The Evolution of Budgeting and Forecasting

 The year-end budgeting and planning crunch is in full swing, which has many finance teams questioning whether the annual budgeting ritual is still a valuable exercise. Here are fix articles looking at current trends and tips for how to avoid the mad dash to close the books.Why Continuous Improve...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 8, 2016

Disappointed with FP&A? Ramp Up Tech Spending

It might not come as much of a surprise to learn that the more companies spend on analytics technology, the better the performance of their financial planning and analysis functions.What might be less intuitive is just how extreme the advantage is when using more FP&A-oriented technology.In t...

By David McCann • Oct. 7, 2016

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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

Credit Suisse Fined $90M for Inflating Metric

Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $90 million to settle charges that it misrepresented how much new wealth management business it was attracting by manipulating a key performance metric.The “net new assets” metric tracks the total net inflow of assets under management (AUM) from new and existing cl...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 6, 2016

Key Performance Drivers: KPIs Evolved

Key performance indicators (KPIs) have long been a fundamental tool for a company’s management to measure performance. KPIs focus management’s attention on a finite array of statistics that are indicative of a company’s performance, and are believed to have explanatory power over the company’s de...

By Michael S. Blake • Oct. 3, 2016

Holiday Retail Shopping to Increase 4%

With the holidays around the corner, some U.S. consumers say they will spend more or the same as last year on holiday purchases by year’s end, although still not as much as pre-recession standards, according to a new survey by the consulting firm AlixPartners.The “U.S. Holiday Sales Forecast and ...

By Sean Allocca • Oct. 3, 2016

PepsiCo Beats Q3 Estimates, Raises Guidance

PepsiCo on Thursday reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its full-year guidance for a second straight quarter as the company continued to be one of the packaged food industry’s strongest performers.PepsiCo’s earnings rose 4% to $1.40 per share, defying analysts’ estimate...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 29, 2016

Six Ways to Cut Your Shipping Costs

Transportation costs are one of a company’s major expenses. Depending on the type of industry, truck and parcel shipping payments can represent 5% to 10% of costs. Unfortunately, shipping pricing is extremely complex, with different classifications, numerous discounts, constantly changing fuel su...

By Garry Oswald • Sept. 29, 2016

Voluntary Audit Disclosures Continue to Grow

Large U.S. companies are continuing to increase voluntary audit committee-related disclosures in a number of areas including how they oversee and appoint external auditors and the reasons for changes in fees.In a review of the 2016 proxy statements of Fortune 100 companies, EY’s Center for Board ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 28, 2016

Minding the Non-GAAP Measures

The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a hard look at non-GAAP measures in reaction to the increased use of these measures. As a result, companies and audit committees need to consider reexamining their non-GAAP measures and related controls and procedures for disclosure of such measure...

By Jennifer Burns and Jeff Aughton • Sept. 27, 2016

Clinton Proposes Raising Estate Tax to 65%

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed raising the tax on inherited wealth to 65% for the largest estates, a stark contrast to her GOP opponent Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate the estate tax.Under current law, estates worth $5.45 million or more for an individual are taxed ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 26, 2016

A CFO’s Perspective on the Presidential Election

 Finance executives believe that a President Donald Trump would be more positive for the economy, but many are dissatisfied with the choices of both parties. Here are five articles looking at the presidential race from a finance viewpoint.Finance Execs Favor Trump Over Clinton by Large MarginDona...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 24, 2016

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Sept. 23

Intel has named Robert Swan to the top finance spot, effective Oct. 10. Swan, who succeeds Stacy Smith, most recently was an operating partner at growth equity company General Atlantic. Before that, he headed finance at eBay. Smith, who joined Intel in 1988 and had been CFO since 2007, has a new ...

By Joan Urdang • Sept. 23, 2016

New Store Openings Boost Autozone’s Profit

Autozone increased same-store sales in the fourth quarter and its earnings beat analysts’ estimates, reaping the benefits of opening new stores and boosting inventory.The auto parts retailer on Thursday said sales at domestic stores open at least a year rose 1% while net sales rose 3.3% to $3.4 b...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 22, 2016

General Mills Sales Drop 7% in First Quarter

General Mills on Wednesday reported net sales fell for a fifth straight quarter, with U.S. sales being hurt in particular by its yogurt business, but earnings beat analysts’ estimates.Net sales overall were down 7% to $3.9 billion for the first quarter while U.S. sales dropped 8% to $2.33 billion...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 21, 2016

SEC Wages War on Misuse of Non-GAAP Metrics

Companies haven’t wasted any time in reacting to a series of compliance and disclosure interpretations (C&DI) on the use of non-GAAP financial metrics that the Securities and Exchange Commission issued on May 17.Law firm Debevoise & Plimpton analyzed 100 earnings releases issued since the...

By David McCann • Sept. 21, 2016

EY Fined $9M Over Auditor Intimacy With Clients

In a case of friendship not mixing with auditing, Ernst & Young has agreed to pay $9.3 million to settle charges that two of its former auditors compromised their objectivity by getting “too close” to financial executives at companies they were inspecting.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Comm...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 20, 2016

How Do Trump, Clinton Tax Plans Compare?

While there are clear differences in the candidates’ overall approach to government, nowhere are they bigger than when it comes to their plans for changing the tax law.Tom Wheelwright Let’s start with former Secretary of State Clinton’s current proposals. Clinton suggests a tax on those earning m...

By Tom Wheelwright • Sept. 19, 2016

Setting and Meeting Risk Management Goals

Diverse factors such as climate change, ransomware, data breaches and an evolving global business environment all highlight the need for CFOs to focus on risk. Here are five articles on risk management strategies and their impact on the finance team.Risk Accounting and Economic ProfitIf CFOs were...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 17, 2016

Any Sensible Economic Plan Must Raise Revenue

Long before Bill Clinton won an election by using the slogan “It’s the economy, stupid,” presidential candidates were making economic growth the centerpiece of their campaign promises — and the 2016 campaign is no different. Both major presidential candidates have promised to focus on infrastruct...

By Robert McIntyre • Sept. 16, 2016

ComScore to Restate Three Years of Financials

Media measurement firm Comscore will restate financial results for the past three years after its audit committee uncovered revenue recognition errors related to nonmonetary transactions.The Wall Street Journal first called attention to comScore’s reporting of nonmonetary revenue last August. In ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 16, 2016

Oracle Earnings Miss Despite Cloud Growth

Oracle missed first-quarter earnings estimates as the healthy growth of its cloud business wasn’t enough to offset the continuing decline of its traditional software licensing.The company on Thursday reported non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.55, three cents below the Wall Street consensus. Reven...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2016

Portugal Telecom Fined Over CP Investments

Portugal Telecom has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle U.S. charges that it failed to disclose it had invested more than 1.6 billion euros in commercial paper before it was acquired by  Brazilian telecom group Oi.The paper was issued by Espirito Santo International (ESI) and Rio Forte Investm...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2016

Trump for the Economy, But a Vote for Clinton

I’m voting for Hillary.  No question about it.  I’m a long-time partisan Democrat, and I think the most important issue in this election is income inequality.  I think she gets that.  And I think her programs would actually do something about it.Leonard Bickwit Jr. Donald Trump, on the other hand...

By Leonard Bickwit Jr. • Sept. 15, 2016

Worldwide Server Sales Drop 0.4% in Q2

Global server market revenue fell in the second quarter, with three of the top five vendors experiencing sales drops amid the continuing decline of the high-end segment, according to International Data Corp.The research firm said in its latest Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker that vendor revenu...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2016

Square-Off: Which Candidate Will Be Better for the Economy?

Apparently, there’s widespread dissatisfaction among CFOs about the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the next president of the United States.During an interview about last week’s CFO 2016 Presidential Election Survey, Steve Underhill, the treasurer and controller of R.O. Whites...

By David Katz • Sept. 14, 2016