The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) identified the importance of good ethics among finance professionals as one of the pathways to make a positive impact in tackling various issues. Such concerns include climate change, social inequality, and a widespread lack of trust, ACCA says. As a professional accountant, one is already aware that they can make a difference to build a better world that works for everyone, although it can be hard to know how to put that knowledge into practice. According to ACCA’s Accounting for a Better World research, without good ethics ..read more

Finance operations are not as simple and clear-cut as it was decades ago. Given the imperative to accelerate digital transformation across industries, CFOs and finance teams need to get better at adopting new technologies and driving the integration needed to make these work optimally. Based on findings from Deloitte’s Asia-Pacific CFO Survey, striking the right balance between broad accounting proficiency and specialised technological skills has become a paramount concern for CFOs in the region: 59% of Asia-Pacific CFOs are already directing their efforts towards offering practical on-the-job ..read more

The automation of routine finance planning and analysis (FP&A) processes to create bandwidth for value-adding activities is unsustainable, a Gartner, Inc. study finds. This comes despite ongoing modernisation, as the FP&A department still struggle to keep up with the increased demand for decision support in an era of heightened economic turbulence. In a Gartner survey, which polled 273 FP&A managers and finance business partners and 102 senior decision makers at organisations with more than US$250 million in revenue, only 15% of FP&A leaders reported having a sustainable delive ..read more

Finance roles have long been evolving to keep up with the requisites imposed by the business world, be it regulatory or in terms of market shifts. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants identified five ways for professional accountants to make a positive impact in tackling issues such as climate change, social inequality, and a widespread lack of trust. Ronnie Patton As a finance professionals, they too can help to build a better and more sustainable world. "A better, fairer and more sustainable world will only happen if we make it happen," says Ronnie Patton FCCA, ACCA president ..read more

The evolution of the finance function over the past few years has been anything but apparent, with the whole advent of digitalisation within the team and the non-stop shifts in the market. Source: Gartner 10 digital must-do for CFOs With the new advancements in technology that are coming in left and right, finance leaders and teams are expected to face challenges in talent, what with all the requisites of attraction, acquisition, and retraining. It should then be noted that to keep up with the trends and not be caught off guard by the hurdles on the way, Finance teams must be able to fully und ..read more

As it turns out, compliance culture is not the best way to address the most common situation leading to noncompliance, according to a study by Gartner, Inc. This particular concern must be tackled by financial leaders as the technological research and consulting firm points out that most compliance leaders tend to focus on building an ethical culture in their organisations to boost employee behaviour, but it has a limited impact on addressing uncertainty about how to be compliant. According to Gartner, there are three primary situations that lead to noncompliance: Situations of unce ..read more

Organisations reported being victimised by attempted or actual payment fraud activities in 2023, according to a study by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), underwritten by Truist. Eighty percent of 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey respondents admitted experiencing payment fraud woes in 2023, which reflects a 15-percentage point increase in payments fraud over 2022 and the highest rate reported since 2018. According to the report, checks continue to be the payment method most vulnerable to fraud, with 65% of respondents saying their organisatio ..read more

As the business world slowly but surely pans its focus on sustainability and environment, social, and governance-related measures for the betterment of their organisations, KPMG brings in its five-step approach designed to empower organisations in their implementation of ESG reporting. From understanding climate vision and analytics priorities to implementing data quality management for audit-ready ESG reports. The post A five-step approach to sustainability reporting appeared first on FutureCFO ..read more

The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) launched an Accelerated Pathway Programme (APP) for accountancy degree students to become a Chartered Accountant of Singapore [CA (Singapore)] through a fast-track route. According to a press release, the APP will be available for two years, starting from April 2024, and eligible students can take the Singapore CA Qualification (SCAQ) professional programme module exams while studying for accountancy programmes at the universities. The APP will be offered to students of the accountancy programmes of the following local Autonomous Universi ..read more

Finastra integrated artificial intelligence-powered ESG scoring into its working capital solution, Trade Innovation, according to a press release. Under the update, which is with Coriolis ESG by TradeSun, users can power more sustainable business flows, tapping into automated reports to measure key data against internationally-recognised frameworks Users can now also book and manage trade and supply chain finance with the added benefit of automated insights into ESG scoring, allowing for greater understanding of the sustainability of trade and helps organisations to better monitor and manage t ..read more