#cfo-challenges

#cfo-challenges

Credit cards can be very dangerous from a financial well-being perspective, if used irresponsibly. The temptation to use one to fund a big holiday or a new sofa that you can't afford can be seriously tempting.

Most employer 401(k) plans allow mid-year changes to the deferral election percentage. Before the bonus pay period, raise the deferral rate high enough to funnel as much of the bonus as possible into the 401(k), up to the annual limit.

What we want to do is make sure that CIOs are fully empowered to be there at the beginning of conversations, that they are part of the formulation of budget and policy from liftoff.

The sharp rise in oil prices and renewed inflation concerns created significant pressure on both stocks and bonds, impacting investor sentiment and market dynamics.

We power over 160,000 restaurants. So you can imagine the data that sits in our platform. This data creates value for operators, allowing them to benchmark prices and identify opportunities for improvement.

I consistently hear the same thing from small business owners: they're stretched too thin-acting as CEO, CFO, and COO all at once. Many are buried in spreadsheets and day‑to‑day decisions, with little time to step back and see what's really driving the business.

"Tariffs are written in DC, and they're felt in the COO's inbox," Jason Schloetzer, a professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, told Business Insider. "It's kind of an impossible job."

Rather than stolen data making headlines, it was business stoppage that triggered attention. Moving into 2026, the board's focus should be on ensuring business continuity and building resilience in the face of emerging risks generated by AI usage and attack vectors, quantum computing and geopolitics.

Entrepreneurs start homebuilding or land development companies, and right off the bat, it's all about finding and putting together deals and securing capital. After all, as a client once said, 'You know, all the company management is hypothetical if we don't have deals.' From that stems find 'em and finance 'em.

Warning to executives: Don't get too comfortable in your corner office. Nearly one in nine CEOs was replaced last year, the highest rate since the financial crisis, and CFO turnover hit a seven-year high, according to new data from Russell Reynolds Associates. The replacements are younger and greener. More than 80% of the 168 incoming CEOs were first-timers with no prior experience running public companies.

The emergence of so-called "agentic AI," systems that can perform tasks independently and support decisions, plays a central role in this. Two-thirds of respondents believe that there is currently more hype surrounding agentic AI than previous technological developments. At the same time, three-quarters are still discovering how this technology can be used effectively. According to Basware CEO Jason Kurtz, the time for experimentation is over; executives expect concrete results.

Good morning. During earnings calls this week, the CFOs of big tech companies, Meta and Microsoft, delivered a similar message: the AI race requires unprecedented capital spending, but that spending is disciplined, demand-driven, and ultimately margin-accretive rather than reckless. The companies urged investors to look past headline numbers and focus instead on utilization, long-term economics, and visible revenue traction.

As audit committees confront a rapidly expanding risk landscape, their role in corporate governance is being reshaped. Boards have often turned to current and former CFOs as independent directors, particularly for audit committees, because of their ability to translate complex operational and financial realities into effective oversight.For example, this month, J. Michael Hansen, former EVP and CFO of Cintas Corporation, was appointed to the audit committee at Paychex.