Shopping Centres, DataRapt and Sarbanes-Oxley

What on earth could link Shopping Centres, DataRapt and Sarbanes-Oxley?

Let me explain.

In the late 1920s and in the early 1930s the phrase, “One Stop Shopping” was coined in America following the creation of shopping centres and, a successful business model which offered customers the convenience of having multiple needs met in one location.

The phrase today is used to describe everything from Web sites to TV shows where people can find most of what they need, including information, in one place.

This brings us to DataRapt, the “One Stop Information Source” that, insofar as is shown below, provides invaluable tools and information, (optionally on a day to day basis), that enhance a company’s internal controls which are at the heart of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.

The American Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 provides for imposing horrendous penalties on the boards of directors and their corporations for publishing misleading financial statements. The directors are personally held accountable if internal controls, (their statutory responsibility), were not implemented and maintained to ensure the ongoing day to day accuracy of a non-porous financial pipe line.

Furthermore, internal control failures may need to be disclosed to shareholders where material errors are found and corrected by the auditors, particularly if, but for the auditors, the discrepancies would not have been picked up.

Apart from Sarbanes-Oxley and the demands of International Accounting Standards, it is of prime importance to accountants to provide a constantly reliable source of on-time and accurate financial operating reports and statements. This can be achieved only if, at the time of reporting, the financial source data is complete and accurate.

General ledger accounts are maintained to record, in financial values, the sum of all the transactions and activities in a company and a record of the company’s assets, liabilities and reserves.

An important internal control requirement is the substantiation of all of a company’s balance sheet values with reference to and reconciliation with conclusive external or internal sources and to ensure the required approvals are in place and that all assets and liabilities have been brought to account.

In addition there is a need to regularly review and, where necessary, analyse and summarise expense and income accounts with reference to the source of transactions that require proof of approval or an explanation.

DataRapt Sarbanes-Oxley and the Balance Sheet

Fixed Assets and Working Capital General Ledger Accounts

DataRapt proactively contributes to the ongoing function of checking and maintaining the integrity of balance sheet values that comprise a company’s investment in working capital and fixed assets which are substantiated by the transaction details recorded in sub ledgers.

New meaning is given to “Internal Control” as DataRapt automatically checks the financial dataflow of every transaction in a company’s sub-ledgers with the following objectives;

Parties automatically advised by email, when a sub ledger is out of balance with the corresponding general ledger account value included in the balance sheet.

Variances and their source identified and documented.

The What Next?” feature provides insight into the possible or likely cause of each variance together with suggestions for corrective action.

Supplier Prepayments

DataRapt has a product that provides for complete visibility and tight control over all aspects of supplier prepayments.
Prepayments are automatically posted to and cleared from a Balance Sheet General Ledger Account which is substantiated by reports detailing the transaction entries and the make-up of the account balance at any time.

Other Balance Sheet Accounts

As detailed below, DataRapt’s General Ledger Reconciliation module facilitates the reconciliation and justification of balance sheet account values allowing, as it does, for links with or reference to supporting documentation for account verification purposes and other documents providing proof that transactions are authorised as required.

The module provides the means and access to source information to readily analyse, summarise and review transactions within a given range of periods for a selected account or for a predefined group of accounts, (identified by a code description), which also facilitates the analysis and review of income and revenue accounts.

The comprehensive transaction details which are displayed in a listview may be categorized and, optionally, removed from the listview when using a facility to accumulate them into user defined groups with descriptions and system generated ID codes.

At transaction level:

  • Source journal details may be viewed.
  • A user defined status code and a description may be attached.
  • Notes may be attached using the note pad provided.
  • A facility to link supporting documents is provided.
  • SYSPRO listview styles may be used to highlight transactions.
  • User defined functions may be controlled with electronic signatures.

A listview displays balances and movements for the selected general account or account group for each period within the selected range of periods.

What more does one need?

Please let us know.

5 ways to increase your business and personal credibility

We previously mentioned that building a solid reputation and good credibility takes some time and effort. There are ways you can make sure you are on the right track to building yours and directing your energy toward the right effort.

1. Evidence

No, this isn’t only a term used in a crime scene. Evidence is a term describing the way an existence of a fact is shown. It is useful in an argument and is a rational and logical means to make a point. If you or your business have little credibility, any evidence you present is better than no evidence and can increase others’ willingness to believe you.

Examples of evidence can include customer testimonials, statistics or word of mouth.

By providing people with evidence, you appeal to their logical reasoning and increase your credibility.

2. Consistency

We all know that people feel most comfortable when they can predict the outcomes of events, processes and behaviour – of businesses and individuals. Consistency increases your credibility because people know what they can expect from you – making you credible.

You can display consistency through maintaining the values you choose to uphold, the customer service your business displays, the quality of workmanship and messages you send out to the public. Sending inconsistent messages confuses people as they don’t know which messages to believe or whether to believe you at all.

3. Knowledge

Bearing in mind that expertness is a pillar of credibility, becoming more knowledgeable of a topic and showing that you know what you are talking about increases your credibility because people realise they can trust in you and your capabilities.

Your work and advice will become more credible backed by skill and expertise.

4. Ethics

Ethics refer to a business or person’s judgement on what’s right or wrong, good or bad. People and businesses that have good ethics are credible because people trust them to do the right thing, consistently. Consistency is a part of ethics because ethics are what drives a person or business to act in a certain way and deliver a certain standard of work that can be anticipated. If a business or person isn’t true to these

ethics or they are just ‘smoke and mirrors’ it will show very quickly through various inconsistencies.

By staying true to your ethics and knowing what you stand for, you can automatically increase your credibility by being truly authentic.

5. Verbal and non-verbal communication

Consider the following scenario: You are talking to a potential consultant for your company who sent through a wonderful proposal. While they are explaining how much they are going to transform your company, they are jittery and not making eye-contact with you. You probably wouldn’t hire them since their verbal and non-verbal communication contradict each other. If these communication factors were to complement each other then the consultant would seem sincere and their credibility would increase.

By paying attention to how your verbal and non-verbal messages compliment or contradict each other, you can come across as sincere and increase your credibility.

Of course, you can only fix this if you understand the types of non-verbal messages you may be sending out.

Types of non-verbal messages

1. Kinesics: These include messages we send using our bodies – body language. Kinesics include physical appearance, posture, facial expressions, eye movements, head movements and hand gestures.

2. Proxemics: The physical space you choose to keep between you and other people communicates how comfortable you feel around them and what sort of relationship you have with them.

People also use space to communicate ownership of a certain area – you can’t tell the new guy at work not to sit at a certain desk because it is yours if you have nothing on there marking your ownership of that area.

3. Chronemics: This refers to messages sent out through your respect for others’ time, time you want to spend with others and what sort of time you are operating on (formal or informal time). Someone operating on informal time can’t be held credible to attend meetings on time and their commitment to an important event may be questioned because of how they treat time.

4. Haptics: The way we interact with people and even items through touch sends out non-verbal messages.

5. Paralanguage: When watching a presentation by someone with a loud voice that carries over a crowd versus someone soft spoken, you will be more inclined to pay attention to the louder person based on their vocal cues. They will come across as confident and more knowledgeable compared to the other softer

spoken individual. This is known as paralanguage – these vocal cues have no structure in the human language and consist of your tone, pace, volume and pitch.

By improving on these 5 areas in your business or personal capacity, you may be able to build a credible reputation far quicker than you think and maintain that reputation by always paying attention to these elements during your interactions with others.