Business Processes

“Most of the time, due to limited resources or other reasons, the focus of executives is to complete the work without following laid down policies or processes.

These by-passing of laid down policies / processes can prove to be very costly, particularly in cases where it is deliberate. Internal audits may also not help in such cases as by the time, errors / manipulations are revealed, damage has already been done (many a times without any recourse).

Management should consider getting Continuous / Concurrent Audit deployed in such cases. This way, they can detect errors / omissions / manipulations in real time basis and can take action immediately.

We offer professionally qualified and experienced resources to help you identify such problems well in time. “

“Do you have multiple outlets / franchisee stores across different locations?
From Corpoarte Office, you may not get the required visibility on controls operating at the ground level. This include cash handling, reconciliations, customer interaction, stock count, hygiene levels, RFID tagging (if applicable), sensor controls etc.

We come really handy in helping our clients by performing surprise checks , outlet review, mystery shopping, or any other need based review. “

“The Government of India has introduced Companies Act, 2013 that has several important amendments. These amendments have been done with a purpose to make the Indian regulations in line with the developments in the western world.

In this direction, it has introduced the concept of Internal Financial Controls (IFC) under section 134. Directors’ responsibilities on IFC is laid down under section 134(3)(c) read with section 134 (5)(e).

The auditors’ responsibilities are contained under section 143(3)(i). As per Ministry of Corporate Affairs notification dated 14th October 2014, reporting on IFC by the auditors has been made applicable for year starting 1st April 2015 (i.e. to be commented in Mar’16). As per ICAI guidance note on audit of Internal Financial Controls over Financial reporting, Auditor’s Report comment upon IFC is limited to ICFR.

These requirements are stringent and Directors, particularly, independent ones are at a greater risk.

Our team of professionals has extensive experience in handling SOx and IFC / ICFR documentation and testing. We not only provide assurance on design and operating effectiveness of controls, we advise companies on leading practices as well.

“Process review is the study and evaluation of your current business processes to identify:-

1. if they are effective in achieving your objectives

2. are there steps or activities that are not adding any value and instead making the process inefficient

3. whether these processes have right balance of preventive and detective controls and automated and manual controls

4. if all elements of a robust and effective business process are present e.g. the people, the technology, the time (when and in how much time an activitiy should be finished), key performance indicators, input and output etc.
To provide you with our expert help, we have a team of qualified and expereinced professionals, having national and international exposure, in process improvements, control designing and business process re-engineering.

“Are you an audit practitoner? Is your team not experienced enough to create RCMs or Audit Programs?

Please contact us if you want general RCMs on P2P, O2C, R2R, ITGC, Production Process, BCP, F&A, HR & Admin. and many more. We also create fresh RCMs / Programs and customize the existing generic RCMs / Audit Program depending upon your specific needs. “

“Want to get your processes documented. Process documentation is a critical step in your business growth wherein you want your employees to behave in certain ways that are acceptable and in line with the owner’s vision and management style. Therefore, it is important to take care of the following aspects while developing SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures):

1. business processes are effective in achieving your objectives

2. these processes are efficient as well. This means not documenting steps or activities that do not add any value

3. processes have right balance of preventive and detective controls and automated and manual controls

4. all elements of a robust and effective business process are present e.g. the people, the technology, the time (when and in how much time an activity should be finished), key performance indicators, input and output etc.
To provide you with our expert help, we have a team of qualified and experienced professionals, having national and international exposure, in process improvements, control designing and business process re-engineering. “

“Every business require correct and timely information for action/decision making. We help owners or management to develop robust MIS framework by:

1. Identifying information that you need for decision making
2. Establishing frequency of such information requirement

2. Organizing the relevant information in right formats and templates to ensure consistency and uniformity across time periods and across units

3. Identification of right sources of information that will enter these MIS templates / formats

4. Ensuring cut-off periods and how back dated entries are restricted to ensure that MIS reports stays meaningful

5. Fixing responsibilities and accountabilities for information gathering, checking accuracy of the same and presenting the information in agreed formats and at agreed frequency
In addition, we also help businesses in preparing these MIS reports if they want to outsource them to us. “

“Are you worried about the quality of your products…? If not, soon you will be out of your business or your client will visit you to see the quality.
Are you confident about the reported wastages / rejections..?
Are you planning to get the Quality Certifications for your products / services e.g. ISO.
Our team of ISO and Quality experts, with experience ranging from small, medium to large sized companies, will be happy to help you in achieving your Quality Goals.
We also assist our clients in getting Food Safety / Quality Certification from Certifying Authority. Once documentation and trainings are completed, we may assist them in inviting quotations from different Certification Authorities. “

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”- Albert Einstein.

However, you can change only when you know. We have seen many businesses where owners didn’t have clear understanding of the item/unit-wise cost, though they were in control of overall profitability. This led to lost opportunities where they quoted higher price per item/unit than the competitors. This was primarily due to lack of knowledge about actual cost per item/unit.

We have helped several such businesses in ascertaining cost per item/unit / SKU. This has immensely helped these companies in controlling their costs and win several orders by quoting prices in line with their costs. “

“Are your employees’ financial and non-financial authorities well defined..? Are they in line with the responsibilities they handle..?

If not, what will you do if there are subjectivities / confusion in usage of authorities or misuse of power for personal purposes?

‘Delegation of Authority’ (DoA) matrix is one of the most important control tools deployed by owners to define approvals (financial and non financial) allowed to employees at different levels of management (including Board of Directors and its different committes).

Solution :-
Call or email us for a well documented and detailed DoA Matrix based on employees responsibilites (that includes both ‘Review’ and ‘Approval’ authorities. “

“Each business has different and unique problems for which cutomized solutions are required.

At Business Buddies, we accept this fact and offer customized solutions as per your requirment. This may include obtaining permissions, special reviews, surveys, problem analysis, business planning, budgeting, root cause analysis and many more services that you may need from time to time. “