Insurance Update – Includes our Takeaways from the Annual SIFM Conference Michael J. Shehan, Director, CFO Consulting Partners, Paul Karr, Director, CFO Consulting Partners, We attended the Annual Conference of the Society of Insurance Financial Management held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 15-18, 2019.  This excellent and well-attended Conference brought together …Read More »

Streamlining financial control and reporting is crucial for a company’s success and ability to drive change. How robust is your accounting system? Below are recently published articles related to ERP Software: Does your company need an ERP system? Glenn Tyndall in “The Real Cost of an Enterprise Resource Planning System” …Read More »

Following the trend of our latest newsletter, AI and Machine Learning, this newsletter will focus on the growth of FinTech in 2019. Deloitte defines financial technology (“FinTech”) as “digital innovation in the financial sector. At its inception, the understanding of FinTech was limited to innovative ways of facilitating payments and …Read More »

Machine learning has the potential to disrupt every industry. A computer’s ability to iterate through data and solve complex mathematical calculations is developing rapidly with improved processing speeds and data storage. SAS Insights defines machine learning as “a method of data analysis that automates analytical model building. It is a …Read More »

Qualified Opportunity Zones – an Executive Summary Mark Sloan, Director, CFO Consulting Partners There has been much discussion regarding Qualified Opportunity Zones (“QOZ”), the tax benefits of investing in a QOZ and how it should fit into a strategy of minimizing taxes on long term capital gains. This newsletter will provide …Read More »

When a board of directors is determining the compensation for a company’s CEO and other top level executives, there are many factors that must be examined before enacting a specific compensation plan. Below are multiple articles related to executive compensation decisions: -One important thing to consider when evaluating any investment …Read More »

For any company that is new or in the process of growing in size, cash management is a very important aspect of the business. Cash management is classified by Inc.com, as a broad term that refers to the collection, concentration, and disbursement of cash. Below are multiple articles related to the …Read More »

Implementation of the New Lease Standards by Lessors Under the ASC 842 (Part 2) Mark Sloan, Director, CFO Consulting Partners In our newsletter for January 2018, we discussed the new guidelines under ASC Section 842 regarding the recognition and financial reporting of leases. In that newsletter, the focus was primarily …Read More »

For many companies, the question about whether or not a full time CFO is necessary is often a question that is overlooked and small companies will rush into hiring an expensive CFO rather than outsourcing the work. Below are multiple articles related to whether a full time CFO is necessary: -In Patrick …Read More »

CFO Consulting Partners first wants to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! As we look forward towards any New Year, it is important to think about what new trends could be impacting your business. Below are multiple articles related to small business trends of 2019: -As with almost any …Read More »

If you think you have a lot of time to implement the new revenue recognition standard, you don’t! While revenue may still be recognized under the old standards through December 31, 2018, disclosure will be required about the effects of the January 1 adoption.  This disclosure will be expected to …Read More »

Behavioral Health: Industry Consolidation and Innovation Is on the Way John DeLorenzo, Director, CFO Consulting Partners LLC According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 43.8 million people in the U.S., or approximately one in five, suffer from mental illness. Approximately 60% of those affected are not treated, in some part …Read More »

Following up our last biweekly newsletter on the roles of the board of directors, we will be focusing this newsletter on fraud prevention. Fraud is defined, by Investopedia, as “an intentionally deceptive action designed to provide the perpetrator with an unlawful gain, or to deny a right to a victim.” When a firm …Read More »

Below are multiple articles related to the roles and responsibilities for boards of directors: -As time progresses, the challenges faced by boards of directors are constantly changing and directors are forced to adapt to these new responsibilities. In the article, “How Boards of Directors Are Reshaping to Meet New Challenges,” …Read More »

Following up our last biweekly newsletter on cybersecurity, we will be focusing this newsletter on outsourcing trends. Currently, more and more sectors of companies are being outsourced. Below are multiple articles related to outsourcing trends: -Greg Digneo, wrote an article, titled “Business Process Outsourcing: 7 Trends to Expect in 2018,” that provides …Read More »

Why Does it Take So Long to Close? Paul Karr, Director, CFO Consulting Partners LLC This question gets asked at companies of all sizes and industries. Legacy processes and systems, combined with growth in scale and complexity of the business and often multiple sets of accounting principles, are some of …Read More »

Following up our last biweekly newsletter on entrepreneurship, we will be focusing this newsletter on cyber security. Cybersecurity is crucial to all firms, but is often overlooked by small to mid-size companies. Below are multiple articles related to cybersecurity: -Many people hear horror stories of extreme data breaches, yet few …Read More »

We are going to begin to send out a biweekly newsletter on various topics that relate to business, accounting, finance, etc… Within these biweekly newsletters, we will provide links to interesting articles that pertain to each newsletter’s topic. The topic of for this newsletter is Entrepreneurship: -During our current digital …Read More »

If You Like Physician Practices: You will Love Veterinary John DeLorenzo, CFO Consulting Partners LLC Following our introductory article introducing our healthcare practice, we followed up with an article that discussed the changing dynamics of physician practices. As we serve our clients in healthcare practices, we are seeing significant opportunity within the …Read More »

Eight Red Flags that your Board Financial Package is Failing to Support Board Needs Allan Tepper, CFO Consulting Partner LLC One of the goals of boards is to oversee the financial performance of the company or companies to which they are associated. Informative, transparent financial statements are necessary for boards …Read More »

Is Your Finance Department a Cost or Profit Center? Allan Tepper, CFO Consulting Partner LLC To begin, I will define cost and profit centers, using my definition developed after leading accounting and finance functions for over twenty-five years. Cost centers need to be efficient and be doing critically important tasks. …Read More »

Case Study: Financial Transformation BACKGROUND Engaged by a service provider (a boutique law firm) that had been in business for approximately 18 months. Firm was highly successful on the legal side but was immature on the operations/business process side. In 18 months, firm had had three Chief Operating Officers, all …Read More »

The CECL Approach, 3 of 3 For this newsletter CFO Consulting Partners has partnered with Ardmore Banking Advisors to review the potential material financial benefits of a well planned and executed implementation of the new current expected credit loss (“CECL”) accounting standard. Most banks have an awareness of the need …Read More »

A.M. Best Updates Its Rating Methodologies and Capital Model Marc Liebowitz, CFO Consulting Partner LLC A.M. Best (AMB) recently revised its rating methodologies, most of the changes relate to updated procedures and the underlying analytical components have generally remained in place. The below videos provide an overview of the methodology …Read More »

Implementations of the New Lease Standards Under the ASC 842 Mark Sloan, CPA, CFO Consulting Partners On February 25, 2016, the FASB issued new guidelines under ASC Section 842 regarding the recognition and financial reporting of leases. The new standard will impact both lessees and lessors, with the most significant …Read More »

Physician Practices: The Future is Changing John DeLorenzo, MBA, CFO Consulting Partners LLC The United States possibly has the most complex healthcare system in the world. The American healthcare system regulates the industry at both the federal and state level. It is paid for by private health insurance as well …Read More »

Are You Ready for the New Revenue Recognition Standard? Oliver Brooks, CPA, CFO Consulting Partners LLC INTRODUCTION On May 14, 2014 the FASB issued the standard ASC 606 Recognition of Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The FASB issued an Accounting Standards update to the Standard (ASU 2016 -10) in April …Read More »

The CECL Approach, Part 2 Tom Van Lenten, CPA, CFO Consulting Partners LLC This is the second in the CFO Consulting Partners series of articles analyzing the new FASB Standard on accounting for credit losses (ASU 2016-13). Click here for the first article in the series It has been more …Read More »

Insurance Company Credit Rating Advisory Practice, Part 2 Marc Liebowitz, CFO Consulting Partners LLC There are three primary drivers of insurance credit ratings: Risk adjusted capital levels Operating results Market profile which is the overall evaluation of strategies, products, underwriting strength and risk diversification. In a previous article, we covered …Read More »

Insurance Company Credit Rating Advisory Practice CFO Consulting Partners has begun to work with insurance companies to help maximize a company’s rating potential. This article is the first of a two-part series which will discuss the credit rating process for insurance companies. Here we discuss how ratings firms look at …Read More »

The New CECL Approach Tom Van Lenten, CPA, CFO Consulting Partners LLC In mid-2016 the FASB issued its long-awaited standard on accounting for credit losses (ASU 2016-13). The new standard adds to US GAAP an impairment model known as the current expected credit loss model or CECL. In a shift …Read More »

Quality Assurance – Important? What is the Problem? Many firms, particularly smaller ones, have problems with controls or Quality Assurance (“QA”) over the “downstream” preparation of financial statements, footnotes and MD&A. Typically, “upstream” processes like AP, Cash, Journal Entries, etc. are strictly controlled, but limited staff and insufficient planning can …Read More »

Guest Article from iSiegel Consulting: Justifying the Spend on IT Security Overview Companies that underfund security intiatives wind up undermining a company’s ability to protect its information assets. The results can be catastrophic. IT leaders and CFOs need to understand the severity of the situation, specifically what the risks are and …Read More »

Financial Transparency – A Case Study The following is a composite case of several organizations, and any resemblance to an actual client is clearly coincidental. Background: A client suffered fraud, misappropriated funds, and confused financial concepts. This caused lots of frustration at the board level. The audit report took almost …Read More »

New Relief for Private Companies? The private companies that suffer through the same accounting procedures as large public companies are now experiencing some level of relief. That relief is due to the FASB issuing Accounting Standard Updates (ASUs) that provide simplified accounting alternatives. The FASB defines private companies as entities …Read More »

Cyber Security White Paper Cyber Security: A fundamental component of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) While cyberattacks have hit virtually every industry, the two industries most impacted by cyber security incursions, breaches and theft of data, are financial services and health care. Financial services and the medical world are inexorably connected …Read More »

Fin Tech Case Study CFO Consulting Partners was engaged by a start-up Fin Tech Company to assist in setting up their entire financial infrastructure, including establishing and documenting GAAP and regulatory policies, establishing and documenting internal controls and procedures, and constructing the regulatory reporting process.  CFO CP also assisted in …Read More »

Prepare Now for Revenue Recognition Implementation In May, 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, (Topic 606). The Update takes effect essentially in 2017 and establishes a comprehensive revenue recognition standard for almost all of the various industries. Prior …Read More »

It Pays to Do It Right the First Time By Art Finnel, Head of Life Sciences Practice Prior to joining CFO Consulting Partners, I held a CFO position with a company that was planning to go public and hired a new accounting firm for the audit. The company had planned …Read More »

CFO Consulting Partners’ pre-audit services helps public and private companies produce workpapers and a full set of GAAP financial statements, including footnotes, for review by its independent auditors. Workpapers are cross-referenced and references are made to supporting documentation. For public companies, CFO Consulting Partners offers SEC report preparation services (i.e., …Read More »

Compromise for Lease Accounting Overhaul Has Been Rejected by the Leasing Industry Accountants and Analysts Since 2006, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board and the IASB have been working on a lease accounting overhaul. This effort has been spurred by investor complaints that huge off-balance sheet leases can blur a …Read More »

Private Equity Case Study Background: A private equity firm desired to sell one of its portfolio companies. The company, with sales of $75 million, was a leader in the fashion industry. The incumbent Chief Financial Officer and Controller left at the start of the sale process. Problem: The company could …Read More »

SEC Case Study #1 Background: A $100 million publicly-held service Company had not filed its SEC reports (10-Ks, 10-Qs) on a timely basis. The CFOs attention had been focused on non-financial reporting operational matters. The Issue: The Company, wishing to bring its reporting current, engaged CFO Consulting Partners LLC to …Read More »

Automation – Do Accounting Departments Need This? Many of us in accounting prepare monthly and quarterly financial reports. Some are specifically prepared for internal management, some for shareholders, and some for regulators and other stakeholders. These reports, by their very nature, require repetitive processes, many of which are fairly stable …Read More »

Dashboards – Who Needs Them? We have all heard about dashboards and their benefits. So, how come we see so very few clients who have them? I think the answer is just due to inertia and time. After-all, with all that is happening in accounting and finance departments every day, …Read More »

Exploring Entrepreneurship Allan Tepper, co-founder of CFO Consulting Partners LLC, spoke on entrepreneurship at the March 21, 2012 NYC Professional Development Session of Financial Executives International. The topic, “Exploring Entrepreneurship as an Option,” was discussed by a panel of entrepreneurial executives that included Mr. Tepper. Below, Mr. Tepper provided a …Read More »

Eight Keys to Being a Successful CFO CFO Consulting Partners is often retained to provide interim and fractional CFO services, or as consultants to CFOs for senior level projects. During these engagements, I am often asked, what critical elements, or success factors, are needed for CFOs to be successful? Here are …Read More »

Ten Painful Oversights in Growth Companies By Eileen Xethalis, Director and Head of Entrepreneurial Services Practice, CFO Consulting Partners LLC, April 26, 2011 CFO Consulting Partners is often retained to “fix” broken Accounting and Finance functions. When a prospective client requests an exploratory meeting to gauge whether we can “help”, …Read More »

Key Highlights of 2010 Exposure Draft on Leases by FASB and IASB Valentine Ejiogu, Director, CFO Consulting Partners Late last year, the FASB and IASB released an exposure draft on the proposed new accounting standard, Topic 840. This will be the first significant change in lease accounting since FAS 13 …Read More »

IT Financial Management Joe Barkley, Director, CFO Consulting Partners LLC Information Technology (IT) is the second largest cost – after Human Resource – to most firms. It is often misunderstood and can be ineffectively managed. IT is a business within the business, and it has significant bottom and top line …Read More »

Impairment Testing Impairment Testing: How does US GAAP Differ from IFRS Due to the current economic conditions, more entities will be looking at the value of long-lived assets they are holding and recognizing that possible impairment may be imminent. This article looks at the differences in impairment testing for long-lived …Read More »

Marc P. Palker, CMA, Director of CFO Consulting Partners, LLC Nominated to the Global Board of Directors of the Institute of Management Accounts November 18, 2010 Princeton, New Jersey CFO Consulting Partners LLC (“CFO”) is proud to announce the nomination of Marc P. Palker, CMA to the Global Board of …Read More »

The Impact of BSA/AML Challenges on Chief Financial Officers Along with spiking the demand for capital and prioritizing the focus on balance sheets, the global financial crisis has spawned a “Perfect Storm” for Bank Secrecy Act compliance and money laundering risks. As CFOs struggle to preserve capital and manage costs …Read More »

CFO Consulting Partners in the News First National Bank of Chester County (West Chester, PA): Eric Segal was recently named the Interim CFO and Principal Accounting Officer for this $1.3 billion bank. Some of Eric’s principal roles are to restate and/or issue applicable SEC reports (such as 10-Q’s, 10-K’s) and …Read More »

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act As most of our readers know, The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed by President Obama on July 21, 2010. This financial reform will introduce a myriad of changes to financial regulation, which raises the question: what are …Read More »

CFO Consulting Partners Expands to Long Island CFO Consulting Partners is pleased to announce that we will now be servicing Long Island. 273 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 305 Huntington Station, NY 11746Read More »

Small Company Sarbanes-Oxley is Just Around the Corner As you may already know, on June 15, 2010 Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes -Oxley Act of 2002 becomes effective for all public companies traded on an exchange that have a market capitalization of under $75 million. What does that mean for …Read More »

International Financial Reporting Standards and What it Will Mean for Your Company Conversion to International Financial Reporting Standards ( IFRS) from US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) is more than an accounting exercise. For many companies, it can significantly affect the financial reporting for certain aspects of the entity. …Read More »

SEC Issues Revised SOX Compliance Date for Smallest Reporting Firms On October 2, 2009, the SEC approved an additional extension for companies with a public float of $75 million or less. The extension moves the compliance date to June 15, 2010, meaning that companies must comply with Section 404 requirements …Read More »

SOX and Internal Controls Over Excel Spreadsheets Marc Engel, CPA, CISA, CFE Many companies not previously subject to SOX are required to comply in their current fiscal year. This includes non-accelerated filers and smaller reporting companies. Existing companies that are SOX compliant should now be compliant for their primary computer …Read More »