Evaluating Service Departments As Value Streams

Abstract

Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of service departments in a lean accounting environment is a subject that has received little attention. The cost of service departments is usually a substantial portion of the total costs of operating a business or other entity.

This paper proposes a unique method of evaluating service departments in a lean accounting environment by recasting them as value streams. The Internal Auditing department is used as an example, although these techniques are applicable to all service departments of entities that use the lean accounting model.