Book excerpt: Rather than treating financial management as an independent administrative practice, Financial Management in Human Services provides students and social service administrators with a conceptual framework in which financial management is the major responsibility of an administration, not just a separate practice. This text describes how the integration of administrative practice with fiscal responsibility and accountability will help you plan better programs, account for all fiscal transactions, and coordinate and evaluate services more effectively. Containing many different approaches on how to determine costs, obtain information, and collect data, this text will help you clearly evaluate your organization’s progress and determine if your program goals are being reached. Financial Management in Human Services also discusses other topics related to efficient management, including: applying financial management techniques to the areas of program planning, service monitoring, estimating service and unit costs, and setting future service priorities in order to make better business decisions utilizing the information generated from the Financial Management System (FMS) to improve administrative functions, such as forecasting and goal determination, activity flow and service provision monitoring, and service planning according to program policy examining the importance of the four administrative subsystems-- budgeting and accounting, service coordination, program planning, and program evaluation choosing a FMS with consideration to certain factors, such as availability of information and identifying informational needs of the administration listing of reactive and proactive types of financial reports that help administrators evaluate the costs of services provided and identify problems in balancing the fiscal budget using methods such as a line item analysis to accurately compute the costs of staff involvement in a program This organized, straightforward text will help you evaluate all costs-- from salaries, travel time, and office supplies to direct costs to make your office more organized and productive. Complete with questions and answers about starting and maintaining a FMS, Financial Management in Human Services will enable you to manage finances more efficiently, making it easier for you to reach and set goals that better serve your clients.