Financial management is the system by which the resources of an organisation are planned, directed, monitored and controlled to enable the organisation's goals to be met.
Good financial management means an organisation anticipates and responds to changing circumstances and risks, delivers programmes to budgets and plans, constantly improves efficiency and services, and provides accurate and meaningful information to its stakeholders. All of this is more important than ever given big cuts in public spending, increasing delivery of services locally and through contracts, new financing mechanisms, greater demand due to demographic changes and new risks, such as cyber crime.
Financial management must therefore be a key part of public bodies' strategic and operational decisions and plans; they must have the financial information needed to make decisions and monitor operations; and their staff must have the right financial and commercial skills.
Browse the publications below, or find out more about lessons and good practice in:
Key NAO publications:
This guide will help ARACs recognise how climate change risks could manifest themselves and support them in challenging senior management on their approach to managing climate change risks.
This investigation looks at the British Business Bank’s approval of Greensill Capital’s access to government business support schemes.
The report examines the timeliness of auditor reporting on English local public bodies’ financial statements covering 2019-20.
This report examines whether the government secured financial sustainability across the local authority sector during COVID-19.
This guide uses the NAO’s insights to show what can be done to counter the risk of fraud and error.
This interactive guide sets out good practice principles for annual reporting with examples from public sector organisations.
This report assesses how the BBC has positioned itself to respond to financial and strategic challenges and opportunities.
The C&AG has reported on the 2019-20 accounts of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The C&AG has reported on the Insolvency Service Accounts 2019-20
The C&AG has reported on the 2019-20 accounts of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
