Finance and Accounting (F&A) teams are expected to do more than ensure compliance – they must now manage a growing array of risks while enhancing resilience and business value. Traditional risk management methods, such as periodic audits and retrospective controls, are no longer sufficient in today’s environment of macroeconomic volatility, digital transaction complexities, and heightened regulatory scrutiny. This Viewpoint introduces Finance Risk Intelligence (FRI) as a dedicated, AI-powered capability designed to embed continuous, predictive, and autonomous risk monitoring across the F&A value chain. FRI represents a distinct evolution in the F&A technology stack. These solutions function as an intelligence layer that integrates with ERP and process execution platforms to ingest financial transaction data, apply layered AI models for anomaly detection, and enable near real-time intervention. The report outlines the FRI architecture, comprising data processing, intelligence, and action layers, and details how enterprises can use FRI for use cases across procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, and record-to-report processes. It also presents the emerging provider landscape and provides practical adoption guidance, including imperatives to align people, processes, and technology.

Current cost pressures and the increased need for regulatory compliance to avoid costly penalties from tax authorities have accelerated the adoption of tax outsourcing. Tax outsourcing lowers operating costs for organizations and provides them access to better quality, scalable talent and the ability to transform their tax functions. Organizations are leveraging tax providers’ services through various constructs such as tax advisory, technology support, managed services, and tax CoE setups. In this report, we explore the capabilities of different types of tax providers, such as the Big 4s, tax specialists, and traditional F&A managed services providers. Furthermore, we explore how the convergence of providers’ capabilities will likely characterize the tax service provider landscape’s future, as providers aim to be the jacks of all trades beyond their current primary area(s) of focus. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we examine: The recent evolution of tax sourcing The engagement between enterprises and tax service providers Tax service provider landscape’s recent evolution and future Memberships Finance and Accounting Sourcing and Vendor Management

COVID-19 has compelled organizations to take a hard look at their business models and associated societal license to operate. Organizations recognize that they cannot go about their businesses in isolation from their people, society, and environment. CFOs and finance leaders need to play a key role in ensuring that Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are a part of their companies’ core strategies and integrate them into business decision-making. As a finance leader, it is imperative to define a robust governance framework aligned with the organizational strategy to implement ESG initiatives and demonstrate success through a set of measurable and standardized metrics. Initiatives such as climate accounting, ESG investing, and carbon disclosures are the first steps in the right direction. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we explore the role of finance organizations and CFO offices in the context of ESG and examine: Evolution of ESG programs over the years Key drivers and expected benefits from ESG Overview of a purpose-driven ESG program ESG integration with investment, accounting, and business decision-making ESG performance metrics – financial and non-financial Membership(s) Finance and Accounting Sourcing and Vendor Management

The threat of COVID-19 has caused unprecedented levels of global disruption, requiring businesses to reassess their priorities. CFOs are busy helping their businesses navigate through an environment characterized by extreme uncertainty. At the same time, they recognize the dire need to develop a long-term strategy to enable their businesses to remain relevant and viable as they come out of this period of disruption. To understand how CFOs’ roles and business imperatives are evolving, Everest Group conducted the Global CFO Survey 2020, whose findings we lay out in this report. Scope All industries and geographies Source: Global CFO Survey 2020, in which more than 300 CFOs and their direct reportees across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa from more than 20 industry sectors participated Contents In this study, we share key findings and insights obtained through the Global CFO Survey 2020 and present them under the following topics: COVID-19 disruption – impact and CFO reactions Emergence of a new normal Building a future-ready organization Membership(s) Finance & Accounting Outsourcing Sourcing and Vendor Management