Attendance is limited to senior financial executives only, including CFOs, VPs of Finance, Controllers, etc.

To learn more about this event, or to register, please click here.

On Wednesday, April 11th, the CFO RoundTable presented “Revenue Recognition Under Evolving FASB Standards” which reviewed the current status of the FASB project and industries in its scope, its projected impact on current accounting literature, and how these new requirements will impact business processes, accounting and financial systems.

Presented by Matt Svetich and Bryan McCorry, Senior Managers of KPMG’s Venture Capital Practice and Jim McGeever, Chief Operating Officer, NetSuite, our panel reviewed the history of revenue recognition accounting standards, the hot topics of interest in revenue recognition changes, and more.

Three main takeaways included:

1. These Practice Changes Are Significant
   If the proposed accounting standard update is finalized in its current form, transaction- or industry-specific accounting guidance generally would be eliminated from U.S. GAAP, which would affect accounting for industries such as software arrangements, telecommunications, real estate, and more. Moreover, these proposed standards changes would affect collectibility, disclosures, multiple element arrangements, time value of money, and more.
2. Can You Say Retro?
   While the projected effective date of the update is January 2015, retrospective adoption will be required, and may in fact require five-year selected financial data recast as early as January 1, 2011, and full financial statements and disclosures recast beginning January 1, 2013.
3. Siloed Spreadsheets Are No Longer An Option
   In fact, spreadsheets in general are no longer an option. The complexity of the proposed standard and the coordination it will involve with all of your teams, including sales, finance, support and more, will push the boundaries of spreadsheets. Now is the time to consider an automated, centralized process with which to share, track and report on your financials.

At this event you will learn:

• What are the current “hot topics” in revenue recognition
• What is the current status of the FASB project and which industries are within its scope.
• How the new standard will impact current accounting literature.
• What impact the new standard will have with regard to timing of revenue recognition as well as the identification of separate elements.
• How revenue recognition rules impact your business processes, and accounting and financial systems.
• How to overcome some of the internal challenges that compound the complexity of revenue recognition, including distributed processes, systems and personnel.
• Practical approaches to more accurately calculate revenue allocations, ensure full audit trails, reduce manual effort, and obtain centralized control and compliance monitoring.

Join the CFO RoundTable on Wednesday, March 7, as we present Negotiation for Long Term Success, an interactive, half-day leadership workshop hosted at Bentley University. This program is designed to help you learn to negotiate effectively in a wide range of business contexts, including deal-making, employment discussions and dispute resolution.

Our program will include discussion of practical negotiation techniques and styles, as well as the application of a real-world business negotiation case study applicable for all senior financial executives.

During this program, you will learn:

• How to prepare for and enter into financial negotiations
• Practical negotiation styles
• Specific tactics and strategies to enhance the outcome of your negotiation
• Develop and understand pathways to power negotiating

Joined by some of the area’s leading experts on IT and information security, this year’s program will review:

• IT Technology and Trends, including cloud computing, social media and mobile devices
• Frameworks for Oversight of IT Risk, including competitive, porfolio, execution and service and security risks
• Cyber Security and Advanced Persistent Threats, including organized crime and past case studies
• Leveraging Technology

Our speakers include:

• Manoj George, CEO, Nair & Co
• Greg Bell, Principal, KPMG LLP
• Stephen Laster, Chief Information Officer, Harvard Business School
• Jason Parsons, Director of Operations, Yottaa
• Kevin L. Swindon, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI – Boston Division, CYBER Squad

For more information, or to register for this event, visit our Fraud and Corporate Information event page here.

Read more about TD Economic’s top 10 economic-driven financial themes for 2012, including:

• Why investors can thank worsening euro zone troubles for a preponderance of naughty over nice
• Why forecasts have been downgraded for fixed income yields, commodity prices and the Canadian dollar over the near term
• Why it’s forecasted that the high level of market volatility looks set to continue in the coming months.
• Bright side: The second half of 2012 is expected to bring better prospects, with equities likely to outperform bonds

If it hasn’t happened already it’s quite likely your employer will soon be offering either a limited or tiered network health insurance product.

Limited networks are not a new concept, they’ve been around since the advent of the HMO plan.  Unlike many health plans, a limited network product allows access to a defined smaller network of providers located within a certain geographic region.

The latest entrant into the limited network game is Steward Health Care with their Steward Community Choice product.  Likely on deck are BMC Healthnet and Neighborhood Health after their acquisition by Partners Healthcare.  These limited networks plans make the promise of significant premium savings in return for a limited choice of providers.  I personally question the Health Systems desire to create products for the employer marketplace – see Jackson Health System’s challenges in this area[1], but that is a topic for another day…

The real question for employers and employees is will they work?  Employees have enjoyed nearly unfettered access to health care providers with no consideration to the actual cost of care being utilized.  Health care reform legislation in Massachusetts and on a National level has reaffirmed the concept of unlimited access.  However, since the 2008 recession most employers have been laser focused on cost.  Often the two collide, it’s hard to maintain unfettered access and maintain low cost.

The disparity in costs was further highlighted by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office preliminary report on January 29, 2010 and her conclusion that hospital and physician group prices vary significantly within the same geographic area and amongst providers offering similar levels of service.  Her findings further indicate that the price variations were not correlated to quality of care but based mostly on market leverage, i.e. the provider’s ability to negotiate a more favorable reimbursement rate from the carriers.

The framework of the tiered network product is a direct response to this phenomenon.  In a tiered network your cost as a consumer is directly related to the actual cost of the services you utilize.  Basically the way the rest of the economy works.  The main overriding issue is that as a health care consumer you often don’t find out the cost of the services utilized until after you’ve used them.  Add the fact that many of us are in a weakened emotional state or not thinking rationally when a medical issue overcomes us. Who wants to “price shop” at that point?

This article was provided by Sentinel Benefits and Financial Group, a silver sponsor of the CFO RoundTable. For more information, please visit their website at www.sentinelgroup.com. 

Over the course of the morning, this session focused on sources of capital available in the marketplace to help a company grow and expand its operations, manage working capital, and secure lease financing transactions.

Financing types reviewed included venture debt, mezzanine financing, equipment financing, revolving credit and asset-based financing arrangements. As noted by the panel, these sources of capital should not be considered a replacement for an initial equity financing, but rather as a supplement to it.

Our panelists included:

• Roy Liu, Senior Vice President, Hercules Technology Growth Capital (To download his presentations, please click here for presentation 1 of 2 and click here for presentation 2 of 2)
• Joan McArdle, Senior Vice President, Mass Capital Resources (To download her presentation, please click here)
• David Mullen, Regional Manager, Equipment Finance, TD Bank Equipment Finance (To download his presentation, please click here)
• Scott Sanborn, SVP, Commercial Lending, TD Bank (To download his presentations, click here for presentation 1 of 2 and click here for presentation 2 of 2)

From this session, attendees learned:

• The various financing sources that are available and be able to ascertain which are applicable to their company at its specific stage in life and which are not.
• How to evaluate the costs to the company, both in cash (and/or equity dilution) that will occur.
• The various terms and conditions used in these different alternatives.
• The key strategic elements that are negotiated in the term sheet acceptance process including financial covenants, pricing and fees, reporting requirements and documentation.
• How to evaluate actual term sheets and documents used in the various types of transactions and discover the negotiability and non negotiability of certain aspects in various different type of financings.

This is the place for you.

Formed in 2006, the CFO RoundTable provides senior financial executives with the unique opportunity to network monthly and participate in timely professional development in an environment built by and for their peers. Our diverse membership of over 350 CFOs and senior financial executives work across a broad range of industries, including technology, professional services, life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, and more.

What Does ½ Year Membership Include?

½ Year Membership with the CFO RoundTable (February – June 2012) offers:

• Free attendance to 4 monthly in-person events built by & for our peers, each of which are available for 2 CPE each
• Special discounted rate to attend The CFO Leadership Conference, available for 6 CPE
• Peer to peer networking with senior finance executives
• Fabulous opportunity to get educated on timely topics and remain abreast of changes in our profession
• Exclusive access to membership resources, including membership directory, partner events, news alerts, and more

Our in-person monthly events are held at the conveniently-located LaCava Center at Bentley University, Waltham, MA.

What Does It Cost?

Never has membership with the CFO RoundTable been more affordable:

• Past members of the CFO RoundTable can renew their February – June membership for a total cost of $150
• New members of the CFO RoundTable can initiate their February – June membership for $225 ($150 dues + $75 one-time application fee)

Best of all, you can join with a colleague and save! We offer a 25% discount on your membership fee if you join with another finance executive from your company (Discount Code: Double), and a 33% discount on group membership if you register three or more finance executives (Disount Code: Triple).

Ready To Get Started?

Don’t wait – join hundreds of your peers and get your CFO RoundTable membership today!

Have questions, or would you like more information? Click here to contact Becky Blackler or Jack McCullough today.

Join the CFO RoundTable on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 as we explore the idea of leadership from the CFO’s point of view. From the tools and behaviors necessary to establish trust to ethics challenges in the real-world, our world-class line-up of speakers will teach attendees how to successfully bridge the divide between tactics and strategy through proven leadership techniques.

We’ll end the day with an evening auction to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project.

More about this full-day event can be found here:

1. View the day’s agenda
2. Check out our speakers list
3. Learn about our auction to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project