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Hey there,
What happens when finance leaders feel confident enough to move fast, but the risks are getting sharper at the same time? Surveys show CFOs are leaning into automation and software agents to speed close cycles, cut costs, and improve decisions, while security fears, shaky data, and geopolitical surprises loom in the background.
Take a moment to see the moves that can make 2026 feel smoother, and the blind spots that can quietly derail it.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
10-Minute Daily “Customer Concentration” Check
In 10 minutes every day, keep a sharp eye on how dependent you are on a handful of customers so you can balance growth with resilience.
Pull yesterday’s revenue (or billings) by customer from your ERP or BI tool, at least for the last 30 days, and export to a simple sheet with Customer, Amount, and Segment.
Roll it up to show the Top 10 customers by revenue for the last 30 days and calculate each one’s % of Total Revenue, plus the cumulative % for the Top 5 and Top 10.
Next, pull your current AR aging by customer and calculate the % of total AR tied up with those Top 10 customers.
Add three quick tags per customer: Strategic Importance (High/Medium/Low), Payment Behavior (On Time / Slipping / Slow), and Risk (Comfortable / Watch / Concentrated).
Highlight any customer that shows up as both a large share of revenue and a large share of AR, especially if Payment Behavior is Slipping or Slow, and jot down one concrete action (e.g., exec touch, tightened terms, or a diversification goal).
Once or twice a week, drop a screenshot of this “Customer Concentration” view into your exec channel so the CEO, CRO, and CS see exactly how much of the company sits in a few relationships.
Immediate payoff:
You will spot unhealthy reliance on a handful of logos early, have better-timed conversations about terms and diversification, and your finance team will build a daily habit of watching not just how much you sell, but who you are truly exposed to.
📊 CFOs Bet On Automation: 6 Moves That Will Shape 2026
Deloitte surveyed 200 North American CFOs, and confidence rebounded. Half now prioritize finance transformation, 63% show increased M&A interest, and 48% say customer shifts will impact performance. The key is smarter software and agents, moving from pilots to full deployment. Expect automation to enhance productivity, cut costs, and accelerate decision-making. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🔧 Transformation Leads: 50% rank in finance transformation No. 1, focusing on automating processes to reduce complexity and increase output across core workflows.
🤖 Agents Go Operational: 54% prioritize deploying software agents in finance,
shifting from pilots to daily operations that accelerate closings.
🔐 CFO Confidence Holds, But Security Fears Spike To 77%
Kyriba’s OPR Index, which surveys 1,400 CFOs across eight countries, indicates global confidence at 93.28. Leaders expect software to reshape finance, yet 77% highlight security and privacy risks. The key is tighter data security, fraud controls, and faster forecasting, which turn growth from slogans into actionable plans. Look forward to more scenarios, quicker reports, and improved liquidity decisions next. See full article.
Fast move:
🛡️ Trust Gap Persists: 77% flag security and privacy risks. Priorities: adoption 53%, data reliability 31%, fraud prevention 27%, building confidence to scale responsibly.
📏 Confidence, quantified: OPR score 93.28 from 1,400 CFOs. Optimism 77.43, readiness 90.21, risk 74.36. Signal: cautious, not gloomy.
⚠️ CFOs Miss Four Risks That Can Derail 2026 Plans
CFO Brew highlights hidden risks that could disrupt this year’s plans: geopolitical and regulatory shocks, unreliable data behind automation investments, vendor and talent vulnerabilities, and misaligned stakeholders. These four execution risks are already trending in finance discussions and will determine whether plans become results. See full article.
Fast move:
🌍 Geopolitics Bites: Tariffs and rapidly changing regulations disrupt supply chains and profit margins, requiring more flexible strategies and quicker adjustments.
🧪 Bad data, bad decisions: Poor data quality clouds dashboards and ROI analysis, turning automation efforts into slow, costly detours.
Automation Play Of The Week
Daily Project Margin & Utilization Pulse
Automate a one-page daily view of project margin and team utilization so you stop asking “Which projects are actually making money?” and instead start the day knowing where delivery and profit are drifting. This pulse uses your existing ERP, time-tracking, and billing data and can be owned entirely by finance with light help from ops.
Pick the 5–7 KPIs: Decide what you want every morning (e.g., revenue and gross margin by project, billable vs non-billable hours, utilization by team, projects under target margin, and projects over budgeted hours).
Set up daily exports: Configure your time-tracking/PSA tool and your ERP/billing system to drop simple CSVs into a shared folder with consistent column names (project ID, client, hours by role, billings, direct costs, budgeted hours).
Build a single “Project Pulse” tab: Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull those files in, calculate margin and utilization on one summary tab, and flag projects below target margin or above, say, 90% of budgeted hours.
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, delivery leadership, and project managers.
Benefits:
Gives you a daily, CFO-grade view of which projects drive profit, which are underwater, and where capacity is tight.
Helps delivery and finance make quick course corrections on pricing, staffing, and scope before problems show up at the month's end.
Control Check:
Once a week, have FP&A or the controller compare the Project Pulse to the official project ledger and time-tracking reports for a few projects to confirm hours, costs, and margins line up, then tighten mappings or thresholds as needed.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
What would you prioritize first to make finance agents real in 2026?
Why It Matters
Automation is shifting from experiments to daily operations, and that can be a real advantage if the foundation is solid. The payoff comes when teams pair smarter tools with tighter data, fraud controls, and scenario planning, and when they manage vendor and stakeholder risk like a core part of execution.
In 2026, speed will matter, but trust and readiness will decide who can actually use it.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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