How Risk Management Can Spawn Competitive Advantage

There‘s an old joke of unknown origin that goes something like: A huge bear appears in front of two campers in the woods. The bear sees the campers and begins to run toward them. The first camper drops her backpack, digs out a pair of sneakers and frantically begins to put them on. The second cam...

By Kristina Narvaez and John Bugalla • July 28, 2014

Seating Tax at the Strategy Table

Companies routinely consider the effect of taxes on their financial performance, but how often do they incorporate tax considerations into their strategic decision making? Not nearly as often as they should, according to senior finance executives who responded to a recent study by CFO Research.Ta...

By Katherine Teitler • July 25, 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

The New Word on ERP

Enterprise resource planning systems have been variously called the heart, brain, and backbone of a company. All the comparisons are apt, considering the core functionality that an ERP system can comprise — accounting and finance, human resources, sales management, supply chain management, custom...

By Dann Anthony Maurno • July 25, 2014

Uncovering Cash and Insights from Working Capital

Managing a company’s working capital isn’t the sexiest task. It’s often painstakingly technical. It’s hard to know how well a company is doing, even relative to peers; published financial data are too high level for precise benchmarking. And because working capital doesn’t appear on the income st...

By Ryan Davies and David Merin • July 24, 2014

CFO Aims to Help BuzzFeed Get ‘Dominant’

If you go to BuzzFeed.com, you might never escape. The busy, hard-charging entertainment and news site is almost mystically adept at creating content people want to click on.Mark Frackt, CFO, BuzzFeed If you didn’t know that, you could guess it, based just on BuzzFeed’s rocketing traffic tally (s...

By David McCann • July 24, 2014

N.Y. Fed Blasts Deutsche Bank’s Financial Reporting

Deutsche Bank is not having a good week. In addition to being under investigation for helping hedge fund clients avoid taxes and for violating Iran sanctions, the German lender’s U.S. operations is being accused of shoddy financial reporting by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which regulate...

By Iris Dorbian • July 23, 2014

Revenue and Profit Declines Reveal ‘Weak and Sputtering Recovery’

Data unearthed in a quarterly review of corporate cash-flow trends released on Wednesday “continue to show a weak and sputtering recovery” of the U.S. economy, the authors of the report say.As of March 2014, the median revenue of 3,000 non-financial public companies (with a market cap of $50 mill...

By David Katz • July 23, 2014

How Startups Can Draw the Line on Expenses

According to a blog post by Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, one way for founders of technology companies to damage their bottom line is to “screw up” their budgets. Citing a past work example (at the company Loudcloud) in which he did...

By Iris Dorbian • July 22, 2014

Regulator Wants Benchmark Interest Rate Overhaul

To prevent banks from manipulating market rates, the Financial Stability Board, a global watchdog group, is angling to change the way key financial benchmarks are being calculated, says Bloomberg. The FSB, an international body that monitors the global financial system, says the overhaul is neces...

By Iris Dorbian • July 22, 2014

Company Payables Jump to 46 Days

By whatever measure you choose, big companies are taking longer and longer to pay their smaller vendors.Charles Mulford, director, Georgia Tech Financial Analysis Lab Financial statementBetween March 2009 and today, corporate payables have jumped on average from 35 days to 46 days, according to t...

By David Katz • July 21, 2014

“Hide No Harm” Bill Goes After Top Executives

When it comes to corporate misbehavior, singling out who is accountable is always a legal conundrum, says a story in the New York Times. Citigroup’s $7 billion settlement with the Justice Department is a prime example. Although Attorney General Eric Holder was quick to characterize the banking gi...

By Iris Dorbian • July 21, 2014

Treasury Stance Regardless, Another Tax-Inversion Deal Pops Up

Another major takeover is in the air, and one that touches on a raw nerve in Washington, D.C: tax inversions.Chicago-based pharmaceutical firm AbbVie has agreed to acquire Shire, which makes medicines that treat rare diseases, for about $54 billion. When the deal closes, the newly combined compan...

By Iris Dorbian • July 19, 2014

Empire State Tackles Bitcoin Head-On with Proposed Rules

Some swear by it, others think it’s a scam. Either way, bitcoin, the virtual currency introduced as an alternative payment solution in 2009, is not going away anytime soon. Accordingly, one major U.S. state has issued proposed rules for businesses that buy, sell or process the polarizing crypto-c...

By Iris Dorbian • July 18, 2014

A New Way to Punish Wrongdoing: Anger Investors

Prosecutors are now contending that if you want to prevent white collar crime, then imposing stiff penalties on companies might be the solution, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. That way, they argue, shareholders will get so incensed they’ll demand changes.It’s a strategy of de...

By Iris Dorbian • July 17, 2014

Another Retailer Falls Victim to Consumer Retrenchment

In what is becoming a familiar trend signifying how consumers are reducing their spending, it looks like another retailer is in financial straits. Women’s clothing retailer Love Culture has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Reuters.With this move, Love Culture is following in the step...

By Iris Dorbian • July 17, 2014

Terrorism Insurance Outlook Brightens

Perceiving a brighter outlook in Congress for the reauthorization of a federal terrorism insurance backstop, insurers have grown less wary of providing terrorism coverage for corporations under their property-casualty policies, insurance brokers say.Last year, when the prognosis seemed grim that ...

By David Katz • July 17, 2014

Russian Oil Deal Will Go On, Says Morgan Stanley CFO

Despite the U.S. government’s newly imposed sanctions on Russian oil company Rosneft, Morgan Stanley CFO Ruth Porat does not believe the restrictions will affect a pending deal between the two firms, Reuters reports.Last December, the Wall Street bank agreed to sell the majority of its oil tradin...

By Iris Dorbian • July 17, 2014

Prepping the Financials for a Sale

This article is excerpted and adapted from chapter 19 of “The Exit Strategy Handbook: The Best Guide for Selling Your Business,” written by Jerry L. Mills, co founder of B2B CFO, a CFO services firm. The book guides owners of closely-held companies through the process of preparing to sell a compa...

By Jerry L. Mills • July 16, 2014

U.S. Treasury Secretary Calls for Ban on Tax Inversions

Calling on Congress to “prevent companies from effectively renouncing their citizenship to get out of paying taxes,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said Tuesday that it should immediately enact legislation to “shut down” corporate tax inversions retroactively to May 2014.U.S. Treasury Secre...

By David Katz • July 16, 2014

EY Runs Afoul of Auditor-Independence Rules Again

Just four days after a client fired Ernst & Young for auditor-independence violations stemming from an “improper relationship” between an E&Y auditor and a client finance executive, the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged the Big Four firm with breaking independence rules...

By David Katz • July 15, 2014

Wanted: More Accountants

A new survey gives accountants on the job prowl cause for optimism, writes AccountingWEB.com. According to the Brilliant 2014 Hiring Forecast, the number of accounting staff jobs available this year has jumped compared with 2013.In the quarterly survey of HR professionals in the accounting, finan...

By Iris Dorbian • July 14, 2014

Finance Pumps Up Cash Flow for Kimberly-Clark

This is the second of two articles on finance at consumer packaged goods giant Kimberly-Clark. The first focused on “Power of a CFO,” an initiative to get finance team members to think more expansively about their jobs. By lots of measures, the finance team at Kimberly-Clark is pulling its weight...

By David McCann • July 14, 2014

Apple, Others Ally with Obama to Pay Small Suppliers

Small business vendors that frequently have to chase down larger clients to get paid might have reason to rejoice. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, the White House has launched an initiative that will either speed payments to small suppliers or help them access “lower-cost capital...

By Iris Dorbian • July 14, 2014

Kimberly-Clark Finance Chief to Staff: Think Like a CFO

Editor’s note: This article, the first of two about finance at Kimberly-Clark, focuses on an initiative to get finance team members to think more expansively about their jobs. Next: the company’s energetic cost-saving vigil and other finance priorities.Mark Buthman wants every employee in his 1,6...

By David McCann • July 11, 2014

‘Inappropriate Relationship’ Sinks Ernst & Young Audit

Despite perfectly clean financial reporting, a company might find itself forced to have its financial reports re-audited if the company and its auditor have violated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s auditor-independence rules.That, apparently, is one takeaway from a series of events that ...

By David Katz • July 10, 2014