I work with companies that are serious about being lean organizations. Most of them use lean accounting. It’s not about changing your accounting system. It’s about embracing lean principles and methods. Lean changes the way people look at management accounting. Here are 10 things to think about.

1. The accounting system does not control the business.
Don’t look at the accounting system as the primary method of business control. Build rigorous controls into the operational processes. People who work in the financial department are not “controllers.” They provide important information, but they do not control the business or the value streams.

2. Identify issues and problems as they occur.
Don’t use financial variance reporting. Use the operational information for short-term problem fixes, and long-term continuous improvement to prevent the problems from occurring again. Catch the issues where they are and when they happen.

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