Accounting

Beyond the balance sheet: Priorities for CFOs in 2025

Published

1 year ago

February 18, 2025

2024 was quite a year for finance teams. From the uncertainty of an election year and a tumultuous market to the ongoing accountant shortage and the growing interest in AI, there was plenty to keep CFOs up at night.

With the start of the new year, financial leaders are looking forward to the new opportunities that 2025 will bring, while also keeping an eye on potential risks that may carry over from 2024.

The evolution of the Office of Finance continues

The responsibilities of the Office of Finance have been evolving, and this trend will continue into 2025. I believe we will see a shift from traditional, heads-down tactical accounting to a more strategic, heads-up approach. CFOs will need to broaden their perspective, linking financial metrics with overall business operations to assist their executive teams in determining and reporting progress against strategic goals.

A recent study by the Visual Lease Data Institute predicts that lease portfolios will be a key focus for finance leaders in 2025 and beyond, helping to drive business strategy. Today, 100% of surveyed finance executives are concerned with maintaining control over their lease portfolios, including the ability to maintain compliance with ESG reporting requirements (52%, compared to 44% in 2023), maintaining data accuracy and completeness (49%, compared to 48% in 2023) and reacting to unforeseen circumstances (49%, compared to 46% in 2023). These concerns stem from real consequences, with 99% of real estate executives reporting negative outcomes from inadequate lease controls, including overpaying rent or expenses (36%), the inability to respond to changing circumstances (36%), or missing an opportunity to update unfavorable or unwanted terms (31%).Given the range of risks and opportunities associated with lease portfolios, CFOs are already making decisions to support lease portfolio management — with 61% saying their companies have hired new personnel to support lease management and 58% report outsourcing related work to third-party specialists.

The result of investing in the dedicated tools and technology needed for lease management can be significant cost savings, ensuring compliance, and positioning enterprises to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Moreover, I see the ability to engage in financial storytelling — communicating insights derived from complex data sets such as lease data — as paramount in 2025 and beyond. The ability to do so will depend on how well finance leaders work with their counterparts in other critical departments, including real estate, IT, sustainability, operations and legal.

New ways of tackling the accounting shortage emerge

The industry-wide accountant shortage is not a new issue; it has persisted throughout 2024. This shortage is driven by several factors, including stringent CPA requirements, an aging workforce and burnout leading some professionals to leave the field. As we approach 2025, various solutions are being proposed to address this shortage. For instance, some states are considering allowing prospective accountants to bypass the fifth year of education traditionally required for CPA licensure.

While it’s essential to maintain high qualification standards, practical experience is equally important. Offering new CPAs an additional year of real-world business experience, rather than additional schooling, could enhance their readiness and reduce barriers to entry into the profession. This experiential learning bridges the gap between theory and practice, providing new candidates with a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities, thereby better preparing them for their careers.

Like many CFOs, I am keen to see how these changes unfold. While enhancing efficiency within finance and accounting roles is paramount, leveraging technology is a key component in achieving this.

While interested in AI, finance professionals are concerned about its impact

I anticipate that CFOs and the Office of Finance will increasingly assume a strategic role in areas traditionally managed by other departments, such as technology adoption.

The recent VLDI report indicates that all surveyed finance executives (100%) agree on the benefits of AI for the Office of Finance, particularly in automating manual tasks and processes. However, it’s noteworthy that 48% of these executives also identify the lack of a strategic approach to utilizing AI for efficiency improvements as a major concern in the finance industry today.

By implementing advanced tools such as AI and automation, finance teams can streamline processes, reduce manual workloads and improve accuracy. These technologies not only help with managing routine tasks but also enable finance professionals to focus on more strategic activities, driving overall business performance. As we navigate these changes, it is essential to adopt a strategic approach to technology integration, ensuring that it aligns with our goals of efficiency and effectiveness.

I recommend organizations look to first apply AI to low-risk tasks/areas within their business to really understand the intricacies and limitations of the technology. There’s no reason why finance leaders need to do this alone — by leveraging other agents of change within their organization, they’ll be more likely to anticipate the common pitfalls that come with rolling out new technology. A collaborative approach will empower these leaders to understand how to leverage AI within finance for maximum impact and minimum risk — such as automated data extraction.

For entry-level finance professionals, it’s important to remember that while embracing new technology is essential, mastering the fundamentals of finance and accounting is equally crucial. The true value of AI emerges when foundational knowledge is combined with technological advancements.

Striking the balance in 2025

As we look ahead to 2025, finance leaders will face a mix of familiar and evolving challenges. Concerns about the longevity of operations will persist, especially when it comes to managing costs and driving revenue growth.

With the changing landscape of capital access and a heightened focus on cost efficiency, CFOs will need to play a more active role in strategic decision-making. This underscores the importance of collaboration across different teams within the organization.

Striking a balance between innovation and a solid understanding of the fundamentals will be key to achieving sustainable growth and success in the coming year and beyond.

Accounting

FASB Standardizes Carbon Offsets Accounting Rules

Published

1 day ago

July 27, 2026

Business Finance News

FASB Standardizes Carbon Offsets Accounting Rules

In a decisive move toward standardized environmental financial reporting, accounting standards boards issued updated implementation guidance during the week ending July 25, 2026, regarding the formal recognition and valuation of corporate carbon offsets and environmental credits. The revised frameworks establish precise rules for how enterprises must measure, record, and disclose carbon credits on balance sheets, eliminating years of inconsistent reporting practices across public capital markets.

Under the finalized accounting standard, purchased carbon offsets can no longer be categorized under vague administrative expenses or unstandardized intangible asset accounts. Instead, organizations must classify environmental credits based on underlying operational intent—distinguishing between credits held for immediate compliance compliance obligations, long-term offset obligations, or active market trading. Furthermore, companies are required to evaluate carbon holdings for fair value impairment at the end of each reporting period, ensuring that depreciated or low-quality environmental credits do not distort corporate asset values.

The standardized rules carry significant implications for corporate audit committees and chief accounting officers. External audit firms are implementing rigorous verification protocols to validate the physical legitimacy, legal ownership, and scientific permanence of carbon credits claimed on balance sheets. Inaccurate or overstated carbon accounting claims now carry substantial financial litigation risk, alongside potential regulatory enforcement for misleading ESG disclosures.

To remain fully compliant, corporate accounting departments must establish centralized carbon tracking systems integrated into primary standard ERP ledgers. Accounting teams that proactively adopt standardized environmental reporting protocols will build investor credibility, streamline annual audit processes, and insulate their organizations against evolving regulatory scrutiny.

Accounting

Automated Tax Compliance Tools Reduce Risk

Published

1 day ago

July 27, 2026

Business Finance News

Automated Tax Compliance Tools Reduce Risk

Corporate tax departments reached a critical juncture in automated operational management. With nations worldwide rapidly enacting digital service taxes, localized value-added tax (VAT) mandates, and real-time electronic invoicing requirements, manual tax calculations have become obsolete. Modern corporate tax divisions are aggressively deploying AI-driven tax engine software to automate complex cross-border indirect tax calculations in real time.

The imperative for automated tax compliance stems from the sheer complexity of current trade policies and multi-jurisdictional commerce. E-commerce platforms, software vendors, and global manufacturers face constantly changing regional tax rates, statutory exemption rules, and cross-border tariff structures. Automated tax engines embed directly into enterprise enterprise resource planning (ERP) architectures, automatically applying correct tax codes at the point of sale, calculating real-time withholding amounts, and generating compliant e-invoices.

Automated audit trail generation represents another key advantage of modern tax tech integration. Advanced compliance platforms log every transactional tax determination on immutable digital ledgers, providing tax authorities with transparent, self-verifying audit trails. This capability drastically reduces the operational duration and administrative cost of corporate tax audits, protecting enterprises against severe penalties resulting from calculation errors or missed reporting deadlines.

For chief financial officers and tax directors, investing in automated tax compliance is a vital operational risk mitigation strategy. Automating routine tax calculations frees high-level accounting professionals to focus on strategic tax planning, transfer pricing optimization, and risk management in an increasingly complex global economic environment.

Accounting

Continuous Auditing Transforms Corporate ERPs

Published

7 days ago

July 21, 2026

Business Finance News

continuous auditing transforms corporate erps

As corporate accounting departments cross the threshold into late July 2026, the adoption of continuous, automated auditing systems has reached a definitive turning point. Driven by advances in artificial intelligence and deep integration with modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, leading finance organizations are moving away from traditional, periodic post-hoc audits in favor of real-time, 100% transactional verification. This technological transition is redefining internal control environments, reducing compliance costs, and eliminating the structural delays inherent in legacy quarterly closing processes.

Unlike traditional auditing frameworks that rely on statistical sampling—a process that inevitably leaves operational blind spots—continuous auditing software monitors operational data feeds continuously. Every purchase order, electronic invoice, payroll disbursement, and cross-border wire transfer is automatically cross-referenced against established corporate governance parameters, regulatory tax schedules, and anti-fraud algorithms in real time. Anomalies or unauthorized ledger entries are flagged instantly, allowing internal audit teams to investigate and remediate compliance gaps immediately rather than months after the close of a financial period.

The implications for executive financial management are far-reaching. By embedding continuous verification directly into daily transaction workflows, chief financial officers gain uninterrupted visibility into the organization’s true financial standing. Real-time balance sheet auditing eliminates the severe operational bottlenecks associated with month-end and quarter-end financial reconciliations, freeing accounting professionals to focus on strategic financial modeling, tax planning, and capital allocation rather than manual data entry and spreadsheet consolidation.

However, implementing continuous auditing requires accounting leadership to invest heavily in data governance and technical upskilling. Internal audit teams must evolve from manual ledger reviewers into system architects capable of auditing complex algorithms and validating automated data pipelines. Accounting firms and corporate controllers that master continuous auditing will establish a resilient compliance framework capable of meeting stringent international regulatory standards with total transparency.