set of applications with the status “for payment”, on the basis of which payment orders are prepared.

Almost all payment orders generated in 1C are automatically uploaded to the Bank-Client system, leaving the possibility of manually adjusting the amount, date, addressee. The exception is cases when it is inexpedient to set up unloading. For example, for settlement accounts for which payments are rare or their number is insignificant. For an application for a large amount, sometimes several orders are made, then the amount is adjusted manually.

Budget owners have access to applications within their CFD, they can track changes in the status of an application, the fact of its payment in the current mode. An example of a report on the execution of an application is presented in Table. 2.

The correctness of the execution of payments is controlled when posting the bank statement data by comparing the parameters of the application and the actual payment. It is enough to select an application, and all other details - amount, counterparty, contract - are filled in automatically from the application. This saves time on posting data from the statement. If the application is not selected, that is, the payment is not matched, or the payment amount differs from the application amount, then it is impossible to make an extract in the accounting system.

Personal experience
Maxim Shchibrik, Vice President for Finance and Economics, CJSC Russian Copper Company (Yekaterinburg)

At the holding level, the instrument for monitoring payments is the report on the execution of the cash flow budget, which we prepare in three main forms: payment calendar of cash receipts, payment calendar of planned payments, summary of receipts and payments of cash.

Posted statements are transferred by branches to the central database. There they are consolidated into the “Payment Execution Report”. The Treasury, using this information, can analyze all payments made by the company.

Choosing an Automation Option

It is necessary to add a few words about the approach to automation of operations for planning and making payments, chosen by our company.

After the approval of the unified payment calendar, applications are automatically sent to the departments that make payments

Even at the stage of preparing the regulations, it became obvious that operational planning is associated with the processing of a large amount of information. Therefore, along with the creation of the regulations for operational planning of payments, the automation of planning and management of payments began. Two principal options were considered: the creation of a separate database in 1C, in which applications will be accumulated and approved, as well as the use of the existing unified accounting database, supplemented by the possibilities for planning payments (making payment applications, consolidating, approving applications, compiling a payment calendar, distribution of approved results to branches). The first option made it possible to flexibly and promptly make changes without creating an additional load on the existing accounting base. The second one did not require the exchange of information and synchronization of data between the two databases, which is always associated with an additional burden on the database administrator and the risk of information loss.

The company went "hybrid" way. First, an additional base was created. At the same time, automatic data exchange with the accounting database was provided. Payments were made in accordance with the payment schedule, which was formed from an additional base in the branches in the form of a report. When the technology for collecting, consolidating and approving applications was completed, these functions were transferred to the accounting database, and the additional database was disabled.

The greatest difficulties arose when combining the directory "Contractors", the data of which are used at the time of the application. The directory was filled in on the spot, so the records of different branches often duplicated each other. In the process of finalizing the functionality necessary for working with applications, counterparties common to the entire company were added to the database, duplicate data was removed, and branches received the right to independently create contract analytics and enter only their counterparties into the database. When entering, a check is carried out by TIN in order to avoid data duplication.

Updating the financial planning system made it possible to simplify the process of coordinating payments, reduce the time for checking the compliance of data in documents, and establish clear control over the execution of payments. The quality of short-term planning has improved significantly. In addition, since the accounting systems were modified in-house, the time frame for developing the new system was shorter and the costs lower than would have been incurred by outsourced consultants.

Viktor Shapkin, Head of the Department of Management Reporting and PEO of Alkor and Co LLC (L'Etoile, Sephora), Ph.D. economy Sciences.