The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
CFO Journal: Financial Reporting Trends: Forecasting, Communication, Internal Controls
January 11, 2021
“While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing current forecasting challenges, the following strategies have proven to be effective for a number of companies:
- Evaluating recovery and financial forecasts from an outside-in perspective first—specifically, focusing on the factors, issues, and conditions outside of a company’s control that are known and knowable
- Automating components of forecasting to help remove bias and facilitate more real-time and frequent reforecasting as key drivers and trends change, while also analyzing data at a more detailed level
- Considering facts that both support and contradict assumptions regarding the company’s timing and pattern of recovery, sustainability, and growth.”
CFO Dive: 5 CFO trends to watch in 2021
January 10, 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
Forbes: From Bookkeeper To Business Leader: How Finance Pros Shape Strategy And Culture
January 9, 2021
“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.”
CFO Magazine: A New Year’s Resolution: The CFO Should Own Digital Transformation
January 8, 2021
Sanjay Purohit gives 5 reasons why the CFO’s role in digital transformation (DX) is paramount:
1. Successful DX is data-fueled.
2. DX increases risk.
3. Digitalization demands centralization.
4. Transformation has a timeline.
5. The road to process transformation runs through finance.
