Rising tide of finance challenges.

• Position: Survey said

The results of the 2015 Finance Priorities Survey from the Financial Executives Research Foundation and Protiviti indicate that finance functions are beyond busy. As the numbers of priorities financial execs face are at an all-time high, the number of finance skills respondents viewed to be higher priorities compared to last year's results also has risen dramatically.

The survey found:

1. Finance functions are striving to gain greater visibility toward the "cash" horizon.

2. Finance execs are placing more importance on strategic planning, risk management, executive dashboards, profitability analysis and other strategic areas of financial analysis.

3. Finance functions want to manage and improve related processes in a comprehensive manner. Strategic planning, budgeting and forecasting rank among the highest priorities...