When President Donald Trump was elected to his second term, he made it clear that he would lean heavily on new tariffs. The last year and a half has brought a near-constant stream of tariff changes, spinning an ever more complicated web of rules for companies to navigate as they try to conduct business as usual—and federal courts striking them down have added another layer of uncertainty, forcing companies to repeatedly revise their projections.With the rapid rise of AI and technology systems that can make projections from an array of data, it is possible—but challenging—for CFOs to stay on top of everything. I spoke with James Bowie, managing director of EY’s Technical Accounting Advisory Group, about how CFOs can work through strategies, forecasts and investor communications through the uncertainty of today’s tariff policies. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.Until next time. This is the published version of Forbes' CFO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief finance officers and other leaders focused on the budget. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.Economic IndicatorsMcDonald's in Times Square.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesThere were more signs of a slowing economy last week. In July, the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs—far out of line with economists’ predictions of 83,000 new jobs created. The largest cuts came from local government education, retail and finance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This nudges the unemployment rate down a bit from June—it was 4.1% in July, compared to 4.2% a month earlier—but the labor participation rate, which is the share of people actively employed or seeking positions, was at a more-than-five-year low of 61.4%. Payment processor ADP also reported far fewer new private sector jobs in July than expected: 44,000 jobs created, versus 75,000 expected. As earnings reports come in, companies are showing the impact of the job market stress on consumers. McDonald’s, which a consumer analyst told Forbes is “meaningfully overindexed to lower income households,” reported a U.S. sales increase of just 0.8% last week—coming from higher prices paid by fewer customers. Wendy’s showed a larger slowdown in its earnings report last week with an 8.2% drop in U.S. sales—resulting from declining traffic and restaurant closures. Forbes senior contributor Jim Osman writes the restaurant chain is also showing signs of deeper issues, slashing its dividend in half and withdrawing its financial outlook for the year. But for oil companies, business is booming thanks to the ongoing war in Iran. ExxonMobil reported quarterly earnings of $14.5 billion—more than twice what it made a year ago—and Chevron more than quadrupled its quarterly earnings compared to a year ago, posting $12 billion in the quarter. President Donald Trump remarked that these oil giants were “making too much money.” Meanwhile, Phillips 66 reported $3.8 billion in its latest quarter, and is capitalizing on another military action taken by the Trump administration. The company is the world’s third-largest buyer of Venezuelan crude, and plans to build a leading position in discounted heavy oil grades.CryptocurrencyMore and more financial institutions are offering tokenized deposits to corporate and commercial clients, with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, BlackRock and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation offering these services now or by the fall, writes Forbes’ Nina Bambysheva. Citi estimates that tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030. Tokenization means representing assets with digital tokens on a blockchain. The asset could be several things—deposits, stocks, Treasury bills or money market funds. Bambysheva writes that tokenization just changes how the asset’s ownership is recorded, and funds can move 24/7—a useful schedule for international trades. Tokenization also allows financial institutions to provide depositors with certain claims and protections, blending cryptocurrency with traditional banking rules. And financial institutions offering tokenized deposits keep customers in their financial ecosystem, similar to traditional bank accounts.Much of the current momentum toward tokenization is driven by the popularity of cryptocurrency and policy changes. Stablecoins are now roughly a $300 billion market, Bambysheva writes, paving the way for investors to shift toward buying interest-bearing Treasury funds. Last year’s GENIUS Act, which laid out some rules for cryptocurrency, reinforced the trend of investors moving from stablecoins to Treasuries. In December, the SEC allowed a three-year tokenization pilot by the Depository Trust Company, and in March they approved Nasdaq rules allowing tokenized securities to trade alongside conventional counterparts during the pilot. Off The LedgerHow To Work Through Tariff Uncertainty To Make Financial Projections James Bowie, managing director of EY's Technical Accounting Advisory Group.EYCFOs are accustomed to factoring tariffs and supply chain disruptions into their financial planning. But with President Donald Trump’s chaotic new tariff policies—and courts sometimes pausing or overturning levies that have already been paid—CFOs have more uncertainty to pull into their projections, forecasts and reports to investors.James Bowie, managing director of EY’s Technical Accounting Advisory Group, talked to me about how CFOs can manage this uncertainty—which he added also applies to AI. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.We have seen many tariff policies announced and then changing dramatically by the day, with enactment dates sometimes just weeks in advance. In this situation, how forward-thinking can CFOs be? Are they trying to figure out the next tariff, or are they more looking at the big picture?Bowie: CFOs should be talking with their strategic advisors to understand the lay of the land and where there’s perceived future change, really connecting with those who are connected to near-term updates. Also, they should have a reasoned approach in considering what are the possible changes. How do we continue to move the business forward on a strategic basis, while navigating the fact that some of these changes can occur? The uncertainty about a change that may have moved very quickly—either on, off, or it may be imposed in the future—-is just part of planning, as well as considering how that doesn’t get in the way of strategic planning otherwise, making sure the company has its own strategy as a north star while still adapting to the waves as they roll. This is just one area where that is going on, but it’s not the only area. You see this with companies thinking about the changes from implementation of AI. There’s other supply chain issues that companies are navigating. And an increasing focus of the CFO is being able to provide that real-time information, scenarios and an understanding of what the implications could be so that you can make the best decision based on the information that’s available, then be able to reiterate and go through it and update faster and faster these days. CFOs are expected to be able to respond and provide additional modeling so those decisions can be made on a recurring basis—and being prepared for that to be a more common practice.The CFO also has to speak to investors and try to give them a clear picture of the company’s strategy, where things are going, and what is projected. How can a CFO communicate clearly and accurately?Planning and discussing this with FP&A and Investor Relations to have a cohesive view, a very simple story that tells what situation the company’s actually in, the effects of one-time items like tariff refunds and being able to put those in context, and then providing a clear understanding of the company’s strategy. There can be uncertainty and some turbulence that can exist around: Are these items going to move over time? If they do, the question—or the opportunity—the CFO has, working with Investor Relations, is to provide clear understanding that the company does have a strategy. This is how that strategy is being deployed. Here’s what some of those exposures can be, so that an investor or other analysts can understand not just how you are affected, not just what is the current trend, but what is your actual strategic plan to navigate that uncertainty. That needs to be part of the message: what the strategy is in the midst of uncertainty.What advice would you give CFOs for coming up with a strategy for resilience and communicating to investors?The issues that companies are facing related to tariffs are not the only ones, but it provides a good opportunity to ask: How do we manage other forms of uncertainty? What other decision-useful information do we need? Companies are re-imagining what some of their reporting tools are, and what’s possible in terms of modeling and putting information in front of other key decision makers to help navigate not just this issue, but every issue. Finding the balance between saying ‘more is more’ and gathering all the data that’s possible, and saying, ‘What is the important data that needs to be captured? What are the metrics that we need to consider? What are the potential outcomes we need to model to have decision-useful output?’ It’s not just data. It’s the right data in a way that can help the company cut through its own exposure.Turning that into not just a decision, but a message about that decision. Really thinking about the tailored message for the company as a result of the decisions that they’re making on the data: The exposures that they’re risk mitigating and the potential effects on the business, so they can provide that clear message about both what the company’s strategy is and is subject to change based on the factors that are most relevant. What are those risk factors and how is the company mitigating those? Having a clear strategy—even if you can’t provide clarity to say this will be the answer—is to say, ‘This is how we’re moving the company forward. This is how we’re going to navigate the potential uncertainty here. We might have to make a change as a result of other changes, but we’ll be making those in a coordinated fashion across all the stakeholder groups.’Strategies + AdviceEveryone is experimenting with AI, and your employees have probably discovered ways to use it that would be incredibly useful to you—but they’re not sharing them. Here are three reasons why employees keep their AI accomplishments to themselves, and three ways to encourage them to share what they’ve learned so the whole team can benefit.High performers are often the ones who make it into C-suite roles—but they’re also susceptible to burning out. Though long hours and hard work are likely in your DNA, over time they can add up to a situation impacting your health and life outside of the office. Here are some ways to identify when you’re reaching your limit, and what to do to preserve your well-being.QuizWhich company saw its earnings decline nearly 45% last quarter as a result of increasingly pricey auto injury claims?A. GeicoB. ProgressiveC. AllstateD. W.R. Berkley CorporationSee if you got the right answer here.