ACCOUNTING

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It’s a big world. A big, complicated world, full of tedious accounting and finance work that can make CFOs wistfully dream of a simpler world where they have more time to spend strategizing and looking ahead.

More companies large and small are hiring chief accounting officers (CAOs) to take the load off, Tom Gabbert, CEO of fractional accounting and CFO services provider Milestone, told CFO Brew.

Starbucks, for example, appointed Val Bauduin, its SVP of corporate finance and development, as its CAO in June, shifting the nuts-and-bolts accounting work away from CFO Cathy Smith. Also last month, aerospace company Rocket Lab brought in experienced CAO and CPA Agostino Ricupati.

As a business’s finances grow in complexity, the need for specialized accounting skills becomes clearer, Roei Samuel, CEO of fractional service provider Connectd, told us.

“Depending how quickly that complexity appears, that need for specialization can compound pretty quickly. And those inflection points tend to be operational; they tend to be based on revenue complexity, whether there are multi-entity structures coming into place, M&A activity, regulatory exposure, etc., rather than head count alone,” Samuel said.

CFOs are loving the evolution that having a CAO brings, one expert says.—DL

      

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THE ECONOMY

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More than eight in 10 CFOs said operating costs rose last quarter, and the war with Iran is a major reason why.

That’s according to the latest Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) from the Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. The survey polled 647 members of the two accounting organizations worldwide, including a relatively small sample of 52 CFOs, between June 3 and June 17.

Costs have increased sharply in 2026, according to respondents. More than four in five (83%) CFOs said costs were up in Q2, 20 percentage points higher than in Q1 and close to a record. And more than three-quarters of all respondents (76%) stated that operating costs had risen, a record high and far greater than the average of 48% in the survey’s history.

The US-Iran conflict is likely behind the jump in costs, the survey’s authors noted, as it’s driving up commodity prices and causing supply chain disruptions. The future state of the global economy, they wrote, might depend on the war’s outcome.

And they’re expressing doubts about the value of AI.—CV

      

BUDGETING

Dinner Table Club

As AI places sales leaders at a crossroads, the benefits of brand growth and pipeline expansion in other channels are more crucial than ever. Enter events: These often glitzy gatherings of peers in occasionally far-flung locations are becoming essential for elevating a brand and growing relationships.

It seems B2B event intelligence and marketing platform Vendelux wants to make that trip more of a sure thing. It’s attempting to walk the fine line between what AI can do well, and how that can help humans optimize costly and time-consuming in-person encounters.

The best of both worlds: Alex Reynolds, Vendelux’s co-founder and CEO, said many companies were looking to different mediums to find pipeline.

“We’re seeing budgets definitely be reallocated toward events,” Reynolds said. “It was 25%–30% a year ago. That’s going up to 30%–40+% as people are shifting dollars over.”

Revenue Brew reports on a platform that optimizes your event budget.—BS

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: $784 million. That was Meta’s free cash flow in Q2, down from $8.6 billion a year earlier. (CNBC)

Quote: “Everybody has the sword and we all have the ability to unsheathe Excalibur now.”—Troy Johnston, founder of an AI-assisted business, on the rise of million-dollar companies with just one employee (Wall Street Journal)

Read: Hedge fund Citadel rescued AI investment firm Situational Awareness’s underperforming portfolio with a cash injection. Situational promised Citadel “a substantial discount.” (New York Times)

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