“Free my mind” said the CEO, responding to my question of what was wanted from finance and accounting. How could a CEO’s powerful intellect be held hostage? What would free the CEO’s mind? “Receiving insightful financial information without thinking about accounting” was the response.

Bill.com & Intacct: An Integrated, Cloud-based Client Advisory…

Businesses are going for the cloud in a big way. Gartner just released its latest outlook for IT spending1, and it’s a real eye-opener. The analyst firm expects enterprise spending on cloud services to practically double in the next four years, from $109 billion in 2012 to $207 billion in 2016.

Minding the books while gathering new insights from financial data to drive business growth is a struggle for every company. Here are 7 resolutions to keeping your books sin-free in the coming year. click on the image below for full size.

Small and midsize business owners don't lack drive and determination…

Your objective is growth: steady, sustainable and accelerating. Can your back office financial operations support this growth without falling apart and adding non-scalable costs?

Is your company flying blind? Timely, reliable financial reports are the eyes and ears of effective decision-making. Without good data, it’s impossible to hammer out a winning business strategy. You can’t be sure that your company is truly creating value, the only ticket to long-term growth and prosperity.

If ever there was a time for finance to step up and demonstrate its value to the organization at large, this has got to be it. Right now.

Poor financial controls can create significant waste, fraud, or decreased credit rating – yet it happens to thousands of businesses every year. A sound internal control environment is the foundation from which a corporate finance function can be relied upon to protect and report on the company’s cash and general financial position. Unfortunately many small and mid-market companies have completely inadequate controls due to the perceived expense and skill-set required to establish a strong internal control environment proper ones, leaving them exposed to several risks including:

A small business owner typically can’t afford to hire enough people to have proper separation of duties to gain the internal controls needed to prevent accounting fraud. However, every business owner can achieve accounting fraud prevention by taking these simple steps:1. Open the bank statement yourself Every small business owner should receive the unopened bank statement and review each check for authorized payee and signature, and approved electronic payments, before you give it to the bookkeeper.

CFOs see several positive economic signs, but employment isn't one of them. At last, some good news. For the first time in more than a year, finance chiefs expect double-digit growth in earnings and significant growth in capital spending over the next 12 months, according to this quarter's Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Finance executives also plan to loosen the reins on spending for technology, research-and-development, and marketing and advertising.

Predicting future cash flow plays a critical role in maintaining the company’s health, and yet many small businesses have no satisfactory forecasting mechanism in place. To some extent, this is understandable -- large corporations have more access to elaborate computer-generated data processes, while smaller companies must rely on intricate, well-coordinated interplay between department heads and senior management to make sure everyone is on the same page.