I know few CFOs who take the time to forecast the cash flow more than once a quarter, but in my book that’s a mistake. Cash flow forecasts are critical tools for monitoring the health of a company, and should be done monthly. — by Ed Gromann, CPO, Centage Corporation Here’s why: Cash flow forecasts tell you whether or not you will have enough cash to fund the priorities the executive team and Board have set for the year. Let’s say your Board has set a top-level goal to grow revenue by 20% in…

Earlier this year, reports revealed that record levels of fintech investment had been seen in the UK since February 2018, reaching an all-time high of £2.6bn. The fintech sector itself is still relatively young, but as this industry matures, the trends and patterns in investment are inevitably set to change as companies look to scale up their businesses. — by Jonathan Dawson, Senior Manager, haysmacintyre

If you own a business, or ever strive to do so, you should know that accepting credit cards is pivotal for the long-term success of your business. This means that knowing the cost of processing credit card payments is vital to operating efficiently. Otherwise you may find that unexpected costs are eating away at your margins. — by Samantha Shattuck, Director of Brand Marketing, NAB So exactly how much will credit card processing fees cost in 2019? The standard fees vary from 1.5% to 2.9% for swiped credit cards, and keyed-in transactions can have a much higher standard processing fee; we’re talking 3.5% to compensate for the…

Yes, a few years ago getting an accounting degree, spending afew years in public accounting, handling accounts receivables & payables and managing finance operations may have been the typical career path for a high tech CFO, but the world has changed significantly. The new age CFO has been elevated to new heights. — by Igor Sill In the old days the CFO would compete for corporate resources so as to optimize company performance, but today’s organizations and market challenges have changed, considerably. Board of Directors and investors demand greater performance with higher valuation expectations along with market disruptive strategies. Today, the CFO needs…

2018 was a banner year for fintech VC, with the lending segment consistently emerging as a leading repository for VC dollars. Over the last decade, fintech lenders have helped fill a void as big banks pulled back on making small business and personal loans in the wake of the “Great Recession.” — by Hussein Ahmed, CEO and Founder, Oxygen Today, there are next-generation lending services for individuals seeking loans (based on FICO scores and verifiable employment status and income) and small businesses (based on business cash flow, assets and collateral). …

The pitfalls of cryptocurrencies have once again been laid bare, with the news that Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Quadriga, has applied for creditor protection having been brought to a standstill following the sudden death of its young founder, Gerald Cotton. — by Richard Clayman, Associate, Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP An estimated £105 million of digital currency is currently ‘lost’, believed to have been managed by Cotton from an off-line, encrypted “cold wallet”, which is, for now, inaccessible to Quadriga’s customers.

In 2015, the number of people investing in cryptocurrencies was estimated to be between 500,000 and 1,000,000 worldwide. In the last three years, we’ve seen the market cap of the original cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) grow from $6bn to $63bn, and the number of individuals investing in cryptocurrencies skyrocket with claims that a third of millennials in the UK have invested and one in five UK adults have considered investing in cryptocurrencies. This has become a challenge too big for HMRC to ignore and in December 2018, HMRC published its first detailed tax legislation for individuals who hold, trade or mine cryptocurrencies.

What separates P2P lending from banking? As it happens, not a lot. Mechanically they operate in essentially the same way. The main differences lie in four areas: scale, risk, reward, and control. — by Matthew Morgan, Content Executive, Agrud Technology P2P lenders are usually of a smaller scale than banks, present greater risk to investors, but also have a much higher potential return. P2P gives full control to lenders regarding who they want to lend to and allow rates to be agreed between…

Bitcoin, and Blockchain, the technology on which it is based, have become something of buzzwords ever since Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 white-paper [1] introduced the concept of Bitcoin to the community. As this exciting technology finds wider adoption, many of us working in the IP field are turning their eyes as to how this technology may be patented so that innovation in this area can be encouraged and cultivated.