Revenue Recognition: Here at Last

This month, the converged standard on revenue recognition from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board finally takes effect for publicly held companies. The standard, called ASC 606 in the United States and IFRS 15 elsewhere, will be a headache fo...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 5, 2017

The Price of Protectionism

When it comes to trade protectionism, Isaac Newton’s third law of motion is instructive: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for stiff tariffs and quotas against Chinese, South Korean, and other foreign companies that are allegedly d...

By Russ Banham • Dec. 4, 2017

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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

To DB or Not DB?

Like it or not, CFOs frequently find themselves cast in the role of pension managers, dealing with a host of economic, regulatory, and environmental factors outside of their control. Faced with these variables, what decisions are finance chiefs making about their pension plans to manage risk and ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 4, 2017

Directors Lack Info on Their Core Concerns: NACD

Finance chiefs may find it useful to know which issues boards of directors will be concerned about in 2018; more valuable, however, is knowing both areas of concern for directors and the issues that directors feel (1) they need more information on from management or (2) they would like to spend m...

By Vincent Ryan • Nov. 30, 2017

Supply Chains Break Out

Since the notion of supply chain management emerged in the 1800s, the focus has been on transporting parts, materials, and finished goods from point to point at the lowest cost. Companies are still trying hard to do that today, of course. But increasingly, other objectives are taking priority.In ...

By David McCann • Nov. 29, 2017

Satisfy Customers First, and Cost Cuts Will Follow

Over my 25-plus years as a supply chain and operations professional, I cannot count the number of times a CFO or board of directors has demanded cost-cutting initiatives. Yet, the most dramatic improvements have occurred when we were not focused on cutting costs.It’s a certainly a contrarian view...

By Lisa Anderson • Nov. 29, 2017

Quick, Back-to-Basics Read for New CFOs

Try searching the web for “what makes a CFO successful” and you’ll find the articles on the subject all cover the same, tired ground. The necessary characteristics include becoming a master of analytics, having an obsession about everything ROI-related, focusing a majority of attention on cash ge...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 28, 2017

Do You Know Where Your Leases Are?

The clock is ticking to fulfill the requirements of impending changes to lease accounting standards, which are creating a handful of organizational challenges for corporations. One of the more complicated of these challenges is finding lease rights and obligations from numerous (sometimes thousan...

By Ryan Drimalla • Nov. 27, 2017

Companies Struggle to Quantify Climate Risk

As climate change awareness intensifies, investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders are factoring climate-related risks into decisions. Therefore, corporations are expected to disclose relevant information about the financial impacts of climate change on their businesses.Katharine Blue ...

By Katherine Blue • Nov. 22, 2017

Square-Off: How Will Climate Change Affect Companies?

What will happen if President Trump follows through on his stated intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2019?In all likelihood, not much at all will be different than would occur if there were no withdrawal. Myriad efforts by states, organizations d...

By David McCann • Nov. 21, 2017

Act of God, Foreseeable Risk, or Hedging Opportunity?

Whether you’re in a domestic enterprise or a multinational conglomerate, climate change will impact what you do. In fact, it’s already happening.Lindene Patton Climate change influences a majority of the most fundamental activities performed by CFOs. Why? Because climate change can damage assets,...

By Lindene Patton • Nov. 21, 2017

Climate Change Presents Business Opportunities

Regardless whether you believe in the anthropogenic roots of climate change, there is now ample scientific evidence that the earth is warming and that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. This has caused, and will continue to cause, significant social and economic losses ...

By Alex LaPlante • Nov. 21, 2017

Will Tax Cuts Boost Capital Spending?

If the effort to cut the maximum U.S. federal corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% succeeds, will corporations reverse their current trend and allocate more funds to capital expenditures?That question arises from the findings of the Georgia Tech Financial Analysis Lab’s report on cash-flow trends i...

By David Katz • Nov. 20, 2017

The CFO’s Role in Monetizing Digitalization

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....

By Wei Ke and David Chung • Nov. 17, 2017

Microsoft, IBM Tighten Finance Via Tech

Whether it’s through machine learning, blockchain, or artificial intelligence, senior finance executives are increasingly employing brainy technologies to make their processes more efficient. Among the finance functions getting their screws tightened are revenue forecasting and cross-border suppl...

By David Katz • Nov. 16, 2017

SEC Enforcement Actions Plummet

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 62 enforcement actions against public companies and their subsidiaries in the government’s 2017 fiscal year, a 33% drop from a year earlier. The cause of the drop was a paltry 17 cases filed in the second half of the year (April 1 to September 30), a p...

By Vincent Ryan • Nov. 16, 2017

BNY Mellon Names Mike Santomassimo CFO

Bank of New York Mellon has appointed Michael Santomassimo chief financial officer as part of an overhaul of its organizational and leadership structure.Santomassimo, currently CFO of BNY Mellon’s investment services unit, will replace finance chief Thomas “Todd” Gibbons. Before joining the bank ...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 14, 2017

How to Design a Pre-IPO Liquidity Plan

Now that technology companies are staying private longer, the pressure to create liquidity options for founders, investors, and employees is intensifying.Ann Lucchesi The average time for a fast-growth startup to enter the public markets has stretched out to more than 10 years, according to some ...

By Ann Lucchesi • Nov. 13, 2017

A Theory of Relativity Misses the Mark

In the 1990s it was common for stock options to be the primary long-term incentive.Gregory V. MIlano Gregory V. Milano, healthcare, reinvestmentBut some investors and governance experts became concerned that the upward drift in the late-century bull market was automatically leading to outsized fi...

By Gregory V. Milano • Nov. 13, 2017

Ex-American Realty CFO Gets 18 Months in Jail

Former American Realty Capital Properties CFO Brian Block has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in an accounting fraud that overstated a key metric used to evaluate the REIT’s financial performance.U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken said Block “participated in a scheme to i...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 9, 2017

Tax Cuts: Be Careful What You Wish For

The Republicans in Congress are trying desperately to deliver on at least one of their campaign promises. What will come out of the tax bills that have been introduced in the House and Senate, if anything, is unclear. But right now, the proposals offer more risks than benefits.Joel Naroff First, ...

By Joel Naroff • Nov. 9, 2017

PBGC OKs Sears Asset Sales for Pension Relief

Sears has announced a deal with the federal pension insurance fund to ease its pension obligations as it seeks to boost liquidity amid a continuing sales slide.Under the agreement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the struggling retailer will be able to sell 140 properties that the agency ...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 8, 2017

Meeting Directors’ Demands for Information

Investors, consumers, regulatory bodies, and the media are putting heavy pressure on boards of directors. They are being held accountable for a whole range of strategic missteps, risk management errors, and security flaws. One survey of board members in 2016 found that directors see a disconnect ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 8, 2017

America’s Got Talent, But Where Is It?

As it turns out, predictions that the economic recovery would inevitably draw companies into a fierce tug-of-war for talent were off-base. As far as finance executives are concerned, the hiring process now more closely resembles a scavenger hunt.That insight into labor market dynamics emerged fro...

By Josh Hyatt • Nov. 8, 2017

You Run a Health-Care Business Whether You Like It or Not

Warren Buffett said it all: “GM is a health and benefits company with an auto company attached.” In fact, it spends more on health care than steel, just as Starbucks spends more on health care than coffee beans.For most companies, health care is the second largest expense after payroll. This puts...

By Dave Chase • Nov. 7, 2017