91% of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) believe that their business is in a good position to capitalise on the expected economic up-turn in Q4 and on into 2015.

This is according to a survey undertaken by leading Audit, Tax and Advisory firm, RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, at their CFO Training Series event which took place in Dublin. Respondents consisted of CFOs from companies throughout Ireland.

[rev_slider Surety]

The survey endeavoured to assess attitudes towards the performance of businesses over the coming 12 months and to assess the level of IT advancements Irish businesses have adopted in recent years.

According to David McGarry, Director, with RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, “CFOs are typically the more cautious business leaders, but our survey showed that they were almost bullish in their level of optimism for the Irish business environment with 73% saying that they see an improvement in their business due to the upturn in the economy. This is obviously a hugely positive endorsement.
And this is not just over-ambitious sentiment – 54% of finance professionals surveyed currently have opportunities for employment in their companies and 66% say that they expect to hire new employees in 2015”.

While just over half of the RSM Farrell Grant Sparks survey respondents believe that the recent budget delivered will support Irish businesses, a sizeable 82% of finance professionals believe that the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland will be invaluable to Irish SME’s.

Other survey findings included:
–          Only 40% of finance professionals use cloud applications as part of their finance function, which is relatively low by global standards.
–          66% of finance professionals do not believe that the introduction of Ireland’s new financial reporting framework, which includes FRS 102, will significantly impact their business.
–          77% of finance professionals have a profile on LinkedIn.