Is the Mailman Dead?

Not Yet! But he doesn't look good.

A few weeks ago I took off for three days during Spring Break. When I came back to work I had eighty-two emails, six voice mails and two magazines. No letters, no direct mail pieces, no junk mail!

Recently, there were several newspaper articles highlighting the fact that the U.S. Postal Office has joined forces with the Direct Mail association to fight steps to create a "Do Not Mail List". Talk about strange bedfellows! The U.S. Post Office was worried that the drop in volume would hurt their revenue.

We are advertising more and more via email versus direct mail at The Strategic CFO. In addition, we are looking into invoicing our customers via email. Furthermore, I am paying all of my personal bills using online banking and I just cancelled car insurance on a car I sold versus the insurance agent mailing me a consent form.

All of these trends seem to be pointing to a decline in volume for the U.S. Post Office. I believe that some day in the not too distant future we will hit the tipping point where this decline accelerates. (If it hasn't already and we just don't know it!)

Computers Change CFO's Role

When I started out in public accounting in the late 70's I remember working with green bar paper, IBM 36 computers and having to foot computer reports because you couldn't trust them to add correctly. As a new hire you had to prove your proficiency with a 10-key adding machine before you were sent into the field. Now most people don't know what a 10-key adding machine is!

Accounting programs were cumbersome at best and often required manual oversight to make sure they stayed in balance. Accounting departments were made up of numerous clerks and accountants entering and reconciling data.

A lot has changed in 25 years. Today if you print a report out of a computer you expect it to foot! Data entry has been simplified and is often captured outside the accounting department. Accounting software is written in such a way that makes it difficult for the subsidiary ledger to be out of balance with the general ledger. (It may not be correct, but, at least it will agree!)

So what happened? Welcome to the computer revolution. Because of the increased power of computers and sophistication of accounting software you no longer need the same number of people to maintain accounting systems today. Furthermore, the role of CFOs and controllers of smaller has changed.

In the past a CFO/Controller had to manage a larger staff and be more of a technician to manage the process. Now with automation and outsourcing those functions no longer take up as much of their time.

As the amount of time devoted to accounting tasks decreased the time alloted to other administrative areas has increased. CFO/Controllers today are often responsible for human resources, information technologies, insurance and facilities management. In fact, the CFO/Controller role could be better described as the chief administrative officer.

Today there is a new resource!

WikiCFO was created to be a repository of best practice ideas in the various areas affecting the job of a chief financial officer or controller of middle market companies. CFO/Controllers can go there to find and share tips and tricks in cash flow, profit improvement, health benefits, information technolgy, banking, payroll, etc. WikiCFO enables CFO/Controllers to drive more value to the bottom line!