TBH, this was a tough cheat sheet roundup to write. Summer is here, there’s yard work to be done, drinks on the patio to be had, and digging through LinkedIn seems low on the priority list. But, as they say, there’s gold in them there hills (and as much as we want to goof off, there’s still work to be done.)

To help you navigate through the challenges of finance and accounting work—and fight off the urge to ditch it all for a pitcher of margaritas—we’ve gathered LinkedIn cheat sheets on using better language during presentations, what CFOs are looking for in controllers, and FP&A KPIs.

Our usual disclaimer to the wise: You should always look for additional resources and expertise when doing complicated finance work because it can be very difficult to accurately sum up sophisticated concepts in a single cheat sheet.

With that said, take a look at these useful finance cheat sheets CFO Brew recently found on LinkedIn.

• Ryan Donaghy’s “Stop repeating yourself in meetings.” We’ve all sat through dull meetings that should have been emails. And, if we’re honest, we’ve caught ourselves droning on repetitively in meetings that we were running. Donaghy, a specialist English communications skills coach, offers a PDF with six tips for freshening up and energizing your language during presentations.

For more LinkedIn cheat sheets, click here.—DA

As a finance pro, you’re probably dealing with a lot of numbers…almost all the time. But which numbers and KPIs are the most important, and how do you use those KPIs to benefit your biz?

Get answers to your number q’s with this free guide from business owner and coach Bernie Smith. Essential Financial KPIs covers a carefully gathered selection of pivotal finance KPIs—and shows you how to put them into practice.

Download this KPI guidebook to get:

• formulas to help you implement your freshly chosen KPIs
• clear definitions of key finance KPIs
• applicable case studies with step-by-step application on how each KPI works

Get your free guidebook.

It looks like the AI buck is stopping the CFO’s office: It’s up to the CFO to responsibly direct the organization through its journey in adopting cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, according to experts at Gartner’s CFO & Finance Executive Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

“We see real enterprise level organizational challenges emerging with early [AI] adopters,” Clement Christensen, senior director and analyst at Gartner, told a crowd of roughly 1,500 people at the conference’s opening keynote.

Gartner groups the challenges with AI implementation into four “stalls,” which include cost overruns, misuse of decision-making, loss of external trust, and mindsets. Companies of any size and geography are susceptible to the stalls, which “will derail your teams, slow your progress, and could even upend your organizations,” Christensen said.

Addressing these AI-specific challenges “requires an active engagement…from CFOs,” Nisha Bhandare, vice president and analyst at Gartner, told the crowd.

“While all other executives in your organization are focused around the rewards and technical challenges of AI, it will fall on you, the CFO, to navigate the enterprise through these four stalls,” she said.

Click here to read more about avoiding “AI stalls”.—AZ

Amy Ferris, CFO of the Washington State Department of Health, has thoughts to share on the evolution of the role of a finance leader.

We listened.

CFO Brew recently sat down with Ferris at the Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference, where she explained why CFOs must use their voice as leaders and also view issues through a lens that goes beyond the finance function.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you also expand on your comments that the CFO should look at issues from a perspective that goes beyond finance?

We’re a leader of an organization. We’re not there to speak to just our piece. We’re invited in—and you’re going to have to be invited in—as being appointed as a leader in the organization, they [the CEO or agency head] are saying, “I want you here in this organization.” You have so much more to bring than just your perspective for the business that you serve, and it’s not overstepping.

An example I’ll give is, when we’re talking about what our priorities are, and what’s happening—we may say workforce, we may be talking about our healthcare branch that we’re building out—I can speak to what I’ve heard from partners, what I’ve seen from the programs and the services that have come up internally, and I can talk about finance. They can talk about finance, too. So, I just don’t want CFOs to always feel like you have to stay in the box of only talking about the area that you are working. You’re a leader in the organization, you’re a talented human being. Use your voice, share, give input.

Click here to continue reading.—AZ

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