CFOs, you can take a deep breath.

In the weeks since the Securities and Exchange Commission released its proposal to make quarterly reporting optional, the general consensus has become that your company will only have to change its cadence of public filing as much as you want it to. Many companies will stay the course and wait or decline to move to a semiannual reporting cadence.

We should clarify, though: You can take a nice deep breath, but it’s not time for a full-on, blissed-out meditation session. Quite the opposite, actually.

For firms that switch to semiannual reporting, there could be a serious side effect: CFOs could increasingly land in the hot seat, securities experts caution. What does that mean? Their every word during the six months between filings will take on more weight—with analysts, investors, and by extension, the SEC. Under Regulation Fair Disclosure, if a CFO or any executive discloses material nonpublic information to an individual or entity—like an analyst or institutional investor—it must disclose that information publicly.

“If I’m a CFO, I’m worried about…being forced, maybe by management, into making disclosures that then put me in the hot seat with the SEC,” Lisa Bragança, a former SEC branch chief who leads a securities defense law firm, told CFO Brew.

Why semiannual reporting could increase the risk of fair disclosure violations.—NP

The Securities and Exchange Commission is out with a fresh set of proposed regulatory rollbacks meant to encourage IPOs. The proposals would, among other things, effectively reduce the number of companies required to obtain an independent external auditor’s attestation of their internal financial-reporting controls—a requirement introduced in Sarbanes-Oxley and commonly called SOX 404(b).

The rule changes “reflect a clear directional shift” in the SEC’s enforcement philosophy under Chair Paul Atkins, Kaela Dahan, counsel in law firm Reed Smith’s regulatory and investigations group, wrote in an email to CFO Brew.

But they do not diminish the need for organizations to have strong internal controls and processes, according to other experts we spoke with.

“I think now CFOs are going to have to [say], ‘Does this really matter? Is this really an inherent part of your organization, or was this just more of a compliance function?’” Steve Soter, VP and industry principal at Workiva, told CFO Brew. “I think that’s where the rubber is going to hit the road for CFOs, is being able to appropriately prioritize [internal controls] without the teeth of that auditor attestation.”

How smaller companies that go public will benefit.—AZ

For NFL fans, the average viewing experience is usually made up of three simple elements: a working television, a couch, and perhaps a cold drink. As for the games they’re watching, the matchups, stadiums, times, and stations are the culmination of careful consideration around sporting trends, weather, league desires, and, of course, AI analytics.

The NFL is a business, and scheduling can go a long way toward maximizing two important revenue streams: ticket sales and TV viewership.

Play it forward: This is where Recentive Analytics, an AI-driven predictive analytics and optimization software platform, comes in to draw up the right play at the right time.

The company, which also works with MLB, the Premier League, and a handful of franchises across the sports world, uses AI analytics to create schedules that can predict ticket sales and viewership using factors ranging from vehicle traffic and fan interest to metrics as granular as sun coverage.

“[We do] everything from effectively giving [the NFL] a prediction for every single game and every possible scenario in every single window,” Andy Tabrizi, CEO of Recentive Analytics, told Revenue Brew.

Read Revenue Brew for more about the analytics helping the NFL maximize revenue.—BS

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