SF Magazine: Managing Digital Transformation

“Develop a data-driven decision culture: CFOs and senior finance professionals can promote a data-driven decision culture by challenging finance employees as well as the business on the basis of data and insights rather than opinions. Finance is in an excellent position to fulfill this role, as it has a complete overview of the organization.”

Read More at SF Magazine >

CFO Dive: 5 CFO trends to watch in 2021

Real-time data makes the list, again, in trends for CFOs to pay attention to this year. Here are all five trends from Jim Tyson:

1. Increased pressure to adopt ESG metrics

2. The countdown to LIBOR’s end will grow louder

3. Targeted, AI-assisted zero-based budgeting will outlast the pandemic

4. CFOs will try to expand use of real-time data

5. CFOs will try to find the best post-pandemic balance of remote and in-office work

Read More at CFO Dive >

Forbes: From Bookkeeper To Business Leader: How Finance Pros Shape Strategy And Culture

“The finance profession has evolved from a singular focus on financial reporting to a strategic role in helping advance core business goals and reacting to seismic challenges. The Covid-19 crisis has illustrated and arguably accelerated this trend, especially as it concerns risk mitigation, supply chain management and radically re-orienting corporate strategy amidst one of the biggest global crises of our time.”

Read More at Forbes >

Forbes: Speeding Towards Transformation: 2021 Trends In Finance And Accounting

Jeff Thomson’s “top 6 mega-trend predictions for 2021 in finance and accounting”:

1. Automation will no longer be debated
2. Remote working will become the norm for finance teams
3. Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting will become more important
4. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) becomes a finance accountability
5. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) will be a competitive differentiator, in addition to being the right thing to do from a core values perspective
6. Upskilling is the call-to-action

Read More at Forbes >

CFO Magazine: Metric of the Month: Time Allocation in Finance

“The consequences of not spending time wisely underscore the importance of working toward an appropriate balance that helps drive the business forward. It’s incumbent on companies — finance teams in particular — to have an honest look in the mirror and recognize their own inefficiencies in these areas. Working to address them, as many companies have done with transaction processing, leaves more time for investment in more value-added activities.”

Read More at CFO Magazine >

SF Magazine: Maximizing FP&A Assets

“While FP&A has been within the management accountant’s tool kit for decades, three recent trends have elevated the importance of FP&A skills: increased access to data, the availability of new business intelligence (BI) technologies, and the greater role of finance as a strategic partner.”

Read More at SF Magazine >

CFO Magazine: Technical Accounting: The CFO’s Secret Weapon

“Sophisticated CFOs not only understand the value of technical accountants to accurately account for decisions made, they partner with them to provide proactive guidance for the decisions yet to be made. Here, accounting can drive desired financial outcomes, while navigating away from the unanticipated, but all too common, accounting accidents.”

Read More at CFO Magazine >

Industry Week: What Makes a High-Performance Organization?

“The process for developing a high-performance organization requires measurement. If you value something, then it should be measured. If you think that measurement is unnecessary, then you do not place much value on the activity.”

Read More at Industry Week >

FP&A Trends: 3 Ways to Organise FP&A Teams: The Pros and Cons

In general, there are three typical ways FP&A teams are organized – by function, by line of business, or by geography. What’s the best option for your team?

Read more at FP&A Trends >