Business Analytics for the CFO's Function (Currently Unavailable)

Author: Gary Cokins

CPE Credit:  2 hours for CPAs

This presentation focuses on how the finance function can leverage analytics, especially predictive ones, embedded in their financial reporting, planning, and decision making. Finance and accounting professional are typically considered to be very quantitative. They are by nature number-crunchers. But collecting, validating, and reporting data is not the same thing as analyzing the information that can be gleaned from data. Most organizations are drowning in data, but starving for information.

The CFO function is experiencing a shift from beyond financial reporting to dealing with and reporting non-financial information. Finance people are increasingly involved with creating and monitoring performance measurements. But do they know how to identify the appropriate measures? Their task should not be about what can be measured but what should be measured. And don’t stop there. This is not about just monitoring the dials of a scorecard or dashboard, but moving the dials. The decisions involved to improve performance require analytics of all flavors. Most companies are far from where they want and need to be when it comes to implementing analytics and are still relying on gut feeling, rather than hard data, when making decisions. Volatility and complexity are the new normal.

Publication Date: September 2015

Topics Covered

  • Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
  • Business Analytics
  • BI and BA for the CFO function and EPM
  • Finance function can leverage analytics

Learning Objectives

  • Recognize the importance of financial accounting and how it deals with valuation
  • Identify the focus strategy within the contemporary business environment
  • Recognize how to improve performance if your company were applying an Enterprise Performance Management approach
  • Evaluate proactive approaches to apply to engaged Business Analytics
  • Describe the case study of Passport Canada where the company outsourced forecasting
  • Identify which customers are most likely to be unprofitable when analyzing customer sales volume in relation to profits
  • Recognize matched with non-recurring expenses when matching the budget method to its category in a budget
  • Evaluate the intelligence hierarchy for the best company opportunity utilizing Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
  • Identify which EPM essentially used
  • Differentiate the characteristics of the best business leaders in the current economy
  • Identify the characteristics of ideal customers
  • Recognize the impact of timing on business decisions
  • Identify questions addressed by strategy maps and balanced scorecards
  • Apply EPM to utilize key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Recognize when to apply activity-based costing (ABC)
  • Identify when to utilize the risk assessment grid to budget when using enterprise risk management (ERM)
  • Recognize when to utilize rolling financial forecasts

Level
Overview

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Finance (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None

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