Opinion
Under the Wave of Automation, the CFO's Narrative Ability Matters More Than Ever
As AI takes over the tedious tasks of finance teams, the core competitiveness of financial leaders is no longer the speed of processing data, but the ability to give meaning to it. Drawing on his own experience, the author outlines five steps to turn financial reports into stories and emphasizes the importance of a single source of data for building credible narratives.
Soft Power in Finance: Why Influence Matters More Than Accuracy
Oreoluwa Onabowale, FP&A lead at GE Vernova, shares: accurate forecasts may not necessarily change decisions, but influence built through translation, timing, and diplomacy can truly drive business outcomes.
R&D Tax Credit Reform: Key Points CFOs Must Master
The recently passed U.S. "One Big Beautiful Bill" makes significant adjustments to the tax treatment of R&D expenditures, restoring immediate expensing for domestic R&D costs, offering two options for unamortized balances, and providing retroactive relief for eligible small businesses. This article outlines the strategic points CFOs need to focus on, including cash flow optimization, tax rate management, coordination with the R&D tax credit, and investor relations impact.
Liquidity Under Pressure: How CFOs Navigate Economic Uncertainty
Amid ongoing economic uncertainty, APQC research finds that 43% of organizations view inflation as the primary factor affecting liquidity, and 54% of respondents consider cash flow forecast accuracy the biggest challenge. CFOs are responding to pressure by improving forecasting processes, applying automation and AI technologies, and adjusting capital and financing strategies, while nearly half of organizations believe current strategies are limited in effectiveness and require stronger contingency planning.
Clarifying Value-Added Tax and Tariffs: Conceptual Distinctions and Practical Implications
As global trade and tax policies become increasingly intertwined, VAT and tariffs are often confused in public discourse. Written by George L. Salis, Chief Economist and Senior Director of Tax Policy at Vertex, this article systematically explains the multi-stage collection mechanism of VAT, the border adjustment function of tariffs, and the differences between the two in terms of trade neutrality and economic impact. The article notes that VAT is adopted by over 175 countries worldwide and is trade-neutral, whereas tariffs can distort trade and raise indirect taxes. As one of the few developed economies without a nationwide consumption tax, the United States requires its enterprises to navigate complex international tax systems with precision.
Tariff-Triggered State Tax Bills: The Hidden Costs CFOs Never Saw Coming
Trump's tariff policies not only increase federal import costs but may also trigger state-level sales tax, income tax, and property tax, creating a 'tax-on-tax' effect. The tax dispute between Apple and Florida highlights this risk. CFOs need to pay attention to importer identity, contract terms, and related risks to avoid hidden tax burdens.
Key Strategies for B2B Companies Expanding Beyond the US: From Due Diligence to Implementation
Expanding B2B companies into markets beyond the US is full of opportunities and challenges. Anteriad CFO Jim Ogle, drawing on multiple international expansion experiences, proposes three key strategies: doing thorough homework first, choosing partners and investments that reduce complexity, and committing firmly to cross-cultural communication, to help companies achieve smooth implementation and growth.
New tax policy opens the best window for AI investment
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act restores 100% bonus depreciation and expands Section 179 deduction limits, aligning tax incentives for AI-related hardware, R&D, and internal system upgrades with the technology roadmap for the first time.
Seven Key Legal Points for Financial Executives on AI Implementation Risk Control
Artificial intelligence is profoundly reshaping how enterprises operate, analyze data, and make decisions. For financial executives tasked with both driving innovation and managing risk, AI offers substantial returns on investment while also harboring hidden yet equally significant legal and regulatory risks. This article distills seven key legal considerations to help financial leaders understand and mitigate potential risks in AI projects, covering data privacy, bias and fairness, regulatory uncertainty, intellectual property, contractual risk allocation, transparency and governance, and cybersecurity.
Five Key Steps to Fix a Fragmented Reporting System
Although financial leaders invest in business intelligence tools, they often fall back on manual reconciliation due to a lack of alignment in data sources, metric definitions, and reporting structures. Written by Swetha Pandiri, FP&A Business Systems Manager at Kaiser Aluminum, this article proposes a five-step approach: diagnosing sources of fragmentation, establishing governance and accountability, investing in a centralized data foundation, promoting a culture of reuse and data literacy, and starting small to build momentum, ultimately forming a replicable model for reporting transformation.