CFO

Boards Embrace Diversely Skilled CFOs

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 13:35:15 -0500

As the CFO’s role has expanded beyond financial reporting to become the CEO’s strategic partner, U.S. organizations took off the blinders that had kept them oblivious to CFO candidates outside of the traditional accounting and auditing career path. Evidence of CFOs coming from wider professional experience gets stronger every year. For example...

5 Cybersecurity Spending Areas to Evaluate

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 10:50:01 -0500

As computing environments change and bad actors switch tactics, most organizations will need to increase or redirect their investment in cybersecurity. With inflation pushing up costs, the question most CFOs will seek to answer is...

Prevent Customers from Going Delinquent

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 10:25:52 -0500

f cash is the lifeblood of a business, the revenue cycle is the circulatory system. The process of extending credit to customers, billing them for goods or services, and applying remittances to open receivables all pump blood through the body of a business. Delinquent customers and bad debt keep blood from circulating. They cause...

Companies Urged to Stay Abreast of Accounting Proposals

Tue, 14 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Accounting standard setters had been working on the new revenue recognition standard that took effect last year for more than a decade before the final rules were issued in 2014. There were multiple exposure drafts, so...

Scammers Target ACH Transactions

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 03:00:00 -0400

Automated clearinghouse (ACH) transactions are often considered safer and more difficult to compromise than paper checks and wire transfers, but that reputation might not last.

In 2018, 33% of organizations were subject to ACH debit fraud and 20% were subject to ACH credit fraud, each up several percentage points from 2017, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ Payments Fraud and Control Survey, released on Tuesday. What’s more...

Personal credit cards still reign supreme in biz travel: 4 strategies

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0400

The payment method employees use when traveling can have a major impact on your T&E process – for better or for worse.

And in 2019, employees are still using personal credit cards (65%) more than company credit cards (37%) for travel expenses, according to a new survey from Wex and MasterCard.

What gives personal cards such staying power?

For some companies...

How to Future-Proof the Tax Professional Role

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500

The tax profession is experiencing a profound impact from multiple regulatory changes, innovative service models, and disruptive technologies. Through successive waves of change, the model of a new and different kind of tax professional is emerging.

It’s clear that...

Bridging the Gap between the Finance Team You Have-and the One You Need

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 04:00:00 -0500

Given current technology trends, it seems fair to say that CFOs will be overseeing vastly different finance departments in the not-so-distant future—both in terms of who will be doing the work and how that work will get done.

In fact...

CFOs: Are you Ready for a Cryptocurrency Backed by this Bank?

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 03:00:00 -0500

J.P. Morgan Chase— whose CEO Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud—has become the first bank to offer its own cryptocurrency, according to a report by CNBC.

The cryptocurrency, dubbed JPM Coin, is intended for...

Is It Time to Rethink Pension Contributions?

Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:56:13 -0400

It's well known that corporate pension plan sponsors have until mid-September to make tax-deductible contributions under the more favorable 35% corporate tax rate, rather than the 21% rate established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This is an attractive proposition that many corporations are looking to leverage, if they haven't already. But...

Small-Company CFOs Need Mid-Year Check-Ups

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 10:48:05 -0400

Like any small-business CFO, I am taxed with a multitude of competing priorities. Working in a highly regulated industry like financial services only compounds this reality. However...

Square Root Costing: A Better Method

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 07:57:49 -0400

Most companies do not truly know where they make money. This may be a shocking statement, but upon reflection it should ring true. If your company is like many others, you know your overall costs, but you do not know your costs at a more granular and actionable level. You know how much overall profit you make, but...

Pension-Plan Sponsors Forgo Savings

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:25:07 -0400

Many pension-plan sponsors are making large voluntary contributions to their plans this year. Pension-funding rules allow such contributions to be retroactively recorded for 2017 if they're made by Sept. 15. The payments are tax deductible, of course, and...

The Cost Of March Madness

Fri, 16 Mar 2018 10:24:49 -0400

How much is March Madness costing your company? Numerous studies have looked into the issue of employees who are slacking because they are distracted by the NCAA Division 1 Men's basketball tournament. There is no definitive answer. This year...

So Far, Only 6% Of Tax Savings Going To Workers

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 05:36:14 -0500

Once 2018 began, it became the single biggest question the wider public wanted to know: How did large U.S. corporations plan to spend the windfall bestowed on them by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? Two months and about 90 company announcements in, the discussion hasn't died down. Indeed...

The CFO's Role In Monetizing Digitalization

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 05:03:47 -0500

Despite vast commitments towards digital technologies, most company's digitalization efforts fall short of achieving topline growth. According to a recent Simon-Kucher & Partners study, 77% of companies that undertook a digitalization initiative to realize topline growth have failed to do so. In our experience...

How Risky Are New Revenue Recognition Rules?

Fri, 20 Oct 2017 05:56:11 -0400

The effective date of the new revenue recognition guidance is, at long last, right around the corner. At some point after that, we'll begin to see whether the new standard's principles-based methodology is working as intended. As companies work through the challenges of implementing the new guidance,...

The Many Myths Of Budgeting Season

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 08:45:56 -0400

August, it has been said, is the Sunday of summer. Relaxation gives way to a muted but growing anxiety about the demands of September as the workforce slowly marches back into business-as-usual mode. For no one is that more true than the CFO, as August marks the entrance to primetime budgeting season. And...

Would A Territorial Tax System Help Investors?

Thu, 03 Aug 2017 06:50:28 -0400

As corporate tax reform emerges as a national legislative priority, a key proposal by the Trump administration and others is to scrap the United States' current worldwide system of taxation. In that system, income earned abroad by subsidiaries of U.S. multinationals is subject to federal taxes when brought home. Instead,...

Regulators Find "High Level" Of Risk In Syndicated Loans

Thu, 03 Aug 2017 06:47:53 -0400

The review of "shared national credits" (SNCs) - loans of at least $20 million that are jointly made by three or more U.S.-regulated banks - is conducted regularly by the Federal Reserve in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The latest review,...

Fire Auditors Early, CFOs Are Advised

Fri, 07 Jul 2017 14:05:15 -0400

CFOs thinking about firing their companies' independent auditors for legitimate reasons, like dissatisfaction with the firm's price or quality, might want to cut the cord before the end of their fiscal second quarter, an authIf a company announces the dismissal of its auditor after the second quarter, it risks...

Tax Compliance Toughens For Intercompany Transactions

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 11:13:21 -0400

As the new administration's trade policies come into clearer focus, it is obvious that some changes are underway. Actions by the Trump administration could redirect trade flows and incite an all-out trade war. Retaliatory actions by foreign countries could alter the regulatory landscape, leading to...

Precise Earnings Forecasts May Be Smokescreens

Thu, 25 May 2017 11:50:37 -0400

Research has consistently shown precise-sounding forecasts to have strong impacts, both in bolstering the self-image of those who make them and in impressing those to whom they are made. Still, precision would seem hazardous for corporate executives when forecasts are as keenly scrutinized as those they make about their firms' future earnings. A new study begins by asking a pointed question:...

KPMG Replaces Audit Chair In Wake Of PCAOB Leaks

Fri, 12 May 2017 12:17:43 -0400

Faced with the revelation that six of its auditors had improperly received advance information from an employee of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board about up upcoming inspections of the firm, KPMG yesterday announced that it was replacing its top auditor, Scott Marcello, with Frank Casal, a 38-year veteran with the firm. Marcello, four other audit partners, and...

CFO Base Pay Rose 2.8% In 2016

Fri, 12 May 2017 12:06:50 -0400

Finance professionals, except for CFOs, got higher base pay raises than the average U.S. worker in 2016, according to the latest data from the Association for Financial Professionals. Finance team members received an average increase...

Square-Off: Is Executive Pay Too Low, Too High, Or Just Right?

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 10:00:51 -0400

It probably won't ever be possible to resolve the societal debate over the proper amount of compensation that should rightly be awarded to top corporate executives. It may be no more achievable than national consensus on how to approach health care, taxes, or gender and racial equality. People in business, though,...

KPIs: The Key To Corporate Compliance

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 12:08:56 -0400

While some industries, particularly those that are intensely regulated, have well-developed risk and compliance functions, the newly released Justice Department guidance, "Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs," is essential reading for all businesses. Specifically,...

Will Financial Services Regulations Ease Up?

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:02:17 -0400

The November 2016 presidential election result and the fact that Republicans now control the White House and both chambers of Congress has caused much speculation as to likely changes for the financial services regulatory environment that has evolved since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act and the many thousands of pages of...

Internal Audit Losing Prestige, Survey Finds

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 10:59:25 -0400

In the eyes of CFOs and many other senior executives and board members, the internal audit function is fast losing prestige, a new study suggests. The reason? Most internal auditors are slow to help their employers prepare for and respond to major corporate "disruptions" like big regulatory changes and cyber attacks, according to...

Scammers Sending Fake Emails From SEC

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 07:06:24 -0500

In a blog post on Tuesday, cybersecurity vendor FireEye's threat research team said it had identified a spear phishing campaign that targets corporate finance teams involved in preparing Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Spear phishing is "the fraudulent practice of sending emails ostensibly from...