Introduction
The programme “Cloud Accounting: Selecting the Best Systems for Your Company” develops professional practice in Accounting. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from cloud computing, integration, and service continuity to cash, liquidity, and working capital management, with practical work on the accounting cycle, closing, and record quality, information systems analysis, integration, and service management, financial statement and report analysis. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Compare cloud service alternatives and a migration, operations, and data protection plan in an application related to “Cloud Accounting: Selecting the Best Systems for Your Company”.
- Process an accounting cycle and prepare adjustments supported by traceable documents.
- Analyze information system requirements and design acceptance, integration, and operational criteria.
- Interpret performance, financial position, and cash flows using documented analysis with clear limitations.
- Prepare a cash forecast and options for addressing liquidity and working capital gaps.
Learning areas
1. Cloud Computing, Integration, and Service Continuity
- Inventory applications, data, interdependencies, and availability needs, identifying what is suitable for migration and what requires prior remediation.
- Compare service and hosting models and the division of security and operational responsibilities, identifying contractual obligations and applicable data location requirements.
- Estimate costs according to usage, storage, transfer, and support, and test the estimate's sensitivity to changing load and data growth.
- Design an access, backup, monitoring, and integration plan, and set thresholds and measurements to verify performance and continuity.
- Prepare a pilot migration with acceptance criteria, a rollback plan, and a recovery test, documenting responsibilities and service quality monitoring indicators. The application examines a case related to “Cloud Accounting: Selecting the Best Systems for Your Company”.
2. The Accounting Cycle, Closing, and Record Quality
- Trace a transaction from source document to journal entry, general ledger, and trial balance, identifying control points and approval responsibilities.
- Analyze transactions and classify accounts by their nature, checking completeness, cutoff, and correct accounting treatment.
- Prepare accounting adjustments and supporting reconciliations, documenting differences, their causes, and the parties responsible for resolving them.
- Review recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure requirements under the applicable accounting framework without assuming uniform requirements across countries.
- Organize the closing file with supporting documents, a timetable, and approval reviews, and prepare a register of matters requiring professional judgment.
3. Information Systems Analysis, Integration, and Service Management
- Analyze system users, processes, and the decisions it supports, translating needs into clear functional and nonfunctional requirements.
- Model data flows, entities, relationships, and interfaces, identifying each data item's source and the party responsible for its quality and updating.
- Compare build, buy, integration, and hosting alternatives according to constraints, security, total cost, and available support capabilities.
- Design test cases covering performance, permissions, usability, and integration, and connect each test to a testable acceptance criterion.
- Prepare a transition, operations, support, change management, and backup plan, defining indicators for service availability, fault resolution, and improvement review.
4. Financial Statement and Report Analysis
- Read the relationships between the statements of financial position, performance, and cash flows and the notes, identifying the effects of accounting policies and estimates.
- Perform horizontal and vertical analysis and compare profitability, liquidity, efficiency, and leverage indicators, considering the nature and size of the business.
- Examine earnings quality, cash flows, and nonrecurring items, and identify differences between accounting results and actual liquidity.
- Test the sensitivity of results to changes in sales, costs, collections, and financing, stating the assumptions and constraints in each scenario.
- Write a financial report linking indicators to management's question and available alternatives, presenting risks and additional data needed for the decision.
5. Cash, Liquidity, and Working Capital Management
- Analyze the cash cycle from purchasing to collection, identifying the effects of inventory, receivables, and payment terms on financing needs.
- Forecast receipts and payments by maturity, and document data sources and the likelihood of delays in expected cash flows.
- Classify receivables and debt aging, track collections and settlements, and connect follow-up actions to approved authorities and policies.
- Compare options for addressing deficits or deploying surpluses according to cost, liquidity, risk, and contractual constraints requiring review.
- Test a cash stress scenario, set alert thresholds and escalation actions, and update forecasts based on actual results.
Practical outputs
- A cloud service selection matrix, migration plan, and recovery test.
- An accounting closing file, adjustments, and a record quality checklist.
- A requirements document, data flow map, and testing and acceptance plan.
- A comparative financial analysis report and a memo of findings and assumptions.
- A cash flow forecast and a plan to improve collections and the cash conversion cycle.
Who should attend
- Practitioners, specialists and supervisors whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in accounting, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Cloud Accounting: Selecting the Best Systems for Your Company” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Cloud Accounting: Selecting the Best Systems for Your Company” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.