Too Many ERP Systems Are a Bad Thing: Metric of the Month

Finance shared service centers (SSCs) provide a centralized team that carries out high-volume, repeatable finance processes on behalf of business units or areas across an enterprise. Organizations commonly choose this model to achieve process standardization and improvement, reduce errors, and br...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Nov. 2, 2022

90% of SaaS Buyers Are Overpaying — Are You?

The process of buying, selling, and implementing software-as-a-service products is forcing companies to allocate excessive amounts of capital toward those types of services, according to new data. The research, from SaaS purchasing platform Vertice, found many companies are overpaying for product...

By Adam Zaki • Nov. 2, 2022

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The CFO Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence’s impact on the office of the CFO continues to evolve, and finance chiefs must be aware of the opportunities it will create for growth. 

By CFO.com staff

38% of Accountants With Harmonious Use of Technology Have Low Burnout

As employee burnout continues to be prioritized by companies who are looking to keep their employees satisfied and engaged, recent survey data from FloQast shows a direct relationship between the level of burnout for accountants and their relationship with work-related technology. In July, the co...

By Adam Zaki • Oct. 26, 2022

5 Ways CFOs Can Maximize Blockchain Technology

As the next generation of the world wide web comes to fruition, new economic and technological infrastructures are on the horizon. With this new generation, known as Web3, concepts including decentralization, digital currencies, token-based economics, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are making the...

By Adam Zaki • Oct. 26, 2022

35% of CFOs Say Cybersecurity is Among Their Highest Concerns: Weekly Stat

Over 35% of CFOs say cybersecurity is among their highest concerns, and more than half (60%) are deeply involved in their company’s cyber risk responses and strategies, according to a recent survey published by Jefferson Wells. Despite more than a third (34%) of CFOs admitting they don’t have an ...

By Adam Zaki • Oct. 19, 2022

A CFO’s Guide to Business Transformation

Business and digital transformation are not only a buzzword but are also fast becoming a core function at many companies. Transformations, versus discrete projects, are large-scale programs that change the way a company operates across multiple parts of its business and usually encompass optimiza...

By Marilyn Jentzen • Sept. 26, 2022

CFOs Should No Longer View Cybersecurity as Insurance

As external economic factors continue to drive CFOs’ thought processes and allocation decisions, reliance on data to both innovate and cut costs is leaving many organizations much more vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches than they are currently aware.In a recent survey by Kroll analyzing the rel...

By Adam Zaki • Sept. 20, 2022

Empowering the CFO to Champion Cyber Risk Management

We are collectively experiencing the side effects of a disruptive geopolitical conflict that is influencing the ongoing inflation cycle. World economies will continue to be impacted by the consequences, but global organizations have ample opportunities to redirect and distribute their finite reso...

By Saket Modi • Sept. 12, 2022

Top Performers Automate 40% of Primary Controls: Metric of the Month

If you’re not already automating your internal controls, you should be. The cost of controls technology has come way down while its capabilities have increased. Advanced controls automation is now accessible even to smaller organizations, and the return on investment is high. Automation not only ...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Sept. 7, 2022

Workplace Monitoring: 3 Steps to Balance Employee Productivity and Privacy

Long before the pandemic accelerated remote work, tools and technologies emerged to collect corporate “data exhaust.” This is the trail of often sensitive corporate and employee data that are artifacts of the common use of digital communication and productivity tools. According to an Insider Thre...

By Jay Bartot • Aug. 18, 2022

Don’t Let Failed Digital Transformations Prevent Future Attempts

Companies that adopt digital-first systems across operations, sales, marketing, and more can realize significant cost savings — cutting down on labor needs, leveraging data and business intelligence tools, and even reducing time to market. But, the fact is 70% of complex, large-scale digital tran...

By Alex Nekritz • Aug. 16, 2022

CFOs Must Face Tech Stack Inflation by Balancing Priorities

It’s been a good run. Business consumers of software have enjoyed stable or even falling prices amid an explosion in productivity and choice. Plentiful capital, intense competition, and a strong pace of innovation over two decades deterred tech providers from raising their prices as they focused ...

By Sean McBride • Aug. 11, 2022

Top Organizations Record Accounts Payable Cycle Time in 2.8 Days: Metric of the Month

An optimized accounts payable (AP) process not only helps organizations take advantage of early pay discounts and favorable payment terms but is vital for cash flow management more broadly. But AP teams do not work in a vacuum — process excellence is partly a product of collaboration with other a...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Aug. 3, 2022

How CFOs and CISOs Can Build Strong Partnerships

A successful relationship between the chief financial officer and chief information security officer (CISO) is critical to helping an organization build a strong cyber defense strategy. When the two work as partners, they are in a unique position to combat cyber risk.One of the best ways to enhan...

By Bob Violino • Aug. 1, 2022

Finance Transformation: Unleashing the Potential of Data

The desire to squeeze more value out of the finance department is driving many companies to embark on finance transformation projects. Put simply, these projects involve implementing measures to free up the finance team from much of its routine, lower-value work. That's mostly accomplished by aut...

By Will Newcomer • July 19, 2022

5 Cybersecurity Questions CFOs Should Ask CISOs

Even in a shrinking economy, organizations are likely to maintain their level of cybersecurity spend. But that doesn't mean in the current economic climate of burgeoning costs and a possible recession they won't take a magnifying glass to how they are spending the money budgeted to defend systems...

By Bob Violino • July 18, 2022

For CFOs, Digital Transformation Requires Letting Go

As a finance executive, do you always trust the forecast from a knowledgeable FP&A staffer over one given by a sophisticated, machine-learning-enabled forecasting tool? Are you satisfied when a number is close enough for business unit decision-making purposes, such as assessing a market trend...

By Vincent Ryan • June 8, 2022

Jennifer Louis: ‘Build a Culture of Cybersecurity’ in Finance Teams

Promoting knowledge of cyber risks and security across organizations is an enterprise-wide challenge for company leadership. CFOs and senior finance leaders are being called upon to help defend against attacks, especially since many of these attacks target financial information, according to Jenn...

By Bob Violino • June 7, 2022

The Excel Equation: When Is It Time to Move Away?

Why Does Excel Survive in Finance Departments? Microsoft's spreadsheet still dominates corporate finance, for plenty of good reasons.Growing Pains: Stuck on Excel As a company scales, the spreadsheet software can impede finance’s pursuit of growth and efficiency.3 Hurdles to Moving on From Excel ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • May 27, 2022

3 Hurdles to Moving on From Excel

Staffers often resist pivoting away from the popular spreadsheet platform.

By Bob Violino • May 25, 2022

Finance Teams Can Apply Algorithms to Aid Employee Retention

Working in tandem with fellow executives, CFOs have every reason to find the most effective employee retention measures. Advances in data analytics can provide large employers with more sophisticated insights into which workers may be poised to quit. And here’s the good news: many companies alrea...

By Tim Glowa and Eric Gonzaga • May 19, 2022

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Need Addressing

Cybersecurity breaches still make headline news almost daily, though companies spend more money than ever on people and defensive technologies. This existential crisis cannot be eliminated, but it can be much better managed.Bad actors come in many forms, from well-funded nation-states to undertra...

By Craig Callé • May 17, 2022

Growing Pains: Stuck on Excel

Finance staffers might think every business decision requires an Excel spreadsheet, just as to a person with a hammer, everything is a nail. The so-called “law of the instrument” refers to using one familiar tool for all purposes, even when it’s not the best solution.  For CFOs, it’s a reminder. ...

By Vincent Ryan • May 12, 2022

Why does Excel survive in finance departments?

Microsoft’s spreadsheet still dominates corporate finance, for plenty of good reasons.

By Bob Violino • April 12, 2022

How ERP Projects Vary in Approach

Implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a major undertaking that produces great results for some companies, so-so outcomes for others, and disasters worthy of business school study for an unfortunate few.Despite ERPs being around for a while, companies still see them as essen...

By Vincent Ryan • March 25, 2022