How to Read Financial Reports
Financial fluency is now a core leadership requirement, starting with the ability to read financial reports and use them to shape major decisions.
Finance
News, trends, and insights for finance leaders and professionals.
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How to Make a Profit Loss Statement
Master the profit and loss statement to strengthen financial discipline and gain visibility into the story behind your business performance
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Top 10 Financial Management Skills for CFOs
In a business world fueled by new technology and constant change, the finance function—and the CFOs who lead it—must be adaptable to succeed. Learn 10 key financial management skills to stay ahead.
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Scenario Modeling 101: A Framework for Strategic Financial Planning
Learn how a powerful scenario model’s carefully selected components can translate a future story into usable data.
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Vendor Management: Best Practices You Need to Know
Vendors have a direct impact on daily business performance and risk exposure. Managing those relationships with discipline and structure strengthens performance and creates a more resilient third-party network.
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Choosing the Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses
Eight in ten small business leaders are investing in cloud-based accounting software. Choosing the right platform can be the difference between small improvements and real transformation.
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How to Conduct a Risk Assessment
Every business faces risks and uncertainty. With a structured risk assessment framework in place, your teams can navigate change and disruption with speed and resilience.
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The Path to CFO: Your Guide to Success
The CFO role is more dynamic than ever. Success comes from building a career that blends breadth and expertise while staying true to the unique strengths and skills you can offer.
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How to Prepare a Budget Sheet Effectively
Finance leaders face constant pressure to balance financial growth with efficiency. Strong budgeting practices provide the structure to navigate shifting conditions with clarity.
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How to Manage Cash Flow: 8 Best Practices
More than 8 in 10 small businesses fail because of cash flow problems. To balance growth with financial stability, SMBs need smart systems and technology in place to make cash flow management continuous and effective.
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Sales vs. Demand Forecasting: What’s the Difference?
Modern forecasting demands a holistic approach and the right technology to support it. Learn how companies are connecting sales and demand forecasting with AI platforms to power predictive insight.
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10 Most Useful Excel Functions for Financial Analysis
Excel is still the most-used tool in the FP&A toolkit. Learn the advanced Excel functions finance professionals use for smart analysis, and why integrating Excel with financial management software is best.
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Optimizing Inventory Management for E-Commerce Businesses
In e-commerce, inventory directly shapes customer loyalty and financial performance. Companies that optimize it with the right strategies and technologies gain a stronger competitive position.
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The Ultimate Guide to ERP Implementation
ERP systems are one of the most critical technology investments companies make, yet implementation challenges often derail progress. A well-planned and executed ERP deployment can be the difference between failure and success.
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FP&A vs. Financial Analyst: Key Differences to Know
Financial analysts and FP&A professionals play complementary but distinct roles in maintaining a company’s financial health. Learn how the two differ in focus, responsibilities, career trajectory, and business impact.
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How to Get Into FP&A: A Career Guide
Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) transforms financial data into strategic insights. Breaking into FP&A requires a clear guide—from mastering core skills to gaining hands-on experience and mapping your path from analyst to leadership.
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How to Create a Financial Plan for Your Business
Every business needs a financial plan to turn strategy into measurable action. This guide highlights the best tools, steps, and practices to build a plan that’s aligned to current needs and flexible for the future.
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FP&A vs. Accounting: Key Differences Explained
Every organization depends on accurate financial record-keeping and forward-looking analysis to steer its financial course. Explore how accounting and FP&A work together to fuel smarter decisions.
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How to Set Up Payroll Software for Your Small Business
Payroll software empowers SMBs to run with greater accuracy, compliance, and confidence. Learn how to choose the right system, implement it smoothly, and unify payroll with your HR system.
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10 Ways to Speed Up ROI on Your AI Investments
Here are a few actionable ways to help ensuring your organization’s success in an AI-driven business environment
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How to Prepare Financial Statements: 5 Essential Steps
Accurate financial statements are essential for making informed business decisions. Follow the steps in this guide to maintain reports that are reliable, consistent, and designed to drive strategic action.
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Essential Features for Small Business Invoicing Software
Invoicing isn't just about getting paid—it's how small businesses stay cash-flow positive and client-ready. This guide breaks down the features, pricing models, and buying questions that matter when choosing a solution.
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AI Agents for Financial Services: Top Use Cases and Examples
In today’s fast-moving financial markets, speed and precision are everything. AI agents for financial services bring real-time, autonomous decisioning to core workflows, ensuring your business stays ahead of the pace.
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How to Calculate Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable is more than back-office accounting—it’s a key indicator of how well your finance team operates and your overall cash flow health. Learn how to adopt the right methods, processes, and technology to make it both scalable and precise.
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How to Calculate Net Revenue Retention
Tracking multiple revenue metrics across siloed reports obscures true growth signals. Net revenue retention consolidates expansions, downgrades, renewals, and churn into a single percentage, making it clear how well your customer base is propelling revenue forward.
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AI Agents in Finance: Top Use Cases and Examples
Agentic AI is reshaping finance, automating everything from reconciliation to risk management. Find out how leading businesses are deploying AI-powered agents across close, treasury, forecasting, and auditing.
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How to Choose the Best Payroll Software for Small Businesses
Choosing payroll software is one of the most important infrastructure decisions a small business can make. For business leaders, it’s critical to know which features, capabilities, and support systems to look for as you evaluate your options.
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CFO Playbook: Agentic AI and the Future of Finance
A conversation with business leaders from PayPal, Salesforce, and Team Car Care around agentic AI delves into practical applications and broader implications
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Beat Stagflation With These Must-Know AI Strategies
Organizations in every industry can use AI to combat inflationary pressure and a low-growth environment by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs through automation, and improving data analytics
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Top 10 AI Use Cases for Finance Operations
From spend analysis to faster close cycles, AI is helping finance leaders find new efficiencies, reduce risk, and reallocate resources for strategic growth. Learn the major benefits that your business could gain from AI.
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Financial Forecasting in Excel Made Easy
Excel’s flexibility and powerful calculation engine make it a natural choice for building and refining financial forecasts alongside core FP&A platforms. Its familiar interface, shared workbook capabilities, and built-in audit trails boost usability, drive collaboration, and ensure the team works from a single, reliable source of truth.
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The 5 Things Every CFO Must Know About AI
Finance leaders must understand these key aspects of AI—from foundational capabilities and strategic value to data, risk, and talent—to drive growth and competitive advantage in an AI-driven world.
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How to Calculate (and Forecast) Overhead Cost
Overhead costs influence more than just the bottom line—they reveal how well your business runs. With the right structure and insights, finance teams can turn these expenses into a source of control, clarity, and smarter decisions.
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How to Calculate (and Forecast) Retained Earnings
Retained earnings reflect the share of net profits a company retains to fuel growth and sustain operations. Mastering their calculation and forecasting empowers finance teams to harness internal capital to its fullest potential.
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How CFOs Can Mitigate Risks in the Age of Agentic AI
Finance leaders must adapt to the age of agentic AI by mitigating new risks with strategic frameworks that prioritize security, transparency, and ethical practices
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Why Small Businesses Should Switch to Cloud Accounting Software
Cloud accounting software gives small businesses automated, real-time control of their finances. Below we unpack core benefits, must-have software features, and a five-step roadmap to help owners choose the right solution.
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Top 7 Financial Reports for Small Businesses
Strong financial visibility turns complexity into confidence, revealing where your business excels and where it needs attention. Discover the right financial reports to empower your small business to drive sustainable growth.
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How to Calculate (and Forecast) Average Revenue
Forecasting average revenue helps finance leaders understand how value flows through the business. With the right data and tools in place, it becomes a powerful way to spot trends, guide strategy, and drive long-term planning decisions.
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How AI in Accounting Helps Close Your Books
Closing the books is one of the most time-sensitive and resource-intensive responsibilities in finance. But AI can streamline the process, enabling your accounting team to shift their focus from fixing problems to driving strategy.
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Holistic Financial Planning and Integrated FP&A
Finance teams are under pressure to plan faster, more often, and with input from every corner of the business. Holistic financial planning and integrated FP&A make that possible by connecting people, data, and decisions in real time.
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How to Calculate (and Forecast) Accounts Payable
Strong accounts payable forecasts give finance leaders early visibility into upcoming cash requirements and payment timing. With the right approach, AP serves as a practical tool for managing liquidity and strengthening operational control.
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FP&A Best Practices for Success
Financial planning and analysis has become more than a reporting function. Learn how today’s FP&A teams play a role in shaping strategy, guiding decisions, and helping companies stay agile in changing environments.
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FP&A Beyond Excel: A Modern Approach
Excel built the foundation of FP&A, but it wasn't designed for the speed or scale modern finance demands. Learn why today’s finance leaders are adopting a more connected planning approach that moves with the entire business.
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Financial Consolidation and Close Process: A Guide
Financial consolidation and close is more than a reporting cycle—it’s a test of how connected, agile, and future-ready finance really is. Modernizing the process is the key to moving faster with confidence.
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How AI Is Shaping Predictive Analytics in Finance
AI has already led to huge changes in predictive analytics in finance, and the biggest are yet to come. Learn how automation and advanced data analysis are turning finance teams into strategic leaders.
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2025 Financial Planning Trends Every CFO Should Know
2025 is well underway—but what will the defining trends be for CFOs? Read on to learn about the importance of upskilling finance teams, adopting cloud-based solutions, and AI as a key enabler of integrated finance.
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Workday Named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software for Third Year in a Row
We’re honored to once again be recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software for our completeness of vision and ability to execute.
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Workday Named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises
We’re excited to be recognized as a Leader in this report once again. Workday Illuminate reflects our relentless commitment to innovation around how we deliver AI across the Workday platform to empower our customers with increased efficiency and deeper insights, unlocking the ability to seize new opportunities for growth.
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Is Your ERP Holding You Back? Modern Platforms Emphasize Enterprise Data
Organizations using true cloud platforms are best able to manage their finance, people, and data in a way that provides unprecedented transparency and agility that best prepares them for a future of growth.
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Workday Recognized as a 2024 Customers’ Choice for Financial Planning Software by Gartner® Peer Insights™
Workday has over 280 five-star reviews as of April 30, 2024, in the Gartner Peer Insights “Financial Planning Software Reviews and Ratings” report.
