Iron fisted monitoring and control

According to recent research by Deloitte, “poorly designed tracking and reporting” is a key factor in the failure of ZBB projects.

The purchase order and accounting systems need to track budget against actual throughout the year. Policy breaches and negative variances need to be clamped down hard. If they recur, find out the reasons and if necessary, change the policy.

You need to track non-financial compliance measures as well in your control monitoring. For example, you may have a list of preferred suppliers for certain legal services. You may need to track compliance with the preferred suppliers and take corrective action as needed.

Your learning from monitoring and controlling costs during this year will influence your approach to next year’s budget. Some areas of the organization may have fully embraced ZBB while others have not. Monitoring will highlight the opportunity areas, and the areas to watch, for next year.