Key Indicators in Cash Management

Cash management is the process of forecasting, collecting, disbursing, investing, and planning for cash a company needs to operate smoothly. Cash management is a vital task because it is the most important yet least productive asset that a small business owns. A business must have enough cash to meet its obligations or it will be declared bankrupt. Creditors, employees and lenders expect to be paid on time and cash is the required medium of exchange. However, some firm retain an excessive amount of cash to meet any unexpected circumstances that might arise. These dormant cash have an income-earning potential that owners are ignoring and this restricts a firm’s growth and lowers its profitability. Investing cash, even for a short time, can add to company’s earning. Proper cash management permits the owner to adequately meet cash demands of the business, avoid retaining unnecessarily large cash balances and stretch the profit generating Continue reading

Indian Financial Network (INFINET) and It’s Impact on Indian Banking System

It had been widely felt earlier that one of the biggest bottlenecks in the banking system in the country was the lack of a system that ensures fast, safe and secure intra-bank and inter-bank communication. In fact, this deficiency had been hampering to a large extent the development of a modern, integrated payment system in the nineties. Most of the cases of complaint against banks, in those days related to the time taken for transfer of funds across banks and between cities and to the delays in the collection of outstation cheques. Clearly, the non-availability of a reliable communication backbone had been one of the main contributors to this state of affairs. The functioning of the terrestrial line networks was hardly optimal in terms of efficiency, although of late, there has been some change in this area for the better. But, the wide geographical spread of branches of banks and Continue reading

Opportunity Cost – Definition, Advantages and Disadvantages

Opportunity cost  analysis  is an important part of a company’s  decision-making processes, but is not treated as an  actual cost  in any  financial statement. While the term  opportunity cost  has its roots in economics, it’s also a very important concept in the investment world.   It’s a model that can be applied to our everyday decisions, as we’re faced with making a choice between the many options we encounter each day. It is a very powerful concept when someone has to make a decision to select a particular product or making a choice. In simple words, opportunity cost means choosing or making a best decision from different option. When one has to make a decision in between various actions to select only one particular work at a time is called opportunity cost. When faced with a decision, the opportunity cost is the value assigned to the next best choice. The Continue reading

Common Team Problems

In today’s organizations, people work in teams that have either a leader or a self-driven team member to lead. While these teams provide support mechanism in the office environment and are used to improve productivity and results, they are also a source of competition. It is this team building scenario that is envisioned to promote the productivity of the employees, and at the same time the organization. In any team there is a difference of opinions, this is beneficial as it provides the building blocks to ideas for their team and organization as a whole. At the same time these opinions do raise the emotions and feelings of the team players. There arises conflict within the group that either improves the team’s performance or the breaks down of the team and consequently hampering the achievement of the organizations goal. The most common team problems are; Floundering: This problem occurs in Continue reading

Human Resource Audit – Definition, Objectives, Scope, and Importance

Human Resource Audit or HR audit is a systematic survey and analysis of different HRD functions with a summarized statement of findings and recommendations for correction of deficiencies. It examines and evaluates policies, procedures and practices to determine the effectiveness of HRD function in an organization. HRD audit ensures that sound and cost-effective policies are implemented. Human resource audit refers to the checking of the performance of the enterprise in its management of human resources. Human resource audit reveals how the management is doing in getting things done through the efforts of its people. It undertakes a systematic research of the effectiveness of the human resource programmes. It evaluates personnel activities of an organization. It acts as an overall quality control, check on human resource function. During the conduct of audit if any deficiency is discovered, steps are taken to remove it. It reviews the effectiveness of management relating to Continue reading

Global Scenario of Exchange Rate Arrangements

Firms engaged in international business must have an idea about the exchange rate arrangement prevailing in different countries as this will facilitate their financial decisions. In this context, it can be said that over a couple of decades, the choice of the member countries has been found shifting from one form of exchange rate arrangement to the other, but, on the whole, preference for the floating rate regime is quite evident. At present as many as 35 of a total of 187 countries have an independent float, while the other 51 countries have managed floating system. The other 7 countries have a crawling peg, while 53 countries have pegs of different kinds. The EMU and other 20 countries of Africa and the Caribbean region come under some kind of economic and monetary integration scheme in which they have a common currency. Lastly, nine countries do not have their own currency Continue reading