Having finance team members support business unit stakeholders drains EBITDA, says Gartner; instead, align them with specific types of decisions to be made.
Financial planning and analysis tops even strategic planning among the finance processes that CFOs want to improve.
While it's not debatable that variance analysis is an important FP&A tool, companies differ in how they apply it.
Veteran life-sciences CFOs leverage their specialized expertise to run their own outsourced finance services business.
A purely financial focus leads to damaging short-termism, KPMG says. Instead, put the focus on longer-term integrated business planning.
Streamlined investment decision processes clarify the judgments required to make decisions and facilitate enhanced accountability.
Some finance executives think their positions could be replaced by technology, a new poll suggests.
Investing in today's analytics tools will easily pay for itself in staff time saved and better-quality analysis, AFP study finds.
Companies should vary the budgeting model used for particular business units and functions, research shows.
Three out of four CFOs now have process improvement initiatives underway.
If finance is wielding blunt forecasting tools, whether for inventory cost or revenue, the whole picture can crack.
Some wonder if they should continue the investments, but what they really should do is to refocus their financial planning and analysis teams.
