From taxes to tech, here’s what mattered to CFOs this week

Here’s what happened this week:

The tax filing deadline was pushed back by the IRS this year to May 17. A delay in the deadline “absolutely” impacts H&R Block’s workflow, the company’s CFO Tony Bowen told me. “Just trying to forecast the volume of clients that are going to want to come in and file their taxes, and then making sure that we staff to meet that volume is obviously a lot of effort,” Bowen said. He shared how H&R Block navigated tax season, how he filed his taxes, and what led him to a career in finance. 

Twilio powers digital communications for its more than 235,000 customers; and it serves over 10 million developer accounts. When you interact with DoorDash‘s app via text—you’re also interacting with Twilio, or at least its APIs behind the scenes, CFO Khozema Shipchandler said. “We’re huge believers in the API economy,” Shipchandler said. Twilio started out creating APIs for businesses and consumers to digitally communicate, but soon took a nod from its clients who said they wanted better customer engagement, he said.

“Profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive,” John Rainey, CFO and EVP of global customer operations at PayPal, said. Rainey talked with me about PayPal’s continual focus on the financial health of its employees detailed in the fintech company’s recent 2020 Global Impact report. A key metric? PayPal is focused on leaving employees with a higher percentage of NDI, or net disposable income, which is the money they have left to spend after paying living expenses and taxes.

Tom Walker, CFO of the Dallas Cowboys Football Club, oversees all of team owner Jerry Jones’ family businesses. “For my finance team, one of the things that’s been pivotal is an automated solution to make our monthly close process as efficient and streamlined as possible,” Walker said. He and his finance team worked with Trintech, a privately held financial software firm, to implement a cloud-based automation program. Walker and Darren Heffernan, president at Trintech, and a former CFO at the firm, teamed up to tell me how they’ve scored a touchdown with automation and forecasting.

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See you Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

American Express and American Express Global Business Travel released a Back to Blue Skies report on May 20. The data is based on a survey of corporate travelers and decision makers at U.S. businesses. Respondents pointed to business travel as a driver for company culture and career development, which can potentially lead to increased profit and revenue.

Courtesy of American Express

Going deeper

Here are a few good Fortune weekend reads:

This Silicon Valley VC likes to keep a low profile—no easy feat when you have one of the biggest IPO years in history by Michal Lev-Ram

Baby boomers support employers requiring proof of vaccination. Gen Zers oppose it by Lance Lambert

Why did the CEO of the world’s most valuable startup resign at age 38? by Eamon Barrett

Bitcoin must stay above this level for Elon Musk's bet to be in the black by Shawn Tully

Leaderboard

Some notable moves from this past week:

Jeremy Barnum was named CFO at JPMorgan Chase & Co., effective immediately. Barnum succeeds Jennifer Piepszak as CFO. Piepszak was promoted to co-head the consumer and community banking business. Prior to his appointment, Barnum was the head of global research, and he also served as CFO for the Corporate & Investment Bank from 2013 through the beginning of 2021.

Shawn Guertin was named EVP and CFO at CVS Health, effective May 28, 2021. Guertin worked at Aetna for eight years, where he was EVP, CFO, and chief enterprise risk officer.

Ursula Hurley was named acting CFO at JetBlue, effective June 12, 2021, in addition to her current duties as head of treasury and investor relations. Hurley began her career at the company 17 years ago. 

Steve Priest was named CFO at eBay Inc., a global commerce company. Priest will join the company on June 21, 2021. He most recently served as CFO at JetBlue.

 

Overheard

"We're here to make the world better. I know it sounds stupid, but it's true."

—Toni Petersson, CEO of Oatly, a Swedish oat drink company, on the product's minimal environmental impact, as reported by the Associated Press.