The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: 4 Takeaways from CFO Brew’s New York City event
Inspired by the NFL’s Spygate, reporter Adam Zaki attended CFO Brew’s inaugural event in New York City last week. Next Gen Finance: Future Proofing Your Business picked up the conversation around all of the current challenges CFOs face: AI, navigating and implementing change, risk management and how to best approach using LinkedIn were all areas of focus.
Four quick takeaways:
1. CFOs mostly want to network
In a half-day event, time is of the essence. So those in attendance (CFOs, fractional CFOs, controllers, CPAs and consultants) were quick to make it to the networking areas and exchange ideas.
It was clear finance leaders attend these events to talk to each other, not exclusively to learn from panels and speaking sessions. Although the panel discussions at this event provided some value, they seemed of much less interest to those in attendance versus the coffee breaks and chances to meet one another.
2. AI’s role is still unclear
While Jack McCullough, president of the CFO Leadership Council, talked about what will happen to CFOs who don’t use AI, it’s still unclear what will happen in the short-term to those who do. Many of those in attendance who asked questions wanted to know about basic use-case, value assessment and how it will impact labor in the short term. But no one had any answers other than automation of tasks.
3. CFOs to play a role in employee satisfaction
While some CFOs are focused on things like organizational succession planning and using other departments to create an organized approach to decision-making, others are taking creatively generous ways to encourage their teams. Nicolette Turner, CFO of Headspace, said during her panel that she keeps her employees’ information on her Amazon account and encourages them by sending random gifts.
4. Non-traditional finance experience is increasing in value
From how non-traditional finance employees look at metrics, to the decisions they make once they earn a CFO role, there seems to be a significant amount of interest in talent from outside finance and accounting. Whether that’s by choice or not — given accounting and talent shortages — is yet to be determined.
Eric Mason, CFO of the city of Quincy, Massachusetts, summoned a lot of interest when he spoke about how he is making unprecedented blockchain-inspired moves for his city largely due to his ability to assess markets, thanks to his economics background.
Part 2: The week ahead
Here’s a list of important market events and Fed speakers slated for the week ahead.
Monday, May 6
- Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin speaks
- New York Fed President Williams speaks
Tuesday, May 7
- Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari speaks
Wednesday, May 8
- Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speaks
- Boston Fed President Susan Collins speaks
- Fed Gov. Cook speaks
Thursday, May 9
- Wholesale trade inventories, March final
- Initial jobless claims, May 4
- San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speaks
Friday, May 10
- Consumer sentiment, May preliminary
- Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks
- Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks
- Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr speaks
Part 3: Metric of the Month
Finding the liquidity sweet spot requires intentionally balancing customer payment terms and the average time between receiving and paying invoices from third parties. Doing so helps financial managers maintain alignment with strategic goals and external economic conditions.
One of the keys to striking this balance lies in tracking and managing days payable outstanding (DPO). Perry Wiggins, CFO of APQC, explores why DPO is critical to understanding this measure and determining where your organization stands compared to top performers. (5/8)