Spreadsheets: Spot the Math Error at a Glance

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here and post your query or tip at the community center on the right.Reader Karlo B. wins a copy of Slaying Excel Dragons for submitting the tip ...

By Bill Jelen • Aug. 10, 2011

Problems with Pricing

With input costs surging, hungry competitors circling, and concerns about soft customer demand leaving little room for mistakes, finance chiefs are struggling to maintain their margins. A new study from Accenture finds that while CFOs are confident about their ability to affect the cost part of t...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Aug. 10, 2011

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

Budgeting for Global Success

A privately-held software company based in California is starting to pursue new sales in Europe. The company has already opened a U.K. office as its headquarters in the region, and is now charting its course into other European countries. As executives there begin to budget for these efforts, the...

By Bill Hite • Aug. 10, 2011

Once Facing a Prison Term, Ex-CFO Could Go Free

Six years ago, Elizabeth Monrad was at the top of her profession. She served as the CFO of TIAA-CREF, sat on the board of directors at Colgate-Palmolive, and was tapped for her expertise at various organizations, such as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.Her stature changed dramatical...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 9, 2011

NY CPAs: IFRS Still Not Ready for the U.S.

New York certified public accountants claim there are “critical unresolved differences” between U.S. generally accepting accounting principles and international financial reporting standards, and the disparity is contributing to a lack of comparability between the two rule sets. As a result, the ...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 8, 2011

Calculating COD Income When a Parent Cancels a Sub’s Debt

Last year, as companies began emerging from the economic downturn, the Internal Revenue Service released a private letter ruling on how to calculate income related to when a shareholder cancels a portion of a company’s debt. The situation, one that relates to creditor-shareholders, often arises w...

By Robert Willens • Aug. 8, 2011

The High-Stakes World of a Biotech CFO

Comparing his situation with that of his peers, Paul Clancy grants that he’s sitting pretty. “You know, the biotech business is comprised of thousands of companies that don’t make money, and then a handful of companies that make a tremendous amount,” says Clancy, the finance chief of Biogen Idec....

By David Katz • Aug. 4, 2011

Spreadsheets: Creating a Better Row Index

Reader Matthew S. wins a copy of Slaying Excel Dragons for posting this tip: “When creating a row index it is better to use the formula =row(). Then when a row is inserted, one does not have to recopy the formula A1+1, for example, for the entire list. The formula has to only be added to the inse...

By Bill Jelen • Aug. 3, 2011

PCAOB Penalizes E&Y Auditors for Altering Papers

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed a three-year bar on a former Ernst & Young partner accused of changing and backdating documents the regulator used for evaluating the firm’s work. It’s the longest bar the PCAOB has ordered on a Big Four auditor to date. The case gives...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 3, 2011

A Private-Aviation Checklist

Private aviation could have a bumpy ride ahead. The corporate jet has become a political football in Washington, with President Obama calling for an end to a tax break for jets and Republicans dismissing the proposal. And starting in August, the Federal Aviation Administration will tighten its pr...

By Marielle Segarra • Aug. 2, 2011

Do Acquisition Premiums Matter?

During the second quarter of 2011, the S&P 500 crossed the psychologically significant milestone of having doubled since the low level reached in March 2009.  This strong recovery in the financial markets has provided senior corporate executives with confidence that investors are putting the ...

By Gregory V. Milano • July 29, 2011

U.S. Downgrade Would Not Have Big Ripple Effect, Says Guardian CFO

As the owner of a large bond portfolio and holder of a AA+ credit rating, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America could get hit on both sides of the balance sheet if U.S. sovereign debt is downgraded. But the looming deadline on raising the U.S. debt ceiling is not causing a lot of hand-wr...

By Vincent Ryan • July 29, 2011

XBRL: What’s It Good For?

On July 12, XBRL US, a nonprofit consortium for XBRL (extensible business reporting language) standards, announced a contest with a $20,000 grand prize to be awarded to whoever submits the “most inventive and useful application leveraging XBRL-formatted data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange ...

By David Rosenbaum • July 28, 2011

The Trouble with DSO

Bandied about in earnings calls and the newspapers, days sales outstanding (DSO) is commonly used to describe how quickly a company is getting the cash it is owed into its coffers. But DSO doesn’t cover everything a finance chief might want to know about the credit department. Indeed, most people...

By Alix Stuart • July 28, 2011

Capex, Inventory Spend Squeeze Cash: Study

Prompted by the slightest of upticks in revenue, companies have begun to increase their capital spending and add to their inventories, a new study shows.At the same time, companies’ free cash margins — which measure the free cash flow available for shareholders that can be used for buybacks, divi...

By David Katz • July 27, 2011

How Western Union Smooths Out Risk

Western Union, the 160-year-old money transfer and payments company, operates across 200 countries and territories through 450,000 agents. Its consumer customers are largely migrant workers sending earnings back to their family in their home country. So changes in employment levels worldwide, tig...

By Vincent Ryan • July 26, 2011

How IPO Founders Keep Their Taxes Low

When a partnership goes to the public market for funding, and the offering is successful, the founding partners can enjoy a huge capital gain. But “enjoy” is not exactly the right word for how those founders are likely to feel about the taxes spawned by those gains.By means of a popular going-pub...

By Robert Willens • July 26, 2011

Spreadsheets: Filtering a Pivot Table with a Formula

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips Page.Robert L. wins a copy of Excel Gurus Gone Wild for his question, “How can you change a pivot table ...

By Bill Jelen • July 20, 2011

Now You See (Some of) It

ShoreTel CFO and senior vice president Mike Healy vividly recalls the one time in his four years with the company when it missed its quarterly revenue forecast. “It wasn’t a big miss,” says Healy, “but our stock went from $13 to $6 in one day.”The fact that it was the last month of 2007 didn’t he...

By David Rosenbaum • July 15, 2011

“You Take Risks and You Own Them.”

For the right kind of finance executive, the lure of a CFO post at a private-equity portfolio company is easy to see: a potential equity stake that could mushroom in value upon a successful exit, an opportunity to make a big impact, and, for some, the chance to escape the glaring spotlight at a p...

By David McCann • July 15, 2011

Easing the Squeeze: The 2011 Working Capital Scorecard

An abridged version of the 2011 CFO/REL Working Capital Scorecard can be found here.For months after the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, the need for cash trumped all else. With credit still scarce, companies continued to squeeze cash out of their supply chains. Finance chiefs led ...

By David Katz • July 15, 2011

Six Ways to Stretch Your Payment Terms

Faced with cash calls from their banks and creditors in the wake of the financial meltdown, many companies sought to squeeze funds out of their working capital. They did so by going after customers who owed them money, cutting down on the costs associated with inventory, and increasing their days...

By David Katz • July 14, 2011

Six Ways to Stretch Your Payment Terms

Faced with cash calls from their banks and creditors in the wake of the financial meltdown, many companies sought to squeeze funds out of their working capital. They did so by going after customers who owed them money, cutting down on the costs associated with inventory, and increasing their days...

By David Katz • July 14, 2011

Spreadsheets: Cross Referencing Between Worksheets

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips Page.Reader Walter J. wins a copy of the new third edition of Learn Excel 2007-2010 from MrExcel for his...

By Bill Jelen • July 14, 2011

Small Companies Criticize Switch to IFRS

A group of CFOs and finance executives from small public companies had little positive to say last week about a possible switch to international financial reporting standards. Shifting to IFRS would be painful and costly, the executives said during a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable....

By Marielle Segarra • July 13, 2011