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Hey there,
What happens when the rules for becoming a CPA start shifting state by state while you are trying to plan headcount? Licensure changes are landing on CFO desks, affecting hiring, audit readiness, and succession, while fewer accounting staff hold CPA licenses.
Stick with this one to see why it is turning into a quiet governance issue.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
10-Minute Daily “Covenant Guardrail” Check
In 10 minutes every day, keep a live view of your key debt and covenant metrics so you never discover a breach or a near miss at quarter-end.
Open a simple one-tab “Covenant Guardrail” sheet with yesterday’s ending debt, cash, EBITDA (or EBIT), and any other inputs that feed your covenants (for example, lease obligations or restricted cash).
Have the sheet calculate the few ratios your lenders actually care about: net leverage, interest coverage, fixed-charge coverage, or liquidity, plus the headroom versus each covenant (for example, 0.6x below max leverage).
Color code each ratio and headroom cell Red, Yellow, or Green based on clear thresholds: Red = at or over limit, Yellow = within your internal buffer (for example, less than 0.5x headroom), Green = safely clear.
Add a tiny “Upcoming Triggers” box where you list known events over the next 30–60 days that could move the ratios: big capex, a new debt draw, scheduled amortization, an expected EBITDA dip, or one-time costs.
Type one sentence in a Notes cell answering: “Do we have more or less covenant headroom than last week, and what is one decision we should slow down or accelerate because of it?”
Immediate payoff:
You will spot covenant pressure while you still have options, guide capital allocation decisions with real headroom instead of vague comfort, and walk into lender and board conversations with a crisp daily read on how close you really are to the guardrails.
📊 4 Moves CFOs Use To Turn Supply Chain Data Into P&L Wins
CFOs are reframing the supply chain as a value engine, not a cost center, to accelerate cash flow and protect margins. The playbook is simple, but not easy, and it starts with clean, comparable data tied to decisions and owners. The result is clearer tradeoffs in the room and faster fixes on the floor. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🤝 Supplier Scorecard: Combine on-time delivery, quality escapes, and price variance into one score tied to contract terms and payment.
📈 Win The Board: Show a one-page waterfall from risk avoided to cash released, with each bar linked to an owner and date.
🧾 CPA Rules Shift, CFOs Scramble: 20 States Upend Hiring Plans
CFO.com says the CPA licensure fight jumped to the CFO’s desk in 2025, reshaping hiring, audit readiness, and succession. New York approved an alternate path, Illinois reopened requirements, and roughly 20 states advanced 120-hours-plus-experience options. National bodies sent mixed signals, while fewer than half of public company accounting staff hold licenses, raising board-level risk. See full article.
Fast move:
🧩 120-Hour Option Spreads: New York moved, Illinois reopened rules, and states expanded 120-hours-plus-experience paths, backed by model legislation from AICPA and NASBA.
📉 CPAs Are Scarce: Fewer than half of public company accounting staff hold CPA licenses, with the largest firms showing the lowest ratios.
📈 From Hype To Results: 4 Finance Pilots That Pay in 90 Days
CFO Brew’s event spotlights practical, near-term wins for finance teams. Attendees get a fast filter for use cases, how to scope a tight pilot, and what proof to show the board. The focus is business value, clean data, and clear owners, not buzzwords or moonshots. See full article.
Fast move:
🔍 Pick Use Cases: Triage by business value and data readiness. Start with cash forecasting, invoice coding, and spend anomaly flags.
🧰 Right-Sized Stack: Pair ERP-native features with lightweight add-ons like OCR capture and chat-style query on finance data.
Automation Play Of The Week
Daily Working Capital Pulse in Your Inbox
Automate a one-page daily view of collections, payables, and inventory (if relevant) so you stop asking “How tight is working capital right now?” and instead start the day knowing where you have room and where you do not. This pulse uses your existing bank, ERP, and AP/AR data and can be owned entirely by finance.
Pick the 5–7 working capital KPIs. Decide what you want every morning (e.g., cash on hand, yesterday’s collections, overdue AR, AP due next 7/14 days, DSO estimate, key inventory days/on-hand, and net working capital).
Set up daily exports. Configure your bank, ERP, and AP/AR modules to drop simple CSV reports (cash balances, AR aging, AP due, inventory balances if applicable) into a shared folder with consistent names.
Build a single “Working Capital Pulse” tab. Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull those files in, calculate each KPI on a single summary tab, and add simple 14–30-day trend lines for collections, overdue AR, and AP coming due.
Automate refresh and email. Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to refresh the file at a set time each morning and email the summary as a PDF to you, the controller, and key finance leads.
Benefits:
Highlights pressure points in collections and payables before they turn into liquidity problems.
Gives you a simple, repeatable way to steer vendor payments, collection efforts, and short-term cash decisions from a single shared view.
Control Check:
Once a week, have the controller compare that day’s Working Capital Pulse to the bank portal and ERP AR/AP aging totals to confirm all feeds, mappings, and formulas remain accurate.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
This-or-that: How will you adapt to shifting CPA rules and shortages first?
Why It Matters
Uncertainty in licensing standards can complicate recruiting and raise questions about oversight, especially for public company reporting. CFOs who track the changes early can adapt staffing plans and reduce risk before it becomes a board-level surprise.
Sometimes the biggest disruptions start as paperwork.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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