The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: JLL CFO, Cost Management, and Commercial Finance Industry Parallels
This week’s stories include a piece by senior reporter-at-large Vince Ryan on cost-cutting strategies companies have used during the current economic cycle and why cost data and information need to be shared deeper in many organizations. (3/5)
Contributor Sandra Beckwith conducts a Q&A with Karen Brennan, CFO of the global real estate services firm JLL (3/7)
Reporter Adam Zaki writes about drawing parallels between the challenges faced by corporate finance leaders and the small business lending industry from both an economic and regulatory perspective. (3/8)
Part 2: This Week
President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday is more about “signaling to everyone that he’s got another four years in him,” Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist, told Time. But as Biden usually performs well when he has prepared remarks, there may be just as much focus on the policy issues he addresses. Biden has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and imposing taxes on billionaires’ capital gains. It’s unclear how much of his speech will focus on economic policy, say experts.
Super Tuesday this week is not very super. The New York Times called it “unusually unimportant,” with the U.S. presidential race likely to be a Biden vs. Donald Trump rematch of 2020.
CFOs and their C-suite colleagues await Wednesday’s Securities and Exchange Commission vote on its long-anticipated climate disclosure rules. The vote on whether to require registered companies to disclose climate-related information in registration statements and annual reports comes almost two years after it was initially proposed. Some media outlets are already labeling the rule “scaled back,” saying it’s likely “to include less-comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions disclosure requirements for public companies than the original plan.”
More goings-on in the nation’s capital: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gives his semiannual report to Congress on monetary policy in two days of testimony before the House and then the Senate. Powell is unlikely to deviate from his recent message that rate cuts aren’t appropriate until the Fed is certain inflation will fall to the 2% target.
The report on the February U.S. jobs market arrives on Friday. In general, economists project cooler numbers than January’s. Median estimates are for employer payroll gains of 210,000 vs. an actual 353,000 in January. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.7%.
Other economic data this week include job openings and labor turnover, the U.S. trade balance, consumer credit, and hourly wages.
Earnings this week: Target, NIO, Abercrombie & Fitch, JD.com, Campbell Soup, Kroger, Burlington Stores, American Eagle Outfitters, Big Lots, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Ciena, ABM Industries, GitLab, CrowdStrike, Ross Stores, Brown-Forman, Ciena, Broadcom.
Part 3: Metric of the Month — Get Paid Faster
Late customer payments are among the most common cash-flow management challenges facing organizations in 2024. When customers fail to pay on time, following up with a robust collections effort is an important next step. However, it’s important not to alienate your most strategic customers and lose their future business. Perry D. Wiggins, CFO of APQC, offers three effective strategies that leading organizations use to get faster payments from customers. (3/6)