Global Learning for Operational Leaders
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0 sessionsIntroduction
Course overview
Well-defined accounting policies and procedures are essential for producing reliable financial information, maintaining effective internal controls, and ensuring consistent financial practices across an organisation. Without clear accounting guidelines, businesses may experience inconsistent transaction recording, reporting errors, weak approval controls, delayed financial closing, and increased exposure to financial misstatements or compliance failures.
Accounting policies establish the principles and methods used to recognise, measure, present, and disclose financial transactions, while accounting procedures translate these principles into practical responsibilities, workflows, documentation requirements, and control activities. Developing both effectively requires an understanding of financial reporting standards, business processes, internal controls, and organisational governance.
The Accounting Policies and Procedures course provides finance and accounting professionals with practical techniques for developing, documenting, implementing, reviewing, and improving accounting policies and operational procedures. Participants explore financial reporting requirements, accounting manuals, transaction processing, financial closing, reconciliations, segregation of duties, approval frameworks, and accounting process standardisation.
The programme also examines how to maintain accounting policies as business requirements and reporting standards evolve, strengthen compliance monitoring, and use financial systems and automation to improve accuracy, efficiency, and accountability.
Professional Problems This Course Is Designed to Solve
Inconsistent accounting practices: Establishing standard accounting policies and procedures to ensure transactions are recorded and reported consistently across departments and business units.
Unclear financial responsibilities: Defining accounting roles, approval authorities, segregation of duties, and accountability for financial transactions and reporting.
Frequent accounting errors and adjustments: Improving transaction processing, supporting documentation, reconciliations, and financial review procedures.
Weak financial reporting compliance: Aligning accounting policies with applicable financial reporting standards, regulatory requirements, and organisational governance expectations.
Delayed month-end and year-end closing: Developing structured closing calendars, reconciliation procedures, reporting deadlines, and review controls.
Outdated accounting manuals: Establishing procedures for policy ownership, periodic review, version control, staff communication, and controlled updates.
Inefficient accounting workflows: Standardising processes and identifying opportunities for financial system integration, digital approvals, and appropriate automation.
What you will achieve
Learning objectives
- Distinguish accounting policies from accounting procedures and understand their respective purposes
- Identify the financial reporting and governance requirements influencing accounting policy development
- Develop a structured accounting policies and procedures manual
- Establish consistent accounting treatment for significant financial transactions
- Design accounting workflows with clear responsibilities and approval authorities
- Implement appropriate segregation of duties and financial control procedures
- Strengthen documentation, reconciliation, and transaction verification requirements
- Develop effective month-end and year-end financial closing procedures
Who should attend
Target audience
- This course is suitable for:
- Finance managers and financial controllers
- Chief accountants and senior accountants
- Accounting supervisors and accounting officers
- Financial reporting and consolidation professionals
- Internal auditors and internal control specialists
- Finance operations and shared services managers
- Governance, risk, and compliance professionals
Methodology
Learning approach
- The programme combines instructor-led discussions, accounting process case studies, financial control assessments, policy drafting exercises, process mapping workshops, and practical accounting manual development activities.
- Participants work with realistic financial transaction scenarios, accounting policy examples, approval matrices, reconciliation templates, and closing procedures. Exercises focus on translating accounting principles into documented operational procedures that can be implemented, monitored, and improved within different organisational environments.
Complete course outline
Five focused days of learning and application
The timings provided are estimates and may vary depending on the number of participants and the discussions taking place during the sessions. They are indicative only and do not constitute a binding commitment.
Day 1
Accounting Policy Frameworks and Financial Reporting Requirements
- Understanding the purpose, structure, and relationship between accounting policies, accounting procedures, financial controls, and organisational governance
- Examining the influence of applicable financial reporting frameworks, including IFRS where relevant, on accounting policy development
- Identifying accounting policy requirements for recognition, measurement, presentation, disclosure, and consistent application of accounting principles
- Coffee break
- Identifying accounting policy requirements for recognition, measurement, presentation, disclosure, and consistent application of accounting principles (continued)
- Establishing accounting policy governance through ownership, approval authority, documentation standards, and management responsibilities
- Assessing existing accounting practices to identify inconsistencies, undocumented processes, reporting risks, and policy gaps
- Practical workshop: Developing an accounting policy framework and identifying priority areas for inclusion in an organisational accounting manual
Day 2
Developing Accounting Policies for Financial Transactions and Reporting
- Establishing accounting policies for revenue recognition, trade receivables, customer advances, and related financial reporting activities
- Developing policies for procurement expenditure, accounts payable, accrued expenses, prepayments, and supplier transactions
- Documenting accounting treatments for inventory, property, plant and equipment, depreciation, impairment, and asset disposals
- Coffee break
- Documenting accounting treatments for inventory, property, plant and equipment, depreciation, impairment, and asset disposals (continued)
- Defining policies for cash and bank transactions, financial liabilities, provisions, and significant accounting estimates
- Addressing consistency in accounting judgments, materiality considerations, supporting documentation, and financial statement disclosures
- Practical exercise: Drafting accounting policy statements for selected financial transactions with clear recognition, measurement, documentation, and review requirements
Day 3
Accounting Procedures, Internal Controls and Transaction Workflows
- Translating accounting policies into step-by-step operational procedures with defined responsibilities, required documents, and processing timelines
- Mapping accounting workflows for order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, payroll, fixed assets, and general ledger activities
- Establishing segregation of duties, delegated financial authorities, approval matrices, and appropriate transaction verification controls
- Designing procedures for journal entries, account reconciliations, supporting documentation, exception handling, and correction of accounting errors
- Coffee break
- Designing procedures for journal entries, account reconciliations, supporting documentation, exception handling, and correction of accounting errors (continued)
- Integrating accounting procedures with ERP systems, automated approval workflows, system access controls, and financial audit trails
- Practical workshop: Developing a documented accounting procedure with a process flowchart, responsibility matrix, control checkpoints, and supporting forms
Day 4
Financial Closing, Reconciliation and Accounting Quality Assurance
- Developing structured month-end, quarter-end, and year-end closing procedures with defined activities, deadlines, and responsibilities
- Establishing procedures for general ledger reviews, bank reconciliations, intercompany balances, suspense accounts, and subsidiary ledger reconciliation
- Managing accruals, provisions, depreciation, prepayments, reclassifications, and other period-end accounting adjustments
- Coffee break
- Designing review and approval controls for financial statements, management reports, accounting estimates, and significant journal entries
- Evaluating accounting process effectiveness through reconciliation quality, reporting accuracy, closing timeliness, and recurring error analysis
- Case study: Reviewing a financial closing process to identify control weaknesses, reporting delays, and opportunities for accounting procedure improvement
Day 5
Accounting Manual Implementation, Compliance Monitoring and Continuous Improvement
- Structuring an accounting policies and procedures manual with policy statements, process instructions, responsibilities, control requirements, and supporting templates
- Establishing policy approval, document version control, periodic review, change management, and communication procedures
- Implementing accounting policies through staff training, process ownership, management oversight, and coordination with operational departments
- Coffee break
- Developing compliance monitoring procedures using internal reviews, control testing, exception reports, and financial process performance indicators
- Identifying opportunities to improve accounting efficiency through workflow standardisation, ERP integration, digital documentation, and automation
- Capstone exercise: Developing and presenting an Accounting Policies and Procedures Improvement Framework covering policy structure, transaction workflows, financial controls, closing procedures, governance responsibilities, and implementation priorities
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does Accounting Policies and Procedures (AF-020) cover?
This course covers Accounting and Finance through a structured five-day outline focused on practical application, discussion, and implementation planning.
When is the next available session?
The course schedule and fee are available on request. Contact Aractech for current availability and a quotation.
Who should attend this course?
This course is suitable for:, Finance managers and financial controllers, Chief accountants and senior accountants
Is bilingual course delivery available?
Yes. All course materials and presentations are provided in English, while bilingual explanation and discussion support may be available depending on the selected location and trainer availability. For example, when attending a course in Istanbul, you may request a Turkish-speaking trainer to explain the English course content in Turkish. Arabic explanation support may also be requested at this location. Other languages are available in selected cities. You can choose your preferred language support as an optional preference during registration.
How can I register for a session?
Use any Register button next to the available course dates to open the participant registration page and submit your booking request for the selected session.
Is this course available online as well as classroom-based?
The schedule and fee, including any available delivery options, are available on request. Contact Aractech for details.
Where are classroom sessions delivered?
Classroom venues are confirmed in the schedule panel for each published session.
How long is the training programme?
The programme runs for five days, with up to five training hours per day, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Each programme includes a total of 25 training hours.
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