The Price Is (More) Right

After several years of cutting costs to the bone, many companies are reacting to today’s soaring energy and commodity prices with trepidation: they would like to raise prices to maintain margins, but aren’t sure when — or if — they can successfully pass along increased costs to customers.That may...

By Russ Banham • June 1, 2011

Spreadsheets: Split Columns at Each Space

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.Grace B. wins a copy of Learn Excel 97-2007 from CFO and MrExcel for her question: “Our accounting ...

By Bill Jelen • June 1, 2011

Explore the Trendline➔

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

Offshore Outsourcing: For Smaller Companies, Too

When music-subscription service Rhapsody spun out of former joint-venture parents RealNetworks and MTV Networks early last year, vice president of finance Michael McGinn faced a major challenge: building a finance team from scratch to support a business that was well under way. “Things needed to ...

By Alix Stuart • May 25, 2011

Spreadsheets: Set Up a Subtotal-Filter Combo in a Flash

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 Alan B. wins an autographed copy of Learn Excel 97-2007 from CFO.com and MrExcel for his sug...

By Bill Jelen • May 25, 2011

Offshore Outsourcing: For Smaller Companies, Too

When music-subscription service Rhapsody spun out of former joint-venture parents RealNetworks and MTV Networks early last year, vice president of finance Michael McGinn faced a major challenge: building a finance team from scratch to support a business that was well under way. “Things needed to ...

By Alix Stuart • May 25, 2011

Getting Off the Paper Trail

Since the dawning of digitization, the paperless office has been a holy grail, glimpsed from afar. Wouldn’t it be nice to rid ourselves of all that clutter while saving money and trees? One sometimes imagines the grail is within reach. For example, according to the American Forest & Paper Ass...

By David Rosenbaum • May 17, 2011

Spreadsheets: More than One Way to Skin a VLOOKUP

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.In last week’s column, Greg asked about a multiconditional wizard that would generate something sim...

By Bill Jelen • May 11, 2011

Spreadsheets: Where’s the Formula Writer?

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 Greg T. wins a copy of Guerilla Data Analysis Using Microsoft Excel for his question: “I am ...

By Bill Jelen • May 4, 2011

A Talent for Talent

Mario Ellis is ready for a change. As director of compensation and HR systems for the University of Chicago Medical Center, which employs 6,300 people, Ellis wants more flexibility than his ERP-based goal-setting and performance-evaluation system currently provides. He envisions replacing it with...

By Kim Girard • May 1, 2011

Spreadsheets: Rank Items in a Pivot Table

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.Gothard F. wins an autographed copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching for his question: “I would like t...

By Bill Jelen • April 7, 2011

Can Cloud Computing Clear the Air?

Science-fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For many years that dictum had a corporate manifestation, with the IT function a seeming source of magic, officiated by a priest-class of techno-wizards who uttered ...

By David Rosenbaum • April 1, 2011

Can Cloud Computing Clear the Air?

Science-fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For many years that dictum had a corporate manifestation, with the IT function a seeming source of magic, officiated by a priest-class of techno-wizards who uttered ...

By David Rosenbaum • April 1, 2011

A New Way to Empower Mobile Workers

The most sophisticated piece of software at many biotech firms is an application that helps scientists create new drugs and treatments. Since this kind of “drug discovery” program models complex chemical structures with 3-D graphics, it can take more than a year to develop internally, or, if purc...

By Evan I. Schwartz • April 1, 2011

Spreadsheets: Lining Up Column Widths

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.Contributing editor Bill Jelen is still on spring break down in sunny Florida, but he once again ha...

By Bill Jelen • March 30, 2011

Spreadsheets: Chart Axis Macro – The Movie

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.Contributing editor Bill Jelen has taken his talents to South Beach for some rest and relaxation, b...

By Bill Jelen • March 24, 2011

Spreadsheets: Open to Today’s Date

Reader David H. wins a copy of Office VBA Macros You Can Use Today for submitting this question: “I have a column which has each day of the month in it (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). This is what I’d like Excel to do: when I open the spreadsheet, I want to go to the cell that has today’s day of the mo...

By Bill Jelen • March 16, 2011

Spreadsheets: Copy Income from 100 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.Shrikant S. wins an e-book of Learn Excel 97-2007 From MrExcel from CFO and MrExcel for his questio...

By Bill Jelen • March 2, 2011

Outsourcing Matures, Slowly

In 2007, when European investment firm Skandia began a multiyear push to move away from its paper-based processes and tap the full powers of the Internet, it encountered a problem: the massive project had huge implications for the company’s overall IT infrastructure, including the need to develop...

By Janet Kersnar • March 1, 2011

Sounds Great! (But What Is It?)

CFOs have high hopes for cloud computing, even though they don’t appear to know much about it.Such are the findings from two recent surveys conducted by CFO. Asked about their current use of cloud-computing services, a majority of senior finance executives either have no plans to pursue it in the...

By Kim Girard • March 1, 2011

Sounds Great! (But What Is It?)

CFOs have high hopes for cloud computing, even though they don’t appear to know much about it.Such are the findings from two recent surveys conducted by CFO. Asked about their current use of cloud-computing services, a majority of senior finance executives either have no plans to pursue it in the...

By Kim Girard • March 1, 2011

Outsourcing Matures, Slowly

In 2007, when European investment firm Skandia began a multiyear push to move away from its paper-based processes and tap the full powers of the Internet, it encountered a problem: the massive project had huge implications for the company’s overall IT infrastructure, including the need to develop...

By Janet Kersnar • March 1, 2011

What KPMG’s Latest Purchase Means

KPMG’s purchase of EquaTerra, an outsourcing advisory firm, will shrink a cottage industry created over the past decade and expand its ability to help corporate customers close outsourcing deals, according to an analyst who covers the sector.The Big Four accounting firm announced its intention to...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 25, 2011

Spreadsheets: Color By Numbers

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.Edward K. wins an autographed copy of Learn Excel 97-2007 From MrExcel for his question: “I am tryi...

By Bill Jelen • Feb. 24, 2011

Spreadsheets: Import External Data in 10 Clicks

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.Brad K. wins an autographed copy of Guerilla Data Analysis Using Microsoft Excel from CFO and MrExc...

By Bill Jelen • Feb. 16, 2011

Spreadsheets: Arranging Pivot Charts

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.Joe Z. wins an autographed copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching for his question: “I have source data...

By Bill Jelen • Feb. 9, 2011