6 Steps to Implementing Late-Stage Lease Accounting Compliance

If you’re a private equity (PE) backed CFO, you have spent the last few years thinking (perhaps obsessing) about real estate. After the pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work, all of the money organizations spent on real estate and offices became questionable. Over two years into the pandem...

By Alex Bogopolsky • Aug. 8, 2022

FP&A: Making the Best of the Dog Days of Summer

When the star Sirius rises at dawn, or so the tradition goes, the summer doldrums and worse set in. However, we see it as a time of hidden possibility. In our experience, FP&A departments are chronically understaffed and have little need for busy work, summer or not. That said, July and Augus...

By Marwaan Karame and Kal Vadasz • July 27, 2022

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Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

1 out of 2 CFOs, CEOs to Cut Workforce, Talent Development Last: Weekly Stat

CFOs and CEOs, facing economic volatility and uncertainty in the second half of 2022 and beyond, are most likely to continue to invest in workforce and talent development, according to a recent Gartner survey. By contrast, merger and acquisition investment is most likely to face immediate reducti...

By Andy Burt • July 27, 2022

The Industries That Got Paid Faster: Working Capital Scorecard

Most chief financial officers would say building up cash on the balance sheet is important. But one way to do that — converting sales into cash faster — sometimes gets forgotten. One reason: over the past few years, low interest rates made using debt to boost liquidity less expensive. That result...

By Vincent Ryan • July 20, 2022

CFOs Hunt for More Cash: 2022 Working Capital Scorecard

When the cost of debt and equity rises, smart CFOs know they need to find capital in other places. So, they look for the nooks and crannies where excess cash may be hiding. That inevitably leads them to working capital — the funds regularly tied up in accounts receivable, accounts payable, and in...

By Vincent Ryan • July 13, 2022

Rethinking the Value of 3 Common Financial Metrics

At a recent financial training session for railroading company CSX Corporation, CFO Sean Pelkey asked his teammates to list what they considered to be the three most important financial measures. The purpose was to consider both the merits and shortcomings of each measure and ultimately examine h...

By Gregory Milano • July 13, 2022

Dynamic Financial Planning for Real Events, Not the Calendar

Many companies stumble in their financial planning. As just one example, consider how Peloton, the exercise equipment and training company, made highly optimistic consumer demand forecasts, assuming that the surge of demand during the COVID-19 pandemic would last. The problem was compounded by a ...

By Michael Heric, Steve Beam, and Anup Juneja • July 11, 2022

Exit Strategy: How SaaS Founders Cash Out

While more companies transact and store their business off-premises, software as a service (SaaS) companies have seen a run-up in their valuations.Since 2015, the SaaS market continues to grow, 18% annually, while 99% of organizations are using at least one cloud solution to drive demand.From an ...

By Tom Aiken • June 14, 2022

6 Areas CFOs Should Support to Build Business Resilience

Significant headwinds continue to challenge small business CFOs and their organizations. During the best of times, small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate within tight budgets and often struggle to balance cash flows. Now, supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, and talent gaps exa...

By Steve McNally • June 13, 2022

Can the Global Minimum Tax Get Across the Finish Line?

Is the global minimum tax about to die on the vine? The proposed deal would introduce a uniform minimum tax rate on corporate profits. But it was stalled in both the United States and the European Union after Poland vetoed an EU agreement to implement the measure at the end of 2023.The Poland vot...

By Brian Peccarelli • June 8, 2022

How to Discuss Capital Allocation With Investors

Your company could have a highly successful capital allocation strategy, but, if you’re not sharing that story with investors, you're missing an opportunity to add value and build trust. Recent EY research indicates most companies don't communicate enough details with their shareholders about cap...

By Govind Gupta and Akhilesh Kulkarni • May 31, 2022

CFOs Gather Once Again: A Conference Notebook

Live, in-person conferences are again upon us, and I recommend attending one or more this year. The CFO Leadership Council spring conference, May 19-20, in collaboration with MIT Sloan, was the perfect reentry — vibrant, topical, mostly sales-free, and highly accommodative to networking. (Anyone ...

By Vincent Ryan • May 27, 2022

The IRS Makes Filing for the R&D Credit Tougher

Senators Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire Democrat, and Todd Young, and Indiana Republican, have been at the forefront of efforts to bolster one of the most powerful tax incentives in the U.S. tax code.Earlier in May, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of a resolution to expand the research and developme...

By Eric Hylton • May 24, 2022

Growth at ‘Any Cost’ Is Over: CFO Panel

Managements have been obsessed with growth for a long time. But the fitful economic recovery from the pandemic and the unfamiliar pressures of inflation call for a shift in gears.What’s clear — from earnings calls and stock market reactions to poor performance — is the pursuit of growth "at any c...

By Vincent Ryan • May 19, 2022

Steering the Sales Force Away From the ‘Easy Sale’

Discussions about increasing sales force effectiveness happen a lot these days. They usually result in ideas to help salespeople generate more revenue. However, not every dollar of revenue is created equal. Misguided efforts to sell unprofitable products and services to customers destroy rather t...

By Marwaan Karame • May 4, 2022

A Better Way to Do Ecommerce

Learn how Precision Medical leveraged OneWorld to cut the cost of billing in half and added $2.5M in annual revenue.

By CFO Editorial Staff • May 2, 2022

A Faster Close with NetSuite ERP

Learn how Ubiquity Retirement + Savings switched from QuickBooks to NetSuite ERP and brought their close from 21 days to five.

By CFO Editorial Staff • May 2, 2022

Bargain Purchases: Causes, Timelines, and Accounting Treatment

A bargain purchase occurs when a buyer purchases an asset for less than it is worth. However, they are not very common. Normally, companies will work to generate interest from as many buyers as possible before selling an asset, even a distressed one, to ensure the highest price. Bargain purchases...

By Walter O’ Haire and Jason Muraco • April 25, 2022

Using M&A to Redefine FP&A’s Role

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) capabilities are essential when the pressure’s on to show results from ambitious transformation and value-creation goals. Rather than risk falling behind amid significant merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, CFOs can use transactions to catalyze ch...

By Bob Nannini and Lukas Hoebarth • April 11, 2022

Metric of the Month: The Cost of a Shared Services Center

Imagine a grocery store chain with numerous stores across the country. Each store needs someone to process payroll, pay vendors, and carry out other key finance processes. Rather than hiring staff for accounts payable or payroll at every store, the business is likely to be part of a growing numbe...

By Perry D. Wiggins • April 4, 2022

Will the New Tax Treatment of R&D Expenses Stand?

Tax executives, certified public accountants, CEOs, and CFOs of companies that spend a lot on research and development (R&D) have a special tax problem this year: a 2017 change to the U.S. tax code disallows immediately deducting R&D expenses and requires them to be capitalized and amorti...

By Vincent Ryan • March 21, 2022

Be Less Equitable When Allocating Resources

Management teams of diversified companies should manage portfolio businesses in much the same way investors manage their portfolios — focusing their resources on segments and projects expected to yield the most value creation. Unfortunately, across our clients, we find that this is rarely the cas...

By Jason Gould and Frank Hopson • March 16, 2022

EBITDA Add-Backs Require Caution

If accounting gods and powerful lenders had any mercy, they would give finance teams free rein to add back to profits all kinds of COVID-19 expenses. For example, the cost of paying idled employees or the rent and utility bills on facilities idled during lockdowns. Or the tens of other “abnormal”...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 10, 2022

2022 Outlook: 4 Charts to Watch

 In engineering, the signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of the desired signal to the level of background noise (which obscures the signal). You want the signal (the information). But the noise (background interference)? Not so much. In economics and business, there is lots of data and infor...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 25, 2022

Aimbridge’s Thomas Song Discusses Outlook of Hospitality Industry

Thomas Song may have gone from the frying pan into the fire when he left the restaurant industry in February 2021 to become finance chief of Aimbridge Hospitality. Aimbridge manages hotel properties for famous brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt but did not go unscathed by the pandemic. The g...

By Russ Banham • Jan. 21, 2022