Paying More for 404

How much will complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 cost small companies when the regulatory burden fully descends upon them? A recent study estimating that figure has sparked heated debate. As CFO.com reported, Worcester, MA-based accounting firm Lord & Benoit put the average total cost...

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 29, 2008

Profit Party Portrays a Strong Economy After All

If you have been mesmerized by the steady drumbeat of billion-dollar write-offs from the world’s largest banks, home foreclosures, and dizzying drops in stock prices, it would be easy to conclude that the economy is falling apart.It also doesn’t help anyone’s confidence in the economy that Congre...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 25, 2008

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Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

The Fed’s Statement on the Rate Cut

Jumping the gun on its regularly scheduled meeting next week, the Fed decided last night to cut its target federal funds rate by 75 basis points. Besides its effects on the overall global economy and on U.S. homeowners, the move has powerful implications for corporations’ future ability to issue ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 22, 2008

Innovation’s Big Spenders

China and India may trail far behind the Western world in terms of R&D spending, but they are catching up fast. That’s the conclusion of a recentstudy of corporate innovation spending by consultingfirm Booz Allen Hamilton.Chinese and Indian companies spent just US$2.1billion on R&D in 200...

By Don Durfee • Jan. 18, 2008

Made in China, Taxed in the U.S.

A tax surprise could await companies that manufacture in China and ship goods for sale back to the United States.The U.S. government has started to bring subsidy cases against imports coming out of China, “and Chinese subsidiaries of U.S. companies are being caught in that net,” says Philippe Br...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Jan. 17, 2008

You Have 0 Unread Messages

The founder of a company that gives away e-mail service might seem anunlikely candidate as the U.S. Congress’ 2007 poster child for corporatewrongdoing, but Jerry Yang seems to have this year’s contest wrapped up.Despite a field of promising candidates (particularly in the sub-primemortgage secto...

By Bennett Voyles • Jan. 15, 2008

Nailing Down the Cost of 404

Ever since companies began the daunting task of complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2003, the question of how much it costs has been ripe for debate. The Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t do much to clear things up when, that first year, it estimated the internal wor...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 10, 2008

China Drives IPO Upswing

The aches of the credit crisis and the pains of stiff market regulation could have added up to a slowdown of new public offerings on American exchanges in 2007. Instead, thanks largely to interest in Chinese companies, it turned out to be the most active year for IPOs in the last seven.According ...

By Alan Rappeport • Jan. 8, 2008

View from China: Growing out of Control

There’s a strong sense among foreign multinational executives that the door of opportunity is wide open in China, even as fears of recession have clouded growth prospects in the United States and Europe. This optimism is increasingly at odds with the view of China’s CFOs, many of whom are worried...

By Wu Chen • Jan. 1, 2008

Bring Your Own Pretzels

Higher business-travel costs may force finance departments to run just to stay in place.The cost of the average U.S. domestic business trip, including airfare, hotel, and car rental, is projected to climb 6 percent this year; for international trips expect a 7 percent increase, according to Ameri...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 1, 2008

Business Outlook Survey

Finance chiefs are not predicting a very happy new year. A record-breaking 72 percent of them say they are less optimistic about the economy than they were last quarter, while just 9 percent are more optimistic, according to the latest Duke University/CFO magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Jan. 1, 2008

Small Business, Big Problems

Steven Preston is not one to refuse a thankless task. While transitioning out of the CFO role at $3.6 billion ServiceMaster, he agreed to stay on after the implosion of the firm’s auditor, Arthur Andersen, and then through what he calls the Sarbanes-Oxley “implementation war.”But then came an opp...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 1, 2008

Foreign Intelligence

Overseas markets seem to grow by the minute, luring ever smaller and younger U.S. companies with the promise of booming economies and lower costs. But for these relatively inexperienced firms, the dream of international expansion soon collides with reality: many companies find themselves unprepar...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Jan. 1, 2008

A Hedge-Fund Mystery

Last August was a bad month for the hedge-fund industry. According to fund tracker Barclay Hedge Ltd., about 75 percent of the 2,600 or so hedge funds that reported results for the month showed a loss, of about 1.4 percent on average. The week of August 6 was particularly cruel to quantitative eq...

By Edward Teach • Jan. 1, 2008

Christmas Trees Are Rotten in Denmark

The Danish Christmas Tree Growers’ Association got something even worse than coal in its stocking this year: an indictment for serious economic crimes.The organization was charged with rigging prices for the trees — no small matter given that Denmark is the number-one exporter of Christmas trees ...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 21, 2007

Best of 2007: Smaller Businesses

Take a quick glance of our 2007 coverage of the issues facing smaller businesses lately.At first, it seems as though regulators and lawmakers are finally giving the small-cap companies a break. After all, 2007 saw the creation of a new auditing standard that took scalability for smaller businesse...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 20, 2007

Europe Woes Mount for Presstek

Presstek Inc. said it has widened an internal review of inventory issues and other business practices. The printing company already was looking into excess and obsolete inventory, receivables from distributors in Europe, and European revenue recognition practices. This caused the company to dela...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 20, 2007

Ex-School CFO May Get Lesson in Justice

A former CFO at a New York City parochial school has been charged with stealing nearly $120,000. Keith Martin, who worked at Monsignor Scanlon High School, was accused of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, the Bronx district attorney announced. He faces up to 15 years in p...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 18, 2007

What the 404 Delay Means for Small Companies

Shannon Greene, CFO of Tandy Leather Factory, doesn’t want to be a Section 404 guinea pig. As a $40 million market cap company, Tandy Leather is considered a non-accelerated filer by the Securities and Exchange Commission and thus hasn’t yet had to comply with the internal-control provision of th...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 12, 2007

One-year Delay on 404 in the Works

After a year of listening to lawmakers hound him for another delay of the date when small companies must comply with the internal-control provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox says he plans to supply such a reprieve. He intends to ask his...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 12, 2007

The SEC Wraps a Small-Biz Gift

Smaller public companies now have another avenue for raising capital following a rule change by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The four SEC commissioners have voted to amend the eligibility requirements for two securities registration forms, allowing smaller businesses to make shelf regi...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 11, 2007

Business Outlook Survey

As in Shakespeare’s “Richard the Third,” CFOs have entered a winter of discontent. The economic pessimism of finance chiefs in Europe and the US is plunging to new depths, according to our latest global survey of more than 1,200 senior finance executives conducted in conjunction with Tilburg Univ...

By Jason Karaian • Dec. 10, 2007

Meet the Family

Not long ago, the CFO of an Asian public company arrived at work to hear some startling news: the firm had just made a major acquisition. The deal hadn’t been arranged by the finance executive or his staff — they learned about it only that morning. It was not an impulsive purchase by the CEO. Nor...

By Don Durfee • Dec. 10, 2007

Employees Raiding 401(k)s, CFOs Say

The weakening American economy is beginning to take its toll on corporate employees where it hurts the most: their salaries and savings.The latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, which polls 573 finance chiefs in the U.S. and 1,275 globally, finds that year-end employ...

By Alan Rappeport • Dec. 5, 2007

CFOs’ Optimism Slumps to Record Low

The credit crisis and the falling dollar have sullied the moods of finance chiefs over the past few months, with their optimism about the U.S. economy falling to a record low in the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Business Outlook Survey. Many are calling for the Federal Reserve to cut intere...

By Alan Rappeport • Dec. 5, 2007