Articles
There are several best practices CFOs can implement to balance financial stewardship with a focus on profit maximization.
08/30/2024
Recently, experts from the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region were brought together to discuss the pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized treasury functions.
08/28/2024
Three in four organizations are still using checks, according to the 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by Truist.
08/26/2024
Manually tracking promissory notes was time-consuming and burdensome, so it became clear that the The Heritage Group treasury team needed to switch to a new treasury management system (TMS) that could automate the process.
08/23/2024
The finance domain is ripe for data science and automation solutions to improve efficiency, productivity and reliability.
08/20/2024
A large language model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence that can process and produce natural language texts.
08/20/2024
If you truly are doing a transformation, don’t put the effort into a detailed forecasting process and then turn around and have machine learning come back with better answers. Start with AI and try to skip some of that grinding work.
08/20/2024
Constant threats to the economy’s health provide an ongoing incentive for companies to build working capital resilience as protection against potential problems.
08/09/2024
At an AFP Member Meet-Up, Tom Hunt, CTP, Director of Treasury Services and Payments, discussed a wide range of payments fraud questions with a panel of payments experts.
08/08/2024
Effective communication is the foundation on which strong business relationships are built.
07/29/2024
Financial analysis helps the business answer three important questions: What happened? So what does it mean? Now, what do we do?
07/29/2024
An important part of treasury management is maintaining the optimal number of banking relationships for an organization.
07/26/2024
RFP software streamlines the RFP process by allowing organizations to upload all the necessary details for an RFP.
07/25/2024
What we say — and how we say it — has the power to shape our culture, both societally and in the workplace.
07/23/2024
Cash segmentation is the classification of cash according to the likely future needs of the business and is done by using a cash forecast to categorize cash into virtual “buckets,” with each bucket representing a different time horizon and tolerance for risk.
07/11/2024
Even amid the widespread digitization of business operations, many companies still use checks to make B2B (business-to-business) payments. But paying and accepting more than one payment method — especially digital payments — is a better approach.
07/08/2024
Variance analysis is a quantitative method used to assess the difference between planned and actual financial outcomes.
07/03/2024
Has your organization been hit by payments fraud? First, know you are not alone. According to the AFP 2024 Payments Fraud Survey, underwritten by Truist, 80% of organizations were targets of either actual or attempted payments fraud in 2023 — a 15-percentage point increase from the previous year.
07/01/2024
Data is everywhere, and it’s critical to the work of treasury and FP&A. Some of the ways treasury and FP&A professionals are trying to manage data more efficiently include automation, generative AI and machine learning.
07/01/2024
An effective chart or graph is more than just getting the numbers right. Many small decisions go into a chart, and they add up to have a big impact on your effectiveness as a finance professional in communicating the data.
06/27/2024
Forty-five percent of organizations moved deposits to large banks, seeking safety in systemically important financial institutions, according to the 2024 AFP Liquidity Survey, underwritten by Invesco.
06/18/2024
While the precise impact of the U.S. Money Market Fund Reform is, as yet, unknown, treasury practitioners should try to understand the potential implications for their organizations.
06/14/2024
From an early age, people are divided into two camps: the number crunchers and the storytellers.
06/12/2024
Attending an industry conference can be both exhilarating and overwhelming. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a first-timer, it's important to manage your energy and engagement levels to get the most out of the experience.
06/10/2024
Treasury and finance professionals received a modest increase of 4.4% in their base salaries in 2023, according to the 2024 AFP Compensation and Benefits Survey Report.
05/28/2024
In my work as an analyst or as a CFO, I always saw myself as bringing that finance thinking to the business. Even today, I still feel like I wear the hat of a financial analyst because I’m still the same person that I was 20 years ago.
05/28/2024
Digital payments are far more efficient, less costly and less vulnerable to fraud. Checks simply come up short in comparison.
05/17/2024
In the contemporary business milieu, characterized by rapid evolution and unpredictability, organizations confront a diverse array of risks that can profoundly influence their operational efficacy, fiscal health and long-term viability.
05/14/2024
Money markets refer to a global marketplace where highly liquid (i.e., easily converted to cash) short-term financial investments are traded.
05/13/2024
The FP&A calendar is governed by period-end closing. Months, quarters and year-end closes provide the cadence and rhythm to our work.
05/09/2024
As a fun activity to accompany the release of the AFP FP&A Guide to What Is Financial Analysis, we asked the members of our three global FP&A Advisory Councils to share their favorite financial analyses.
05/07/2024
If you want to gain influence and create change in your organization, you’re going to have to get REAL: resonate, educate, activate and liberate.
05/01/2024
High-impact finance functions have sound accounting architecture, implement proven finance processes and methodologies, and provide people with the appropriate tools to succeed.
04/30/2024
The race is on to understand how and when to apply generative AI, such as large language models (LLMs) and embedded copilots, in finance.
04/29/2024
As finance directs more of its attention to artificial intelligence, many professionals face big questions about how to get started — and how to capitalize on the steps they have already taken.
04/29/2024
The speed at which advances in technology and automation are accelerating is unprecedented. While FP&A professionals have a strong desire to get ahead of the wave, the big question goes largely unanswered: Where do I start?
04/29/2024
The necessity for a centralized treasury, and subsequent centralized cash flow forecasting, at a prominent global media company operating across more than 150 countries had become critical. With its central treasury team based in the U.K., each of the 150 countries from which the company operates managed its own cash flow forecasting, leading to significant issues starting with funding and market liquidity risks and ending with financial market risk.
04/26/2024
AFP has partnered with the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) to further the reach of AFP’s University Partners Program (UPP).
04/24/2024
A significant increase in fraud activity occurred in 2023 compared to the previous year, with a staggering 80% of organizations reporting being targeted by attempted or actual fraud attacks, according to results from the 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by Truist. This statistic underscores the persistent and evolving nature of fraudsters, who remain relentless in their efforts to infiltrate payment systems.
04/23/2024
Eighty percent of respondents report that their organizations were victims of attempted or actual payments fraud activity in 2023, according to the 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by Truist.
04/16/2024