Fixing the Tax Sieve

When politicians show up at a manufacturer’s research centre and a family bakery, they are usually chasing votes. Max Baucus and Dave Camp were on a different sort of campaign when they hit the Minneapolis area on July 8th. Mr Baucus, a Democratic senator, and Mr Camp, a Republican congressman, a...

By Economist Staff • July 15, 2013

Revenue Dip Signals Post-Recession Weakness

A new report studying the revenue trends of more than 2,900 publicly traded non-financial companies with median market capitalizations of $50 million or more suggests that this could be the beginning of a slow-down in the U.S. economy. Median revenues decreased 5.23 percent, from $788.5 million  ...

By Kathy Hoffelder • July 12, 2013

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

Risk Management Costs Surge 5 Percent

Driven by rising insurance prices, the average expense corporations incurred for risk management jumped 5 percent last year, according to an annual benchmarking survey of the total cost of risk (TCOR) at nearly 1,500 organizations.Average TCOR for all companies increased to $10.70 per $1,000 of a...

By David Katz • July 11, 2013

Why Some Forecasting Can Be a Waste of Time

CFOs and their staffs who are thinking about increasing the use of their forecasts should heed a warning sign from a new survey: Eighty percent of mid-size to large companies are making hay out of less than one-half of their potential productivity of their budgeting and forecasting efforts. The f...

By Kathy Hoffelder • July 9, 2013

Catastrophes Strike Terror into Risk Execs

Chastened by the widespread damage caused in unanticipated regions by Superstorm Sandy last fall, business executives are growing more fearful that natural catastrophes will damage their plants and equipment.If that happens, they increasingly dread the possibility that their companies won’t get a...

By David Katz • July 3, 2013

Compliance Chiefs Seek Bigger Budgets

With regulatory requirements and legal risks burgeoning for many corporations, CFOs are assessing bigger budget requests from compliance departments, a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report suggests.In the last 12 months, most of the 780 U.S. and U.K compliance executives responding to the survey sai...

By David Katz • July 1, 2013

CFO Discontent with Big Four Grows

Despite mounting discontent with the Big Four accounting firms, audit fees have edged up, according to a survey of 259 global CFOs, controllers and chief accounting officers of mostly public firms polled by BTI Consulting Group at the end of last year through March of 2013.  Only a tad more than ...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 26, 2013

“Employees Need To Be Proud,” Zurich CFO Says

As a CFO in the commercial insurance industry, Dalynn Hoch has more than enough financial projects to keep her busy. But her first priority is to make sure her employees are engaged in all of them. “Your employees need to be proud; they need to be attached to the mission, that strategic direction...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 21, 2013

Don’t Overreact to Cycles

As we await game seven of the NBA Finals tonight between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat it is interesting to reflect on the first six games and in particular the media reaction.  Each team has won three games of this best of seven series and they have alternated wins back and forth whic...

By Gregory V. Milano • June 20, 2013

Shared Service Centers: Not Just Cost Savers

Shared service centers have become popular in recent times as companies look to centralize business functions and reduce costs. But a recent SunGard study shows corporations today are heading towards a centralized approach to services for other reasons besides just cost.  Out of the 485 CFOs, tre...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 18, 2013

Continuous Not Annual Budgeting Improves Accuracy

For companies with fiscal years beginning in January, summer often marks the beginning of the long, inefficient and hassle-inducing ritual known as “annual budgeting.” CFOs and finance teams know this ritual all too well. It usually starts with a simple spreadsheet and ends months later with some...

By Jon Louvar • June 17, 2013

Will “Shadow Insurance” Shock the System?

Whenever you ask a promoter of captive insurance companies about the virtues of these special-purpose vehicles, you get a standard set of answers.When there’s no property-casualty insurance on the market, or the premiums are too darned high, a company can set up a captive to self-insure its risks...

By David Katz • June 13, 2013

Fuel Prices, Taco Sales: How to Be Two CFOs in One

How does one woman manage the chief finance role at two separate but related companies? With good, old-fashioned preparation — and lots of communication. That’s Mary Sullivan’s answer. Sullivan is CFO, executive vice president and treasurer of Susser Holdings Corporation, the Fortune 500 operator...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 13, 2013

Despite Bullish Outlook, Companies Won’t Hire

CPAs working in business and industry, including CFOs and other business executives polled in May by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), believe the economy is improving. But their companies aren’t yet willing to hire more employees.The AICPA’s Economic Outlook Survey ...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 10, 2013

Piles of Cash Could Mean Cheap Insurance Prices

Finance executives and corporate risk managers might want to take a flier on buying more insurance for their companies. That’s because the property-casualty insurance industry is sitting on mountains of cash that could be used to support cheaper prices, a recent Conning report on the insurance in...

By David Katz • June 10, 2013

SanDisk Innovates But Keeps Cash Close

Judy Bruner, CFO and executive vice president of administration at SanDisk Corp., a flash memory card manufacturer based in Milpitas, Calif., says while innovation is a key goal for the firm, keeping a high amount of cash on hand is equally important. “Since we’re capital intensive, having a stro...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 7, 2013

Still Not Working

Confronted with shrinking revenue during the Great Recession, many U.S. companies made what seemed to be lasting improvements in their management of working capital. But today it appears that the improvements were simply a short-term fix.That conclusion can be drawn from the findings of the lates...

By Russ Banham • June 5, 2013

Is it Time to Prune the Portfolio?

Back in 2009 with the stock market sitting at about half the peak it reached two years earlier, a client CFO shared a disheartening story about a divestiture he planned but never made.  It seemed he and his CEO decided during the previous downturn that they should sell one of their business units...

By Gregory V. Milano • June 4, 2013

Special Report: Retaining Risk

What’s your company’s appetite for retaining risk? Conservative? Aggressive? Does it have the financial capacity to survive a natural catastrophe or massive breakdown in the global financial system? If not, would it be prudent to go to a financial-services company to protect itself against a loss...

By David Katz • May 31, 2013

An Appetite for Risk

This is the first of four articles in a special report looking at risk retention. Also included are: Seven Factors in Self-Insuring, which explores the components of retention strategy; If Insurance Costs Too Much, Don’t Buy It, which provides a case study in cost saving; and Taking a Risk on Wor...

By David Katz • May 31, 2013

If Insurance Costs Too Much, Don’t Buy It

This is the third of four articles in a special report looking at risk retention. Also included are: An Appetite for Risk, which explores the metrics and thought processes of the new ways of thinking about risk; Seven Factors in Self-Insuring, which analyzes the components of retention strategy;a...

By Kristina Narvaez • May 31, 2013

Taking a Risk on Workers’ Comp

This is the fourth of four articles in a special report looking at risk retention. Also included are: An Appetite for Risk, which explores the metrics and thought processes of the new ways of thinking about risk; Seven Factors in Self-Insuring, which analyzes the components of retention strategy;...

By Barry Thompson • May 31, 2013

Seven Factors in Self-Insuring

This is the second of four articles in a special report looking at risk retention. Also included are:  An Appetite for Risk, which explores the metrics and thought processes of the new ways of thinking about risk; If Insurance Costs Too Much, Don’t Buy It, which provides a case study in cost savi...

By David Katz • May 31, 2013

The IRS Scandal

The New York Times had a nice discussion group the other day between legal experts on how to solve the problem of 501(c)(4)s. Basically, this category of non-profits is supposed to cover groups like the Sierra Club, the NRA, and the AARP, which have clear public-benefit programmes (environmental ...

By Economist Staff • May 23, 2013

Companies and Tax: Cook Lightly Grilled

Apple pays “all the taxes we owe—every single dollar,” its boss, Tim Cook, told the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations on May 21st. The previous day the subcommittee had issued a report claiming that Apple’s extensive use of tax havens and shell companies had helped it avoid paying t...

By Economist Staff • May 23, 2013