CFOS

Puppy love

This is part of our occasional series on CFOs’ first day on their current job.

We love our furry friends, but even the bestest of boys can easily dig up an expensive visit to the veterinarian after an unfortunate rope toy accident.

One way some pet owners opt to avoid large veterinary bills is through the classic risk-transfer mechanism: insurance. Pet insurance seems to be growing in popularity, as the industry has seen double-digit growth in gross written premiums dating back at least six years, according to 2023 research from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association.

“[What] we’re driving towards is a cultural change in the US where buying pet insurance is considered as essential to pet ownership as buying pet food,” Jamie Specht, CFO of online pet insurance marketplace Pawlicy Advisor. “My job as a CFO is to allocate and leverage our resources to unlock the biggest impact to the veterinary and pet community as rapidly as we can in an economically sustainable manner.”

Specht recently spoke with CFO Brew to shed some light (but no fur) on the challenges he took on as stepping into the role of finance chief at Pawlicy Advisor.

For more on how Jamie prepared for his first day as CFO, click here.—AZ

PRESENTED BY BASWARE

AP’s the MVP

Accounts Payable (AP) may be evolving with the times, but the same challenges are still sticking around. *Shakes fist at the sky.*

Turn AP into a major strategic player—and leave lengthy invoice processes and excess paperwork behind—with Basware and Ardent Partner’s AP Metrics That Matter in 2024 report.

Let’s face it: From too-long invoice cycles to slow processing and mixed invoice formats, AP gets bogged down with a whole lot of paperwork. By tracking the right metrics (+ boosting efficiency), AP can play a bigger role in supporting financial decision-makers and ops instead.

In the report, you’ll learn what it takes to transform AP into your MVP. Here’s how other teams are winning big:

• lowering invoice-processing costs
• increasing invoice-processing times
• incorporating touchless invoices

Get in the game.

COMPLIANCE

Delay of game

The SEC’s embattled climate disclosure rule has hit another roadblock.

The agency decided to pause implementation of the rule to give the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit time to review the many petitions filed against it. Various parties, including the US Chamber of Commerce, 25 Republican attorneys general, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, and fracking company Liberty Energy have filed legal challenges against the climate rule.

They’ve argued, in effect, that the SEC lacked the authority to implement the rule, and that it would be too burdensome for companies to implement. (And, proving that you can’t satisfy anybody, the Sierra Club has also sued over the rule, claiming it doesn’t go far enough.)

The SEC said in its stay order that it hopes the pause will help companies avoid uncertainty as to whether they need to comply with the rule while it faces legal challenges. It’s paused actions due to court cases before: In 2010, it stayed a rule about electing company directors, and in 2019 it paused a pilot program testing lower stock market fees.

For more on the climate rule pause, click here.—CV

EARNINGS

Temptation time

Tired of waiting for more of us to snap into a Slim Jim, sip some Swiss Miss, or spoon Hunt’s tomato paste into a saucepan, Conagra has been spending more on marketing to lure shoppers back from cheaper store brands. That merchandising, along with some price hikes and internal cost savings, helped the company stem losses in the quarter ending Feb. 25, it reported on April 4.

Sales of packaged and frozen foods have fallen in recent years as manufacturers raised prices, and analysts were expecting greater losses from the Chicago-based company. While organic net sales fell 2% in the quarter, nearly all of that due to lower volume, the drop would have been larger if Conagra hadn’t raised prices on some grocery products and snacks and increased merchandising to boost its unit share. Earnings per share fell 9.9% year over year, the company reported.

CFO Dave Marberger said the 3.4% annual increase in grocery and snack sales was due in part to passing on higher tomato costs to consumers, who kept buying despite the higher prices. CEO Sean Connolly said it would take more time for the full impact of Conagra’s price hikes to show up in its margins.

Conagra has also been “claw[ing] back” gross margins, Connolly said, “after the initial compression from all the huge inflation we experienced a couple of years ago.” The cost of ingredients has increased for some vegetables, sweeteners, and starches, Marberger said. Manufacturing costs including labor and transportation have been “slightly higher,” he said, but they’ve been manageable.

Click here to continue reading.—GD

TOGETHER WITH DEEL

Those payroll systems could be costin’ ya. A recently commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Deel analyzed responses from 300+ payroll and finance pros. The goal? Uncover the hidden costs of running payroll across multiple systems. Get the study to learn about innovative solutions and why unified payroll is key to success.

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