Forecasting is supposed to be the corporate crystal ball. In reality, it’s the nervous system of the organization, and it’s almost always wrong. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we break down why even the most sophisticated companies, with PhDs, AI, and expensive ERP systems, still miss their forecasts and how those misses can…
Finance team certifications are among the most underused tools available to finance managers, not because organizations are unaware of them. Most finance leaders know the credentials. The ones who get the most from them have figured out something most others have not. Certification works differently when you treat it as an organizational standard rather than…
Finance managers who care about their team’s development tend to make this decision carefully. They compare corporate finance training programs, review instructor credentials, check pricing against budget, and select something that looks credible. Completion rates are 80% or better. Six months later, the work looks approximately the same. Senior team members are still spending as…
The best practices for scaling a finance team look different from what most finance leaders expect when they first start asking the question. The assumption going in is usually that scaling means hiring: more analysts to handle more volume, more managers to handle more complexity, and more headcount to keep pace with business growth. The…
In this episode of CFI’s Member Spotlight, we sit down with Alex Murray, a UK-based financial analyst whose path into finance started far outside the typical “cookie-cutter” route. This conversation traces how Alex moved from studying History (with a deep interest in the Renaissance and the evolution of double-entry bookkeeping) to building a career in…
The numbers from AICPA and CIMA’s Future-Ready Finance: Technology, Productivity, and Skills Survey are striking: 88% of finance professionals believe AI will be the most transformative technology trend in accounting and finance over the next 12 to 24 months, yet only 8% say their organization is very well prepared to manage that transformation. When it…
Most FP&A teams have at least one person who forecasts well. Someone who builds driver-based forecasts from models and strong business acumen, who knows which assumptions actually move the numbers, who can walk leadership through a scenario analysis without losing the room. The problem is that their approach tends to stay with them. Everyone else…
When finance leaders think about process improvement for finance teams, the conversation usually turns to technology. A better financial planning platform. Automation to reduce manual consolidation. Dashboards that surface variance faster. These investments matter, and many yield real gains. What gets less attention is the skills dimension of finance process improvement. Technology can accelerate a…
There is a version of a finance team that most finance leaders can picture clearly. It is the team that does not just report what happened but explains why it matters and what to do about it. The team that finishes a planning cycle with a forecast that leadership actually believes in. The team that…
Finance managers carry a lot of responsibility for their team’s development, but very little infrastructure to support it. Most have a genuine interest in upskilling their people. What most lack is a clear framework for where to start, what to prioritize, and how to know whether anything they do is actually working. We work with…
