Clear Thinking About Cash, Finance, Technology & Transformation
The Clear Cycle Dispatch explores the ideas, decisions, and operating realities shaping modern finance organizations
Featured Articles
Is Your Finance Function Ready for AI, or Just Buying AI Tools?
Buying AI has never been easier. ERP, AR, AP, and treasury vendors all sell some form of AI capability now. Signing the contract and launching a pilot can make it look like progress on the quarterly review, even when the way the work gets done has not changed at all.
What Three Days Chairing SSOW Taught Me
In September, I had the privilege of chairing Shared Services & Outsourcing Week in San Diego. Chairing means you move between rooms all week, from keynotes to case studies to discussion groups, and you start to hear the same ideas from people who have never met.
Tariff Reconciliation and Reimbursement: What AR and Q2C Teams Need to Do Now
How your company billed tariff costs in 2025 determines your legal and operational exposure today. If you separately itemized surcharges rather than embedding them in price, customers have a basis to claim reimbursement from you, and that awareness is spreading quickly through the buyer community.
The ROI of AI Orchestration
In Issues 23 and 25, I wrote about outcome based contracting and the measurement discipline it requires from GBS. The attribution gap, the baseline problem, and the governance work that goes into verifying what a platform actually delivered versus everything else happening in the business at the same time.
The Conditions for Establishing a Successful GBS
In Issue 22 I wrote about why PE backed companies consistently underdeliver on GBS transformation. The constraints they face are often insurmountable . Compressed hold periods, LP pressure for early wins, talent gaps in their portfolio companies, and consulting incentives that favor structural decisions over root cause work.
Vendors are Betting on Your Outcomes. Are You Ready?
In February of this year a major finance automation platform changed its entire fee structure. Zero implementation fees. Zero subscription fees until go-live. Revenue earned only as a fraction of actual savings delivered based on measurable P&L impact.
How Can GBS Help the Enterprise Pay Down Debt?
HFS Research recently published an article titled “The AI balloon is bursting and services must be ready to pick up the pieces” and I’ve dubbed it “Wall Street versus Main Street”.
From Debt Paydown to Agent Deployment Issue No. 29
In Issue 28, we talked about what happens when enterprises try to deploy AI agents into processes that still carry process and data debt. More often than not, they stall or fail.
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