Good Morning, CFO
Monday, Aug 18, 2025 • The only newsletter a CFO needs to start the day right. (Made for CFOs who don’t have time to read five newsletters)
☕ here’s what smart CFOs read before their first Zoom of the week…
Headlines & Deadlines
Retail therapy held up. Vibes didn’t.
July retail sales rose, even as early-August consumer sentiment slipped on tariff noise and uncertainty.
Translation: people still swiped, they just felt worse about it.
(Read more here: Advisor Perspectives)
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Culture risk is a finance problem
Audit committees cannot be the only adults in the room. Richard Chambers argues CFOs need to “own” culture risk, resource the right players, and keep their eye on the ball.
If tone at the top hits flat, so will guidance.
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AI shaved a week off the close
Firms adopting AI reported the monthly close finishing 7.5 days faster, with productivity and reporting quality gains that do not require energy drinks or sleeping bags in the conference room.
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Digital tax rules are getting cloud-ier
Remote work and cloud spend have supercharged state and global grabs for revenue. Expect tighter sales-and-use tax and data-location questions on audits. US and EU rule shifts make this a planning item, not a fire drill.
The CFO Briefing
1) Retail pulse check
Consumers kept spending through July, helping retail and food services notch another monthly gain. Early August sentiment, however, softened amid tariff headlines and policy jitters. Net for you: demand is still there, but the patience that supports pricing power is thinner. Tighten promo guardrails and keep a hawk eye on weekly comps. (Advisor Perspectives)
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2) Culture risk hits valuation
“Soft” risks turn hard in the P&L as attrition, restatements, and churn. Map cultural KPIs to financial outcomes, then budget for them: speak-up rates, audit findings cycle time, control failure root-causes, manager 180s. Finance is uniquely positioned to make culture measurable and funded.
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3) Close faster without breaking controls
If your close still eats two workweeks, you are paying a hidden cost of capital. AI-assisted tie-outs, anomaly detection, and narrative drafting are cutting cycle times materially for early adopters. Pilot in reconciliations and flux analysis first.
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4) Cloud tax gotchas to pre-mortem
Document where services are consumed, not just where contracts sit. Align procurement SKUs to tax determination, and rehearse nexus and marketplace facilitator rules. EU’s ViDA timeline and evolving US interpretations mean “we’ll handle it at year-end” is not a strategy.
Fast Facts
40% plus of S&P companies raised guidance this earnings season, a tailwind for risk appetite and capex asks.
Sentiment chatter: the Michigan team flagged heightened tariff uncertainty as a drag on consumer mood.
What We’re Reading
IRS data-sharing firestorm: New scrutiny on privacy after reports of information flowing to immigration enforcement. Your comms and tax teams need a consistent stance.
Roblox sued in Louisiana over child safety: A reminder that platform risk turns into regulatory risk turns into payment risk. Model it. (ProPublica)
China slowdown watch: July data underscored the tariff drag on activity. Useful for your APAC scenarios and FX hedging tweaks. (Forbes)
Morning Hacks
Close-time bounty: Put a bounty on manual steps. Every spreadsheet eliminated earns a day back at quarter-end. Track bounties like savings. Then pay them.
Culture dashboard: Add three lines to the board pack this month: unresolved substantiated hotline cases, repeat control failures by owner, regretted attrition in finance and revenue ops.
Final word
Consumers are spending, just with a worse mood. Culture is a control, not a poster. AI belongs on the close checklist. And tax is following your cloud spend like a heat-seeking missile. Plan accordingly, then go win your week.
Written by the caffeine-fueled finance nerds behind Good Morning, CFO. Forward to a CFO who hates reading five newsletters before 9 a.m.
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