Process management includes process description, process modeling, process analysis, and process optimization. The article guides you step by step through these phases of process management.
Importance of Process Management
There are no companies without processes. A company only works if employees’ actions follow methods or sequences. This coordination is hugely complex since there are countless options for action and employees. Process management is one, if not the central, task of organizing. Defining and optimizing processes is a permanent task for all companies and their management.
Process Management
With process management, all processes are analyzed, changed, optimized, further developed, or newly planned and newly set up as part of process management, concepts, and action plans for this purpose.
Processes are a sequence of activities necessary to complete tasks and achieve goals. The practices should logically follow one another in the process, process input, and produce an output. Process management should ensure the sequence is technically possible, factually appropriate, and economical.
Processes should work in such a way that they help to achieve the goals that the company has set itself. They also must be aligned with the requirements of the stakeholders. Examples include:
Product Innovation
The company aims to launch a new product every year. The company must optimally coordinate market exploration, product development, product manufacturing, marketing, and sales.
Production
The company’s goal is a prominent level of customer satisfaction and a high net promoter score (recommendations). When customers order a product, they expect it to be guaranteed quality, at the promised time, and at a price offered. It is the basis of customer satisfaction, and all processes for the organization, manufacture, assembly, and delivery of a product must focus on this.
Accounting
The tax office expects correct annual financial statements that meet all tax and other requirements yearly. The company must meet the associated conditions. For this reason, you must book all cash transactions. No errors should occur in the relevant processes.
These three quite different examples show the role processes play in the company. It is always about these three target categories:
- Quality: Processes must deliver a result, and the quality of the result must meet the requirements of the following process step and the customers and other stakeholders.
- Time: Processes and the associated actions must run in the planned time.
- Costs: The effort to implement the individual process steps must not exceed the planned budget or be minimal according to the rules of the economy.
Process performance is always measured using quality, time, or cost indicators. That is why the focus when designing and optimizing processes is to improve quality, reduce time, meet deadlines, and minimize resources and costs. These are the goals of process management.
Analyze and Optimize Processes
Various management methods have been standardized, which should help with process improvement. Companies do this only to improve and optimize their business accounting. Examples include Total Quality Management, Lean Management, Business Process Reengineering, Kaizen, Six Sigma, EFQM, and Customer Relationship Management. They all have similar intentions like:
- Eliminate unnecessary process steps to save costs
- Parallelize activities and thus accelerate processes
- Improve the quality of the process results
- Standardize processes and operations to avoid errors and shorten lead times
- Automate process activities and thus reduce costs
- Increase the flexibility of processes to meet changing requirements and save time
- Outsourcing processes to reduce costs
Indicators of Efficient Accounting Work
- Best performance of accounting tasks
- The appropriate status of the complexity of processes
- Reduced optimal price for accounting department operation
- The accounting staff has an optimal workload
- Accounting processes take a fleeting time
- You can do all accounting tasks urgently
Conclusion
In conclusion, process management is a critical aspect of organizational functioning, encompassing various phases such as process description, modeling, analysis, and optimization. The article provides a comprehensive guide, leading readers through these essential steps in managing processes effectively.
The importance of process management cannot be overstated, as every company relies on well-defined and optimized processes for its operations. It is the central task of organizing, involving the continuous analysis, modification, and improvement of processes. Processes, defined as sequences of activities, must align with the company’s goals and strategy to achieve quality results, adhere to timelines, and optimize costs.
Efficient accounting work, as illustrated by indicators like optimal task performance, complexity management, cost-effectiveness, and timely task completion, reflects the success of process management. By continually analyzing and optimizing processes, companies strive to achieve the goals of improved quality, reduced time, adherence to deadlines and minimized resource and cost utilization.
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