Share what you know with millions of people

Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content

×

Bill Kennedy

Follow Following Unfollow

Chief Financial Officer, The United Church of Canada

50 points

Bill is a Chartered Accountant with 25 years experience in business software implementation, both as external consultant and internal user, focusing primarily on Microsoft products. He has written extensively on software implementation, particularly with medium sized businesses.

WEB: Energized Accounting

May 3, 2012

Bill Kennedy recommends this answer by Taylor Martin

What can we do as business people to help reduce the poverty in the United States?

Motivate and Educate.

Human Resources

May 2, 2011

Bill Kennedy and 7 other people answered this question

What should a business do if it has slow-moving or obsolete inventories?

This is a very general question, but my response is:
L E A R N ! !
Understand why the products are moving more slowly than planned. Look at what happened that kept you from selling the product before it became obsolete. After you understand why ... more

April 5, 2011

Bill Kennedy recommends this answer by Brielle Nikaido

What is the best office prank you have ever seen or participated in for April Fools?

I can't take credit for this, though I wish I could, but I have a friend who photocopied every object on his co-worker's desk. He then proceeded to printed them out and put the images exactly where the items were before. Here is the picture: ... more

Human Resources

Office Environment

April 5, 2011

Bill Kennedy and 4 other people answered this question

How should a small business determine how much back-up/rainy-day finances they need?

John's response is an interesting one. How many small companies have one year's worth of operational cash (which I would define as one year's cash expenses plus average fixed asset purchases) to put aside? In my experience, most have a line of credit rather than ... more

Business Finance

March 18, 2011

Bill Kennedy and 6 other people answered this question

Do communities need leadership/management/facilitation?

A really good example of a leaderless community is Wikipedia. Even though there is no leader (the founder denies that he leads the community), the community has developed rules to handle the inevitable conflicts as passionate people attempt to achieve consensus. See the wikiquette article ... more

General Management

March 10, 2011

Bill Kennedy and 2 other people answered this question

Any bookkeepers on here?

Alas, I went through bookkeeping and on into accounting, but I look back at my bookkeeping days with fondness. Life was so easy back then. A liability was a liability and equity was equity. There were none of these weird hybrid things that are part ... more

Feb. 12, 2011

Bill Kennedy recommends this answer by MARIUS MUTAYOBA

What is the best way to promote your blog and gain readership?

Credibility is another key to success. You should make sure you do your homework instead of making uneducated or unfounded comments on your blogs. As you will all agree, people who read your blogs will likely be from a similar industry or hobbie; and if ... more

Feb. 12, 2011

Bill Kennedy recommends this answer by Marc Gilbert

How do you hold employees accountable to their budgets?

In my role as CFO it is important to implement a budget that is realistic and attainable. One of my suggestions is to work with the various dept heads or managers when creating the budget so their is a clear understanding of what results you ... more

Human Resources

Dec. 14, 2010

Bill Kennedy answered this question

Do you have a favorite forecast modeling software tool?

When I have asked this question, the overwhelming answer is still Excel, despite many other more specialized packages being available. We still use Excel, but we use it with a package that lets us do sophisticated reports off our accounting system, so there is a ... more

Accounting Software

Accounting Tools

Dec. 14, 2010

Bill Kennedy and 1 other person answered this question

What are some checklist items to do before implementing accounting software?

Let's cover some of the big chunks!
1. Determine your needs. You don't have to have an exhaustive list. In fact, a short, powerful list of the key features starting with a list of the major functions (e.g. General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, etc.) can ... more

Accounting Software

Business Finance

Finance Management

Dec. 13, 2010

Bill Kennedy commented on a brief

Tips to improve your "contract to cash cycle"

What an excellent article. I'd just add the caution not to let EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) be an afterthought. If you are a small supplier dealing with a large vendor, there may be some significant (and costly) changes necessary to meet the demands of the ... more

Dec. 9, 2010

Bill Kennedy and 6 other people answered this question

Accounts Payable Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for managing accounts payable?

Accounts payable needs to be a routine. The same process happens over and over. It's worth it to find small efficiency gains in accounts payable because the savings will quickly multiply.
1. Work with your vendors. The big companies all have instructions about what they expect ... more

General Management

Accounting Software

Dec. 9, 2010

Bill Kennedy and 6 other people answered this question

Billing Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for ensuring error-free billing?

Often the billing system is an industry-specific package which integrates into general purpose accounting software. To ensure accuracy, the integration needs to be planned, checked and monitored.
1. A major source of error is the tax calculation. If the two systems both calculate the tax, then ... more

Accounting Practices

Dec. 9, 2010

Bill Kennedy and 7 other people answered this question

Preparing End of Year Financial Statements Best Practices?

Often preparing the year end financial statements is treated as though it is a one time event, rather than a repeating process. Even if this year is a mad scramble to get the statements done and issued in time, plant the seeds for next year.
1. ... more

General Management

Business Finance

Dec. 8, 2010

Bill Kennedy answered this question

What are the strengths/weaknesses of Sage MAS accounting software?

Hi Chris,
My background is with Microsoft products, so I won't talk directly about Sage MAS, but I would like to warn you that you need to focus on the fit between the software and your business. What seems like a glaring weakness to one ... more

Accounting Software

Accounting System

Following 2 Topics

Following 0 People

Followed by 4 People

Knowledgeable in 15 Topics

#13 of 88

#144 of 749

Business Finance

#12 of 52

#40 of 155

#579 of 1456

#14 of 20

Accounting Software

#29 of 54

Financial Services

#64 of 139

#118 of 172

#133 of 180

#198 of 341

#256 of 419

General Management

#756 of 1194

#852 of 1429

#2173 of 2984