Throughout the month, we hosted four CPE-eligible webinars addressing some of the most pressing business issues shaping 2025, along with practical, forward-looking strategies to help organizations start the new year with confidence.
Across more than 12 hours of programming, 28 subject-matter experts shared insights with over 2,000 registrants. The series highlighted the complex challenges leaders are navigating today across a wide range of business topics.
Below is a recap of our Audit session, which brought together perspectives from our audit and assurance teams. For those interested in a deeper dive, the recording is available and remains CPE-eligible.
Economic and Business Environment Update
- Monitor Key Economic Indicators: Monitor GDP, inflation, labor market, and manufacturing trends to guide business planning, while remaining vigilant to political changes, tariffs, and regulatory updates that may affect operations.
- Manage Risk and Liquidity: Stress test cash flows and optimize working capital while maintaining open communication with customers, vendors, and lenders to identify and address issues early.
- Invest in Technology and Talent: Regularly review and update your technology stack—including AI adoption—while aligning talent planning with long-term goals through strategic hiring and upskilling.
- Adapt to Market Volatility: Refine spending and cost management without sacrificing investments in technology or talent, while preparing for global disruptions such as supply chain or energy price fluctuations by building flexible strategies.
Transitioning from Auditor to CFO and Back
- Broaden Perspective Beyond Compliance: Recognize the CFO’s role in strategy, infrastructure, and value creation—not just numbers—while also understanding and overseeing functions like HR, payroll, and benefits for holistic management.
- Embrace Automation and Digital Modernization: Implement automated expense management and accounts payable systems to reduce manual work, and integrate technology across departments to improve visibility and control.
- Foster Auditor-Client Partnerships: Establish regular communication and mutual updates between auditors and finance teams, while respecting business cycles and avoiding major requests during critical reporting periods.
- Use Dashboards and KPIs for Decision-Making: Monitor a select set of key metrics daily to effectively manage profitability and operational efficiency, ensuring focus on the most critical KPIs to prevent data overload and drive strategic action.
AI for Finance Teams
- Develop and Enforce an AI Policy: Establish clear guidelines for acceptable AI use, privacy, and data protection, and evaluate AI tools that to assess if they seamlessly integrate with your technology stack and provide enterprise-grade security.
- Promote Internal AI Adoption: Foster a culture of experimentation and continuous upskilling to maximize AI’s benefits by leveraging AI to accelerate analysis, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance reporting.
- Leverage AI Agents and Prompts: Leverage AI-powered agents to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks—such as contract review and financial data extraction—while also utilizing AI to efficiently summarize inboxes, prepare for meetings, and analyze large datasets.
- Safeguard Data Privacy: Prioritize licensed AI solutions to safeguard sensitive financial data, collaborating with IT to establish robust data perimeters and ensure that you are compliant with laws, regulations and contracts for your organization.
IFRS Advantages for Global Organizations
- Evaluate IFRS Adoption for Multinational Entities: Assess the benefits such as cost savings, consistent accounting, and easier consolidation. Consider what the reporting and monitoring process of foreign subsidiaries could look like under a uniform accounting framework.
- Align Accounting Policies Globally: Draft group accounting manuals with full team buy-in and check with subsidiaries for any unique situations at their location. Look for opportunities to select favorable or time saving accounting elections.
- Plan for Conversion Challenges: Being proactive in mapping out a roadmap will save time and effort during the conversion process. Coordinate conversion plans across the organization and engaging IT early to ensure infrastructure readiness.
- Leverage Technology for Compliance: Technology can assist with your conversion process and given the high rate of IFRS use many systems are compatible with this accounting framework.
Equity Transactions and Disclosure Requirements
- Design Tailored Equity Compensation Programs: Balance the interests of employees, management, and investors while maintaining compliance by considering unique awards—such as performance-based, market-based, phantom stock, and SARs—to achieve strategic alignment.
- Ensure Robust Accounting and Disclosure: Apply appropriate valuation techniques and thoroughly document assumptions, while maintaining clear, tabular disclosures to ensure transparency and build stakeholder trust.
- Manage Modifications and Special Scenarios: Recalculate fair value for modified awards and document the rationale, while ensuring that non-employee and non-standard awards are addressed with tailored valuation and accounting approaches.
- Mitigate Risks with Strong Controls: Regularly review assumptions, maintain thorough documentation, and conduct periodic audits, while leveraging automation tools to minimize manual errors and enhance efficiency.
Forecasting, Budgeting, and Going Concern Evaluation
- Implement a Two-Step Going Concern Assessment: Evaluate any conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about continuity, and assess the feasibility and effectiveness of management’s plans to mitigate that doubt.
- Strengthen Internal Controls and Forecasting: Maintain multiple rolling cash flow projections and regularly stress test assumptions, while utilizing checklists and flowcharts to ensure compliance with ASC 205-40.
- Enhance Disclosure Practices: Provide robust disclosures on principal risks, management’s evaluation, and mitigation plans, while maintaining open communication with auditors to ensure alignment on assumptions and required disclosures.
- Prepare for Changing Economic Environments: Adjust processes and controls to address new risks and uncertainties, while proactively engaging in scenario planning and initiating early discussions with lenders and stakeholders
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About Schneider Downs Audit and Assurance Services
Schneider Downs’ engagement teams are hand-selected by our shareholders based on skill sets and experience and are available around the clock for consultation. Each attestation engagement is subject to our comprehensive quality control and risk management system, providing an independent review of audit opinions, related financial statements and significant underlying working papers, to ensure that the highest levels of professional standards are met.
To learn more, visit our Audit and Assurance page, or contact us at [email protected]
