The Ledger

Keep Quarterly Reporting

“The long-term benefits of semi-annual reporting are doubtful, while its costs are significant.”

President Trump recently tweeted, “stop quarterly reporting and go to a six-month system.” This tweet reflects the belief of many corporate executives and commentators that quarterly reporting pushes public companies away from attractive long-term investments. However, shifting company reports to every six months does not meet anyone’s definition of the long-term. An extra three months to announce financial results would not induce American executives to take off the shelf the hypothetical stockpile of long-term, job-creating projects — now allegedly stymied by quarterly reporting.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

A Balance of Strategy and Agility is Necessary for Successful Planning

In the face of relentless technological change, disruptive forces in industry after industry, and so on, strategic planning has fallen out of favor. Planning and agility are both imperative for success, and it is important for business leaders to find the sweet spot between the two. The reality is that plans have to be made about the use of a company’s resources all of the time. Some are short-term, others stretch into an imagined future. Agile planning is the future of planning, and this new approach will require two fundamental elements.

Read More at The Harvard Business Review >

Boosting Business Performance with Forward-Looking Insights

While for many years companies’ finance departments have focused on reporting and analyzing past business performance, finance is increasingly becoming a forward-looking business function that needs to provide insights on choices companies face in a volatile market. Choices may be around mergers & acquisitions, identifying the impact of business model changes, or working with an ecosystem in defining new offerings.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

New Technologies Driving Value In FP&A

“In managing the value chain and profitability across jurisdictions, inter-company design and execution are immensely critical. Finance teams must work together to plan and execute detailed inter-company transfer pricing involving both tangible goods prices as well as non-tangible payments. They must be able to proactively plan and monitor any changes to the inter-company transactions and their impact on the value chain and profitability – whether due to business conditions or new regulations. The latest planning and analysis applications are ideally suited as modeling and reporting platforms for finance professionals to automate, analyze, and document inter-company transactions.”

Read More at The Digitalist at SAP >