Costing Levels Maturity Model, published as a companion document to the International Good Practice Guidance, Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations, aims to help professional accountants decide what level of costing sophistication to use given organizational requirements and the needs of managers and employees.

This information paper contains the results of a survey conducted by the Professional Accountants in Business Committee (PAIB) in the spring of 2008, designed to identify similarities and differences in performance measurement structures in public sector entities and to assess the extent to which these structures help meet their objectives.

Recognizing that professional accountants in business play an important role in mid-sized enterprises, the Professional Accountants in Business Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a new publication entitled The Crucial Roles of Professional Accountants in Business in Mid-Sized Enterprises.

This paper features interviews with 10 senior-level professional accountants in business on their experiences in mid-sized enterprises. The purpose of these interviews is to better understand the unique challenges that mid-sized enterprises confront and how professional accountants in business help address these challenges.

First, professional accountants in business are enablers of the ME's performance. They provide crucial contributions to streamlining business plans, installing and improving management information systems, implementing process improvements, mitigating risks, strengthening relations with banks and investors and attracting capital and other activities that enable the current and future success of their companies.

Second, professional accountants in business operate as generalists in mid-sized enterprises. While they specialize in finance and accounting management activities, they serve as an integral part of the management team and fulfill a wide variety of responsibilities beyond the finance and accounting discipline. They should be able "to wear many different hats and juggle many different balls at the same time," as one of the interviewees said.

Generating Value

The professional accountants in business featured in this paper have pounced on numerous responsibilities that directly affect the current and future success of their mid-sized enterprises. Their most prevalent duties hinge on helping their companies to generate value by:

• Establishing a common "performance language" throughout the company so that everyone‚Äôs activities are aligned with the vision and goals leadership has set;


• Upholding business integrity;


• Creating, implementing and improving management information systems to bolster strategy, planning, decision-making, execution and control activities;


• Managing costs through rigorous planning, budgeting, forecasting and process improvement efforts;


• Managing risk and handling business assurance;


• Measuring and managing performance; and


• Communicating financial and other performance information to internal and external stakeholders, including regulatory authorities, lenders, bankers and investors in a manner that fosters trust.

Although the interviewees in this paper are from different mid-sized enterprises from all over the world, they deal with similar issues and their solutions point in the same direction. In that way, each article highlights practices that other professional accountants in business might find useful in addressing issues within their own organizations. The key lessons they share can help professional accountants in business and others drive performance and create value for their own organization. The appendix also provides a brief description of the roles and domain of the professional accountant in business and of the characteristics of a mid-sized enterprise.

This information paper features interviews with 10 senior-level professional accountants in business on their experiences and views on establishing effective internal control systems.

This information paper reviews current developments and some of the latest thinking in the area of internal control.

This information paper features interviews conducted by Robert Bruce, a leading accountancy journalist, with professional accountants operating in business throughout the world to seek their views on the role of professional accountants in business in sustainability.

This information paper provides an overview of enterprise sustainability and sets out the business/financial case for addressing sustainable development at the enterprise level in terms of the risks that sustainable development poses and the opportunities which it brings. It also seeks to identify the main sustainability related roles which the professional accountant in business might occupy, either today, tomorrow or at some more distant future time. The paper was published simultaneously with an information paper entitled Professional Accountants in Business - At the Heart of Sustainability, in which high profile professional accountants in business explain how sustainability issues impact on them.

The Professional Accountants in Business Committee identified a practical business planning guide as a very useful tool for management, principally but not exclusively, operating in the small and medium entities (SMEs) area of the market. This information paper provides practical guidance that will help SMEs to understand their own business and industry, enabling them to better evaluate the business potentials and their associated risks. It will also be useful to small and medium-sized practitioners that are providing professional accounting services to SMEs.

The PAIB Committee developed this information paper to facilitate understanding of the roles and domain of the professional accountant in business. The paper provides a definition of the professional accountant in business and highlights the many roles that professional accountants in business perform, including implementing and maintaining operational and fiduciary controls, providing analytical support for strategic planning and decision making, ensuring that effective risk management processes are in place, and assisting management in setting the tone for ethical practices.