Business Finance Weekly
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Only 7% of 1,505 finance leaders in Avalara's survey say governance comes before the speed of AI agent deployment, and 30% have not updated internal controls for agents in the past year. Workday and SAP put accounting, close and tax agents in front of early adopters in early 2027, the same quarter the AICPA plans to launch its agent certification.
Ideagen Audit Analytics counted 391 restatements in 2025, down 18% and the second-lowest total in 20 years. Yet Hub Group's $77 million cost error has cost it a CFO, three restated periods, a board overhaul and a Nasdaq hearing on October 27, while Super Micro's control fixes run into a second year.
Hybrid pricing is now the most common model among 230 B2B software and AI companies, used by 37%, up from 25% a year earlier, and three in four changed pricing in the past year. Intuit's deal for revenue management platform Sequence bets that quote-to-revenue, not the ledger, now decides mid-market ERP choices.
The October Time to Cash report from PYMNTS Intelligence and J.P. Morgan finds mid-market CFOs shortened their cash cycles and adopted AI for cash flow, yet only 38% say customer payment-term behavior improved, down from 73%. With seven in 10 firms unsure which week cash will arrive, the next gains sit with customers, not process.
Deloitte's Q3 survey of 66 UK finance chiefs finds 52% expect AI to reduce headcount in their own business within 12 months, while 67% say they are only about a quarter of the way through AI transformation. With cost reduction now a strong priority for 68%, the workforce plan is running ahead of the operating change.
Pigment's Q3 CFO Index of 2,000 finance leaders finds 83% overspent on AI this year, by around 27% on average, while expected AI budget growth for next year fell to 15.6%. With only 11% able to forecast AI spend within 10%, usage-based pricing has outrun the annual budget.
An SBE Council survey of 516 owners finds 81% meeting or exceeding their 2026 financial expectations, yet 54% say lack of access to capital constrains growth, up from 43% in February. With 59% of businesses carrying invoices more than 30 days overdue and only 42% of financing applicants fully approved, the gap is cash, not profit.
PwC auditors have used generative AI for about a year, but its U.S. assurance leader says time savings are not that drastic yet. On October 8 the FRC fined Deloitte £6.05 million over five years of Go-Ahead Group audits in which subsidiaries released millions in erroneous overpayments to profit.
A Datarails survey of 270 CFOs finds finance teams spend 26% of the working week verifying or correcting AI output, and only 4% trust AI with the month-end close. Just 4% of organizations have a single source of truth for finance data, and Workiva finds 21% have seen AI errors reach the board or outside audiences.
The combined average U.S. sales tax rate reached 10.1881% at midyear, a 10-year high, after 463 rate and rule changes in six months. On October 1, Pennsylvania switched Philadelphia and Allegheny County to destination sourcing, Washington, D.C. raised its rate to 7%, and Illinois' remote seller amnesty closes October 31.
IBM's study of 1,500 CFOs finds 62% now lead enterprise technology or AI strategy, but only 6% say finance has embedded AI at scale. Gartner's research shows AP and AR automation, data extraction and report creation pay back in nine to 10 months, faster than forecasting projects.
Greece pulled every remaining business into mandatory e-invoicing on October 1, and large UAE companies must sign a certified provider by October 30. A survey of 500+ UAE finance leaders finds 60.5% run ERPs that cannot yet generate a compliant e-invoice, and 73.3% have no plan for the day after go-live.
U.S. Bank's fall CFO survey puts M&A back in the top three priorities as three-year optimism climbs, but 37% still rank cost-cutting first. A UK survey of 303 CFOs finds only 42% are very satisfied with their close, and just 3% use dedicated reconciliation tools.
American Express finds 74% of CFOs say cash flow takes up more of their role, yet scenario modeling fell from 41% to 24% while 94% report working capital strain. With two-thirds of receivables now arriving exactly on the due date, the cushion that made thin planning survivable is gone.
Grant Thornton finds 84% of finance leaders say AI return meets or exceeds expectations, but Esker's survey shows only 48% cite direct financial gains. With 72% over their planned AI spend and 65% of CFOs unable to link usage to outcomes, the proof problem is now the story.
Two-thirds of finance teams now use AI tools, more than double the share in 2024, yet 80% still run planning and forecasting mainly in spreadsheets. Gartner finds forecasting is among the slowest AI use cases to pay back, so the fastest wins sit on top of work that has barely changed.
More than $134 billion in unlawfully collected tariffs is flowing back to importers, and an Atlanta Fed survey finds about three in four recipients plan to hold it as cash. The refund averages 1.7% of revenue, and its tax and customer consequences arrive whether or not finance plans for them.
Grant Thornton found 80% of CFOs expect profits to grow, an all-time high in its survey. The Fed's own CFO Survey shows optimism falling at small and financially constrained firms, where one in five cannot comfortably fund costs or new opportunities.
The Fed's September hike raised the cost of carrying every unpaid invoice, just as late payments hit roughly seven in ten North American suppliers. Receivables are now a financing decision, and most finance teams still run them as a back-office chore.
The Fed's first rate increase since 2023 moved its median 2027 rate projection from 3.6% to 4.1%, right as finance teams lock next year's budgets. Plans built on June's rate path are now pricing the wrong cost of money.
France's mandatory B2B e-invoicing regime went live September 1, the leading edge of a wave crossing more than 30 countries by 2030. Most finance teams' AR and ERP infrastructure isn't built for it.
Two independent 2026 surveys, one of 200 billion-dollar CFOs and one of roughly 300 finance practitioners, both found that only about 21% can point to measurable value from AI.
New research from Deloitte maps the capabilities separating the CFOs who are driving strategic transformation from those still playing defence, and the specific behaviours that define the difference.
The SEC's final climate disclosure requirements are now in effect. Finance and legal teams walk through the six areas most likely to require new data infrastructure and external assurance.
Most large-scale finance transformation programmes miss their targets. A new study of 150 transformations identifies the three design choices that separate successful programmes from expensive failures.
Non-bank platforms have captured $22 billion in financial services revenue in three years. We look at which legacy institutions are mounting a credible competitive response, and which are losing ground.
A sweeping meta-analysis of 40 years of market data asks whether the growth premium has permanently compressed, and what that means for portfolio construction in 2026.
The Basel IV capital requirements are now live. A frank assessment of where most institutions stand, which gaps are most urgent to close, and what supervisors are likely to scrutinise first.
Finance teams are losing top analysts to better-paying roles in tech and consulting at an accelerating rate. Leaders who have cracked the retention problem share what actually works.
Risk teams are deploying AI models faster than governance frameworks can keep up. Regulators are watching, and the institutions that get ahead of this now will have a significant compliance advantage.
Passive investing dominance is accelerating. New flow data shows institutional and retail investors shifting allocations at a pace that is fundamentally reshaping fee structures across the industry.
As AI reshapes every function of the enterprise, CFOs face a defining moment, transform the capital allocation model or risk being outmaneuvered by faster-moving competitors.
The CFPB's new rulemaking agenda covers areas previously outside its remit. In-house counsel and compliance officers break down the five areas with the highest near-term exposure for financial institutions.
Finance leaders need a framework for navigating the Fed's evolving rate posture. Economists break down three scenarios, and the capital planning implications of each.
Hype aside, what does real institutional adoption of digital assets look like right now? We surveyed 200 asset managers and corporate treasurers to get an honest read on where the market truly is.
Quantitative analysis of 12,000 earnings events reveals that markets systematically overpunish minor misses, creating a recurring mispricing opportunity for patient long-term investors.
After two years of suppressed deal flow, the pipeline is opening up. Bankers and corporate development teams share what the next 18 months of M&A activity is likely to look like, and which sectors will lead.
The ripple effects of new trade policy are forcing finance teams to rebuild cost models from the ground up. Here is the analytical framework leading CFOs are using to stress-test their assumptions.
New benchmarking data shows that companies in the top quartile of working capital efficiency generate 23% more free cash flow than peers, yet most CFOs rank it low on their priority list.
Stubborn pockets of service-sector inflation are persisting even as goods prices normalise. What the data reveals about the structural shifts driving this divergence, and how long it can last.
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