Many of you know I’m an auto racer and also teach high performance driving. I also taught driver’s ed to teenagers at one point in my career. In all forms of driving, the challenge was to get the driver to look further ahead. Humans evolved to look down at the ground and a few feet […]
Author Archive | david lightfoot
Accounting for PTO and Why You Should Care
Accounting for Paid Time Off (PTO). Could there be a more boring, mundane, accounting-nerd sort of topic? Probably. But it should matter to you and let me tell you why. Whether you’re a business owner, banker, consultant or employee, the businesses you are involved in probably have something in common with most other businesses: the […]
The Importance of Gross Margin–Measuring Your Value Proposition
Much is made of financial metrics. This is good but often the simplest metrics are the best. Here I discuss one of the most important: Gross Margin. Like many financial measures, the calculation of Gross Margin isn’t that straightforward. Even looking at the financial statements of publicly traded companies won’t clarify the matter as practices […]
Fraud Sequel
My installment series on fraud has spawned a fourth chapter. And the reasons for the sequel are twofold. First, I got a huge reaction from people relating their first-hand experience with fraud in business. I knew that fraud had become more common but it appears we have veritable epidemic on our hands. I don’t know […]
External Fraud
This is the third installment in my four-part series on fraud. In the first installment I wrote about the Fraud Triangle: pressure, opportunity and rationalization. In the second installment I talked about Internal (workplace) Fraud. In this installment, the topic is External Fraud. This is fraud committed by someone outside the company; someone other than […]
Internal Fraud
This is the second installment in my four-part series on fraud. In the first installment I presented the Fraud Triangle. All three elements must be present for fraud to occur: pressure, opportunity and rationalization. In this installment I cover Internal Fraud. That is, fraud committed by employees rather than outsiders. Fraud committed by outsiders, External […]
The Fraud Triangle
In my career I’ve been exposed to fraud only a few times. My impression used to be that fraud is relatively rare. Maybe it was or maybe my experience wasn’t representative, but it seems that fraud has become a lot more common. Technology has certainly made it easier to steal. Fortunately, technology has made it […]
The Art of Listening
I believe that listening is one of the most important things we can do. Note I said “can” do because most people don’t do it or don’t do it well. I’m talking here about active, engaged listening. Not listening while distracted, multi-tasking, hungry or preoccupied. And not listening, just waiting for a pause, so that […]
QuickBooks as the Industry Standard
QuickBooks has established itself as the standard accounting software for small (and not-so-small) businesses. A few years ago, the Journal of Accounting, the official publication of the American Institute of CPAs, did a survey on small business accounting softwares. The result was that QuickBooks has a 90% market share, Peachtree has a 9% market share […]
Functions of a Professional Manager
I’ve written previously about the difficult transition from doer to manager; the toughest transition in business in my mind. And rarely do we become a pure manager in small to medium-sized businesses. Instead, we usually retain some “doing” while most of our time is spent “managing.” Still, we can all learn to be better managers […]