In “Managing in a Downturn: The CFO Survival Guide,” PricewaterhouseCoopers puts together action plans for CFOs to consider as they navigate the treacherous waters of the global recession. PwC combs through the income statement and balance sheet and makes recommendations for each line item. It also examines areas outside the financial statements that the CFO is increasingly being asked to be part of, such as managing risk and decision support.

• Re-assess and re-prioritise strategic capital investment programmes against current and promised benefits
• Review asset base and consider sale and leaseback transactions on facilities and assets
• Review nature of third party relationships with respect to sharing the investment and risk
• Ensure proper controls are in place to monitor the costs and ensure benefits are on track.

• Define optimal operational and change programme framework to include and manage third party expertise and cash
• Establish / re-negotiate third party relationships to offload balance sheet
• Establish a standardised project risk register
• Review opportunities for application and process rationalisation.

• Ongoing programme portfolio management against promised benefits
• Assess opportunities to broaden investment pool to enable further strategic programmes
• Review IT organisational synergy’s and operational cost reduction opportunities
• Consider innovative use of technology to further reduce IT and functional cost base.

• Rapid deployment of receivables specialists to drive cash collection efforts and accelerate the dispute resolution process
• Unearth and analyse reasons for non-payment to increase receivables transparency and Exposure levels
• Work closely with insurers to get full credit protection for their trading with particular companies
• Work with insured's to assist them to understand the policies better or to restructure their risks to optimise cost.

• Review and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of all ‘order-to-cash’ processes, from credit risk assessment to payment receipts
• Develop a cash culture and target driven environment to maximise focus on receivables performance, supported by a robust management information and benchmarking toolkit, Underpinned by effective debt management technology
• Assess risks associated with credit lines and terms of payment.

• Update credit policy with stakeholder buy-in to enable an effective and consistent approach to be applied to the management of credit
• Develop strategy to optimise credit management resources and assess the potential for engaging outsourcing / shared service providers
• Seek to reduce and harmonise payment terms across the business, by industry sector / country best practice.