Metric of the Month: How Finance People Spend Their Time

It’s 9 a.m. Do you know where your finance people are? Or more importantly, do you know how they are spending their time?In a recent assessment of 832 companies’ finance organizations using data from APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking database, APQC, the Houston-based research firm I work for, fo...

By Mary C. Driscoll • Dec. 4, 2015

Grant Thornton Put Auditor’s Career Above Investor Interests

By allowing a poorly rated partner to continue auditing a public company without sufficient supervision and oversight, “Grant Thornton prioritized the career of its partner and the retention of that partner’s clients over the interest of investors, with serious negative consequences,” Andrew J. C...

By David Katz • Dec. 3, 2015

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

Consumer Industries See Automation and Digitalization as Key to Success

The future looks bright for a career in finance, according to a recent CFO Research survey of 202 finance professionals in the consumer industries around the world, but the effective use of technology will enable much of that success. The survey, sponsored by SAP, sought to gain a better understa...

By Mary Beth Findlay • Dec. 3, 2015

The Value of Collaboration [Infographic]

By Mary Beth Findlay • Dec. 3, 2015

Target to Pay $39M to Settle Data-Breach Claims

Target has reached another settlement of claims related to a massive data breach, agreeing to pay $39.4 million to MasterCard and other U.S. financial institutions.The breach exposed 40 million credit and debit cards to fraud during the 2013 holiday season. Target was sued by banks and card issue...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 2, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance from CFO The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday it had charged a Vermont man and two of his companies with conducting a Ponzi scheme involving the system for validating digital currency transactions. The events “had many of the hallmarks of a Ponz...

By Kerry Maruna • Dec. 2, 2015

Standard Bank to Pay $32M in Bribery Case

ICBC Standard Bank Plc has agreed to pay nearly $37 million to settle U.S. and U.K. charges relating to a bribery scandal over a $600-million Tanzania government-bond deal.Under a first-of-its-kind deferred prosecution agreement with the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the bank admitted it fai...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 1, 2015

T&E Expense Management Made Easy

Travel and entertainment (T&E) expense is often considered to be the second- or third-greatest controllable expense for a company, after wages and sales-and-marketing expense. Expense managers who can juggle the right internal and external processes, software, and potential for employee error...

By Kerry Maruna • Dec. 1, 2015

CEOs Fear the Economy Will Worsen: Business Roundtable

Chief executives across the country are increasingly worried that the economy will worsen, according to the Business Roundtable’s fourth-quarter 2015 CEO Economic Outlook Survey, released Tuesday.The Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Index — a composite of CEO projections for sales and pla...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Dec. 1, 2015

Consumer Not Coming to the Rescue: NACM

Both the manufacturing and service sectors experienced a decline in November, according to the National Association of Credit Management’s Credit Managers’ Index. The combined CMI index, which measures metrics like dollar collections, credit applications, and amount of credit extended, dropped mo...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Dec. 1, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

Here’s What’s Going on in Finance from CFO Cyber Monday shopping hit higher numbers this year than ever before ($3B). With online deals beginning as far back as Thanksgiving day, will Cyber Monday soon be known as Cyber Week? What are people spending all that money on anyways? Find out here.A for...

By Kerry Maruna • Dec. 1, 2015

Tesco Settles Investor Class Action for $12M

Tesco has agreed to pay $12 million to settle one of two U.S. shareholder class action lawsuits alleging the U.K. grocery giant inflated its stock price by overstating profits.The settlement agreement is with holders of Tesco’s American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) equivalent to about 2% of its sha...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 30, 2015

IMF Adds Chinese Yuan to Reserve Currencies

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund on Monday added China’s yuan to the basket of official world reserve currencies.Effective Oct. 1, 2016, the yuan — the basic unit of the renminbi — will join the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound in the elite grou...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Nov. 30, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today Moody’s Investors Service places cyber attacks in  the same category as natural disasters, claiming their impact depends on the severity of the event. PwC reported an increase of cyber attacks, equaling 40 million in 2014 up from just 5 million in 2009.Read more.F...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 30, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today Black Friday, Cyber Monday, shopping at retailers and online, marketing ads pushing holiday specials and decorations lighting up neighborhoods and offices. ‘Tis the season and CFO has a quiz just for you shopaholics out there. Think you know a lot about how much p...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 25, 2015

Tax Compliance and Reform: What Can You Expect in 2016?

As statutory accounting and tax reporting become increasingly complex, finance chiefs are shifting their focus to the automation of time-consuming tasks within the tax compliance process. They need the most current and accurate information regarding corporate tax reform as well as what to expect ...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 23, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today The European Central Bank (ECB) may need to take additional stimulus steps as inflation hit only 0.1% in October, far lower than the bank’s 2% expectation. The ECB has options, which the bank will discuss come December. They include improving their quantitative ea...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 23, 2015

Vanguard Reaches Tax Settlement With Texas

Vanguard Group has agreed to pay back taxes to Texas authorities, the first known payout since a former employee alleged the mutual fund company undercharged its own funds for advisory services.The payment will be at least $2.5 million, Bloomberg reported, citing documents that showed the Texas c...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 23, 2015

Towers Watson, Willis Sweeten Merger Terms

Towers Watson and suitor Willis Group Holdings are seeking to give new life to their proposed $18 billion merger by sweetening the terms of the deal by roughly 4%.A day after Towers Watson shareholders rejected the original deal, the financial consulting firm said Thursday it would increase a spe...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 20, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today $56 trillion in ten years – according to a report released by The Demand Institute, this is what Chinese consumption will hit by 2025. Is your company looking to compete in the Chinese market over the next decade? Find out what 40 cities in China are the most prom...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 20, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today Coffee company’s CEO and others have been accused of fraud by the SEC. The former employees of Jammin’ Java allegedly schemed their way to $78 million in illicit profits. The elaborate scheme involved offshore intermediaries and phony online newsletters, among oth...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 19, 2015

Gold Mining Company Files Chapter 11

Gold mining company Atna Resources is seeking to restructure its debts and streamline its operations with the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.The Golden, Colo.-based company on Thursday said it had filed for protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado, and its ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Nov. 19, 2015

Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax Must Be Repealed

This is one of five articles offering opinions on what kind of tax reform would be best. See the others, below left.As a former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee who helped develop provisions of the Affordable Care Act, I can say this unequivocally: the law’s so-called “Cadillac Tax” sh...

By Christopher Condeluci • Nov. 18, 2015

Oil & Gas Sees Steep Rise in Goodwill Impairments

The dollar amount of goodwill impairment recorded by U.S. companies rose 18% to $26 billion in 2014, with impairments in the oil and gas industry increasing dramatically, according to a report from Duff & Phelps.The consulting firm said in its 2015 U.S. Goodwill Impairment Study that the numb...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 18, 2015

Finance Roundup for Executives

What’s Going on in Finance Today Christopher Condeluci, former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee claims the Obamacare’s “Cadillac Tax” will undermine employer-based health insurance and result in a likely drop of employee benefits. The tax “should be repealed,” says Condeluci. Get more ...

By Kerry Maruna • Nov. 18, 2015