Table of Contents

Contents Management Summary v 1 Introduction, Literature Review and Research Methodology 1 1.1 Introduction and review of current literature 1 1.2 Research methodology 2 1.3 Overview of the report 3 2 Profile of the Case Studies 5 2.1 The approach to profiling the cases 5 2.2 Profile of Case A 5 2.3 Profile of Case B - 6 2.4 Profile of Case C 8 2.5 Profile of Case D 10 2.6 Review of chapter 11 3 The Evolution of Management Information and Control Systems 13 3.1 Analysis of processes, causal conditions and consequences 13 3.2 Development of delegated systems for tight financial and cash control 15 3.3 Development of systems for the control of key business processes 16 3.4 Comparison against targets at the level of the whole business and specific areas 18 3.5 Review of chapter 19 4 Examining the Management Information and Control Systems 21 4.1 Analysing the management information and control systems 21 4.2 Setting strategic goals 22 4.3 Income, expenditure and stock controls 23 4.4 Funding management 25 4.5 Margins and cost management 26 4.6 Job timesheets and job costs 27 4.7 Monthly management accounts 27 4.8 Budgets and variance comparisons 28 4.9 Customer satisfaction 29 4.10 Computer usage 30 4.11 The external accountant 32 4.12 Review of chapter 33 5 Conclusions and Discussion 35 5.1 Apparent contradictions resolved 35 5.2 Owner-manager, business and systems development 35 5.3 Problem focused system development and support 36 5.4 Owner-managers' technical vocabulary 37 5.5 Key areas of information provision and control 37 References 39