Special Report: Loss Control

While having an insurance policy in hand can offer a company the comfort of a reimbursement after a fire or an explosion destroys plant or equipment, it is no more than a drop in the bucket when a massive cyber attack threatens a company’s ability to continue as a going concern.“I don’t even know...

By David Katz • Oct. 27, 2014

Investors Suggest External Auditor Review of Audit Committees

With governance advocates calling for more transparency from public company audit committees, the Investor Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has suggested that external auditors review the effectiveness of audit committees.In a report presented to the PCAOB earlier t...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2014

Explore the Trendline➔

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

What Companies Can Do to Battle Employee Theft

Screening of prospective employees and putting security measures in writing are among the tools that employers can use to reduce the most common types of employee theft, according to a report by the Hanover Insurance Group.Employee theft costs businesses hundreds of billions of dollars a year, th...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2014

Uncertain Tax Positions Lure IRS Agents, Lawyer Claims

Contrary to previous assurances by the Internal Revenue Service, IRS agents are using corporate financial reports of uncertain tax positions as a tool to go after more tax revenues, a corporate tax lawyer says.Using reports in 10-Ks and 10-Qs on uncertain tax positions that are required under Fin...

By David Katz • Oct. 23, 2014

How to Get Better at Management Accounting

At first blush, a statement of principles for management accounting from two big accountants’ associations appears to tell us what we already knew. Upon closer examination, it could serve as a handy guide for corporate finance departments.The document, prepared jointly by the American Institute o...

By David McCann • Oct. 23, 2014

Board Members Favor Legislation on Inversions

While the Obama administration has cracked down on tax inversions, a new survey suggests that a majority of U.S. public company directors support Congressional action, preferably as part of broad-based tax reform.The study by consulting firm BDO USA questioned 75 directors of companies with reven...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 21, 2014

Corporate Cash Growth Slows to 1%

New data from Moody’s Investors Service confirm that corporate America is kicking some of its cash-hoarding habit in favor of spending more on capital investments, dividends, share repurchases and acquisitions.Corporate cash increased to a record $1.65 trillion in mid-2014 from $1.64 trillion at ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 21, 2014

Five Myths About Zero-based Budgeting

As many companies watch growth in sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs outstrip increases in revenue, controlling expenses has become an even greater priority. As a result, executives are under ever-increasing pressure to deliver productivity improvements, and almost all companies ...

By Kyle Hawke, Carey Mignerey, and Shaun Callaghan • Oct. 21, 2014

Sunny Side Up

U.S. finance executives are feeling increasingly confident about the economy and their companies, while their European counterparts appear to believe they have finally turned the corner. But in Latin America, a gloomier economic outlook has started to erode the confidence that corporate leaders h...

By David W. Owens • Oct. 20, 2014

Ex-Motorola CFO Downsizes in Order to Grow

The CFO who presided over the prolonged breakup of Motorola into two companies, which was finally completed in 2011, is now more focused on growing than downsizing.Ed Fitzpatrick, CFO, Genpact A year after his sudden exit from Motorola Solutions, one of the entities created in the split, Ed Fitzp...

By David McCann • Oct. 20, 2014

Banks Charge for Euro Deposits

Global banks have begun charging large customers for euro deposits, an unusual deviation from the norm intended to offset the fees they are now paying to park funds at the European Central Bank.Rather than eat the costs of the ECB’s negative interest rate on deposits, Bank of New York Mellon, Gol...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 20, 2014

Apple-Picking Season

This time of year many of you are heading out apple-picking. Some of you will drag small children to an orchard outside of town; others will be dragged by teenagers to the nearest Apple Store to check out the latest gadgets. But what do you really know about apples? Let’s find out.1. The only app...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 20, 2014

Spreadsheet Error Costs Tibco Shareholders $100M

Tibco Software shareholders will be getting $100 million less than originally anticipated from the company’s more than $4 billion sale to Vista Equity Partners as a result of a spreadsheet error that overstated Tibco’s equity value.According to a regulatory filing, Goldman Sachs, which is advisin...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 17, 2014

FASB Reviewing Share-based Payments Standard

Responding to concerns that the accounting for share-based payments to employees is too complex and costly for companies to apply, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has agreed to look into ways to improve the standard adopted in 2004.At its meeting last week, the board added a project to a...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 16, 2014

eBay, Wal-Mart Lower Their Holiday Expectations

Bellwether retailers eBay and Wal-Mart have reduced their expectations of sales growth for the current fiscal year, blaming the lower outlooks, in part, on the stronger dollar.EBay lopped off $300 million, or 7 cents per share, from its annual revenue forecast for 2014, while Wal-Mart, which reco...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 16, 2014

Internal Audit Should Play Bigger Role in IT

The rise of emerging markets, rapid shifts in information technology, privacy, cybersecurity, changing consumer and market demands, rapid shifts in global laws and regulations and heightened investor pressures have produced a new environment of uncertainty, complexity and risk.Dave Roath, IT risk...

By Dave Roath and Carolyn Holcomb • Oct. 15, 2014

AbbVie to Reconsider $54 Billion Shire Inversion

In what appears to be the latest fallout from the Obama administration’s crackdown on tax inversion deals, pharmaceutical giant AbbVie has disclosed that it is reconsidering its planned $54 billion takeover of Ireland’s Shire PLC.The AbbVie board will meet on Monday to decide whether to proceed w...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 15, 2014

New Inversion Rules Don’t Deter $1.9B Steris Deal

The Obama administration’s efforts to crack down on tax inversions apparently haven’t deterred Ohio-based medical equipment manufacturer Steris from offering $1.9 billion for a British company.The acquisition of Synergy Health will allow Steris to reincorporate in Britain, but keep its operationa...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 14, 2014

Unsustainable Energy

This has been a nerve-racking summer for oil companies. Since June the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil — the global benchmark — has slumped from $115 to $92, a decline of 20% and the lowest for more than two years. That drop is partly thanks to economic weakness. Growth is slowing, particula...

By Economist Staff • Oct. 13, 2014

SEC Panel Urges Update of ‘Accredited Investor’ Standard

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee has called on the agency to update its age-old definition of “accredited investors,” a move that some investors fear could reduce the number of people eligible to invest in private stock offerings.Under a standard written i...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 13, 2014

Regulators Want to Fix Bank’s Risk Models

Global banking regulators are considering several technical measures to address “excessive” variability in how banks evaluate credit risk, according to the head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.The committee is preparing a report on credit risk assessment for the Group of 20 nations ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 9, 2014

Hold Your Bank’s Attention

Finance chiefs might not be that thrilled when their company’s community bank announces it is being bought by a much larger financial institution. While business customers might get access to higher loan limits and the acquirer’s expanded menu of products and services, CFOs might rightly fear tha...

By Paul Schaus • Oct. 9, 2014

Wal-Mart Part-Timers to Lose Health-Care Benefits

Wal-Mart is taking another step to cut health-care costs, saying it will eliminate insurance coverage for about 5% of its part-time workforce.Effective Jan. 1, about 30,000 employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week will no longer be covered under Wal-Mart’s health care plans, the...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 8, 2014

WWE Goes “Over the Top”: Video

When people hear the name “WWE,” they probably think of the publicly traded global entertainment company’s wrestling programs, like WWE Raw and SmackDown, not the firm’s growth trajectory or financial prowess. But as a business WWE is making moves.In February 2014, it launched the first ever 24/7...

By Marielle Segarra • Oct. 8, 2014

EU Watchdog Opens Probe of Amazon Tax Break

A 2003 deal between Amazon and Luxembourg has become the latest tax-minimizing arrangement to attract the attention of EU regulators trying to rein in corporate tax avoidance.The European Commission announced Monday it had opened an in-depth investigation into whether Luxembourg broke EU state ai...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 7, 2014