According to an article titled "Financial management better than perceived" which is pretty ironic, members of the defense department including Homeland Security are having a hard time producing financial statements.

"In the case of Homeland Security, the four-year-old department is still struggling to merge multiple entities with separate finance and accounting systems and procedures." (Aren't there automated systems that can handle volumes of transactions and even consolidations?)

The article goes on to explain the difficulties in accounting for volumes of transactions and includes this insight from Relmond P. Van Daniker, the association's executive director,  "As professionals, we say that we exist to provide information so people can make decisions. I'm not exactly sure what decisions people make relative to the financial statements. They come out after the fact and they're very thick."  (Sound familiar? )

Here's the part that really resonates, from Defense Comptroller Tina W. Jonas, " Improving financial management at Defense hinges on showing military leaders and managers why it's important to their mission."

It seems that the Defense department shares a common problem with businesses : the troops can't follow if they don't know where they are going.  Like this department, accounting professionals have to help their teams see the relevance of financial information, especially those people who are on the front line.