CFO Dive: Only 5% of CFOs Have 'Future-Ready' Operations: Survey

“For 27% of finance leaders, the necessary data is trapped across systems or organized manually in spreadsheets, which prevents them from drawing insights and value.”

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CFO Dive: Only 20% of CFOs can forecast revenue, earnings beyond a year: survey

“CFOs will push up IT spending worldwide by 6.2% this year to a record $3.92 trillion, according to Gartner, as they accelerate their pre-pandemic plans for digital transformation by at least five years.

Given the disruption from the coronavirus, “this is the perfect time to actually start the transformation,” Ajmera told CFO Dive. “Everyone in the organization — board members, etcetera — understands the pain and understands the need.””

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SF Magazine: Financial Forecasting Amid COVID-19

“Companies are missing opportunities to grow revenue and improve margins by approaching the data they collect too narrowly.”

Here are “three steps to move toward dynamic planning”:

1. Democratize your data
2. Bring financial data into operations
3. Bring financial data into strategy

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CFO Dive: CFOs Facing an Unprecedented Range of Risks Find an Edge in Analytics

There are better ways to plan your business finance strategy than on a spreadsheet with old data!

““I’m afraid a lot of firms today do their forecasting on the back of an envelope,” Keating said. “The use of predictive analytics is a very important way to compete.””

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CFO Journal: Financial Reporting Trends: Forecasting, Communication, Internal Controls

“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.”

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SF Magazine: Managing International Operations in Uncertain Times

“It’s also evident that foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates, and inflation inherently carry an element of uncertainty and volatility, which represents risks that financial professionals must manage in order to better forecast, monitor, and control the performance of their organization’s international business operations.”

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CFO Journal: Medtronic CFO: The Role of Finance in Crisis Response

Finance plays a crucial role. Along with the CEO and our business unit leaders, our global finance organization is a strategic partner in developing and ensuring strong execution against our longer-term strategy. Strategy needs to be tied closely to investments, financial planning, and forecasting, so our finance teams have a natural connection to strategic planning and execution.

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Making Better Decisions is Both Art and Science

“External factors will always have an impact, and this includes luck, as good and bad fortune can clearly be influential in determining success or failure. But a sound internal approach to decision-making will insulate the business from this, while also mitigating the stress attached to making decisions.”

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AFPs Eight Steps to Rolling Forecasts

With more organizations shifting from traditional budgeting to rolling forecasts, The Association for Financial Professionals has shared their list of 8 steps to help finance teams avoid missteps at every stage from goal setting to tracking performance.

Read the 8 Steps for Creating a Rolling Forecast >