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Justin Jones

FP&ASenior Executive
August 11, 2022

Business Partnering Must Be a Full-Time Job

To prepare for increasing demand for business decision-making support, FP&A needs to review its business partnering model. When the business landscape is foggy, FP&A shines. Facing a period of economic and market volatility, FP&A leaders are preparing to provide more hands-on support to the business: A recent survey of NeuGroup’s Mega-Cap and Large-Cap FP&A peer groups showed that 100% of members anticipate (or are already sensing) a rise in demand for help from business leaders. Operational leaders are going to ask a lot more…
Justin Jones
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TechnologyThe NeuGroup Insights Interview
August 11, 2022

Treasury, Tech and Tennis: Cloudflare Treasurer Christine Jensen

Christine Jensen’s vision for a top-notch treasury at Cloudflare: NeuGroup’s Strategic Finance Lab podcast, episode 6. Christine Jensen brought 15 years of experience working at corporations including eBay and Johnson Controls to Cloudflare last August when the fast-growing cloud platform and cybersecurity company hired her to run treasury. To build a top-notch treasury team, she’s drawing on best practices and perspective learned at other corporates in the US and abroad, her proven ability to thrive under pressure (she’s a three-time…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
August 11, 2022

Better Accuracy, Smarter Insights: Digging Into NeuGroup’s Cash Forecasting Survey

Members benchmark and share approaches to making forecasts more accurate and more valuable. A recent debriefing session analyzing the results of NeuGroup’s May 2022 Cash Forecasting Survey made clear that beyond discussions of methodology, accuracy, technology and the effort required, lies this fact: Treasury needs to clearly define the purpose of a cash forecast and identify the audience who will use it to make decisions that help meet strategic goals. In other words, if the information in a forecast is…
Justin Jones
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FXTalking ShopTechnology
August 11, 2022

Talking Shop: Benchmarking Cash Flow Hedging

Editor’s note: NeuGroup’s online communities provide members a forum to pose questions and give answers. Talking Shop shares valuable insights from these exchanges, anonymously. Send us your responses: [email protected] Member question: “Here are some benchmarking questions about cash flow hedging: 1. “What percentage of cash flow exposures do you hedge?2. “What instruments do you use to hedge?3. “How far into the future do you hedge?4. “Given the current strength of the US dollar, are you contemplating changing your FX hedging program?” Peer answers, question 1 (hedge…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
July 28, 2022

The Undiminished Prominence of Excel

Why the overwhelming majority of treasuries producing cash flow forecasts still use Excel and won’t likely stop anytime soon. Despite decades of technological advances, Excel remains the predominant tool that treasury teams use to generate cash flow forecasts, according to the results of NeuGroup’s May 2022 Cash Forecast Survey (see chart below). That includes teams that have a treasury management system but use Excel along with it because the TMS doesn’t offer the same degree of modeling flexibility. Yes, a…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalFP&AThe NeuGroup Insights Interview
July 28, 2022

How the FP&A Team at WM Is Preparing for Recession

Looking back, looking forward: WM’s Eric Davis on how data and analysis guides planning as the economy weakens. How do the best financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams rise to the current, critical challenge of planning, budgeting and guiding corporate leaders in periods of high uncertainty and volatility as recession fears mount? To answer that question, we turned to Eric Davis, vice president of finance at WM, formerly known as Waste Management. Listen to his response by hitting the play button…
Justin Jones
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Pension and Benefits
July 28, 2022

Pension Surpluses: Nice to Have Except for the Potential Tax Hit

Pension funds have recovered dramatically but the surpluses many face are a quandary. Pension plans have not been immune to financial market turmoil this year. The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans fell by $13 billion during June, according to the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index. But stellar asset returns in the last several years—including from private equity investments—as well as rising interest rates that reduce a plan’s liabilities mean that many companies still have pension…
Justin Jones
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ComplianceCryptoTechnology
July 28, 2022

KYC: Know Your Crypto

Conversations with members reflect a need to screen for sanctioned accounts and illicit activity. Here are some options. With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, corporates eyeing cryptocurrency opportunities are asking pressing questions about screening and investigating counterparties in transactions involving crypto. At a recent meeting of NeuGroup’s digital assets working group, one member expressed concerns that an NFT his company had sold could be resold to someone in Russia, with a portion of…
Justin Jones
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FXRegional
July 14, 2022

Righting the FX Hedging Ship After a Perfect Storm

Lessons learned and changes made after a plunge in JPY reveals cracks in communication and processes. The plunge of the Japanese yen (JPY) this year to its lowest level against the US dollar in more than two decades (see chart) revealed communication problems at one NeuGroup member company between FX risk managers in treasury and the sales team in Japan—problems that could have resulted in a painful financial outcome. Instead, the company’s treasurer came away with valuable lessons for any…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
July 14, 2022

Cash Never Lies—but Data May Not Tell the Whole Truth

More than two-thirds of respondents to a NeuGroup survey ranked the difficulty of producing the cash flow forecast at 6 or above on a scale of 1-10. Rising rates and a slower economy present treasury with a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is safeguarding the company’s liquidity. The opportunity is investing excess cash to earn higher yields. In both cases, treasury teams must have a line of sight into how much cash is on hand, and how much more…
Justin Jones
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