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California’s PG&E Crisis: Lessons Learned and the Capex Connection

Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) rise to becoming one of California’s most powerful energy providers was a success story for much of the 20th century. Yet in recent years, costly missteps ultimately sparked tragic wildfires and bankruptcy—marking an unfortunate end to its long reign in the Golden State. So, what are some important takeaways from […]

Top 10 Capital Budgeting Best Practices

When it comes to capital budgeting, there’s no shortage of grievances against the process. And rightly so. A comprehensive capital plan, which takes months to put together, can become obsolete soon after the ink dries. Projects can take forever to make it through complex, manual approval workflows. And making comparisons to a prior year’s plan […]

For This CFO, Nothing’s More Important Than ROIC

Finario sat down with former ITT Corp CFO Tom Scalera to talk about critical issues facing the CFO, including managing ROIC amid shorter tenures. Watch the full interview here. Tom Scalera knows a thing or two about capital planning. As CFO of ITT Corporation for nearly a decade, he oversaw the firm’s vast industrial portfolio, […]

What is an AFE – Authorization for Expenditure – in Capital Planning?

The AFE (authorization for expenditure) process is notoriously complex. It often involves input from various stakeholders across a wide range of departments, and approvals can take months to turn around. But it’s also essential for capital planners to understand. So, in order to help you get a handle on how it works, we’ve put together […]

AFE Processes in the Oil & Gas Industry Leave Room For Improvement

Capex approval workflow processes go by many different names, and getting a handle on the alphabet soup of acronyms can be dizzying. Capital Expenditure Authorizations (CEAs), Capital Expenditure Requests (CERs), and Capital Appropriation Requests (CARs) all refer to the same general process. In the oil & gas industry, the more common term is Authorization for […]

How Does Capex Impact ROIC?

When it comes to CFOs making an impact, they’re up against the clock from the get-go. Relentless shareholder scrutiny, constantly shifting market conditions, and the never-ending specter of organizational changes all add pressure to show results quickly. Chief among them: return on invested capital (ROIC). Why ROIC? Because, according to many, it’s the most important […]

Strategies & Trends in Capital Allocation in the Manufacturing Industry

FP&A’s role in manufacturing is increasingly focused on finding efficiencies while improving revenue and profitability across the entire company.  As such, facing cash flow pressures in 2021, organizations were compelled to revisit and reevaluate their Capex projects. Now, again in 2022, as myriad forces impact supply and demand, companies once again have to determine where […]

Seven Ways to Improve Capex Forecast Accuracy

We all know things rarely go 100% as planned. It’s why, though you start with a budget, you know full well that once the real world of actually conducting business, contracting with vendors, and scheduling labor starts, you’ll need to make updates. That’s why we need a forecast, both from a micro and macro perspective. […]

Capex vs. Opex Software Solutions: How Different Are They?

Understanding the difference between Capex and Opex software starts with the basics: At the highest level, Opex is an expense required for the day to day operation of a company, while Capex is an expense incurred to create a benefit in the future. But operating expenses (Opex) and capital expenses (Capex) are treated quite differently […]