Agenda – 2026 August Forum & EXPO

AI in Credit & Order-to-Cash: Execution, Use Cases, ROI, and Governance for Finance Leaders: Certificate Course

Session 1: AI Applications in Credit & Order-to-Cash — From Hype to Execution ​

Presented by Ali Kidwai, Senior Director, Product, Implementation & Engineering – Bectran

Provide a clear understanding of where AI is delivering real, measurable value across the credit and order-to-cash lifecycle, and how to move from concept to execution.

Key Topics:

• High-impact AI use cases (credit risk, collections, cash application, dispute resolution)
• What’s working vs what’s hype
• Productivity gains and ROI examples
• Build vs buy considerations
• Common implementation pitfalls and lessons learned

SAP Best Practices Discussion Session

Presented by CRF

This is an interactive peer-to-peer informal discussion session that encourages participants to ask questions, share lessons learned, discuss internal and external resources and address process wins and issues remaining. Find out what your colleagues are experiencing.

The following topics will be discussed:

• Implementation & Migration to S4/Hana
• Bolt-on solutions that are working or NOT working
• What SAP modules participants are currently using
• IT resource concerns
• External consultants
• And more!

AI in Credit & Order-to-Cash: Execution, Use Cases, ROI, and Governance for Finance Leaders: Certificate Course

Session 2: AI Governance — Control, Compliance & Responsible Implementation

Presented by Kathleen McGee, Partner – Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Ensure AI and automation initiatives are implemented with the right level of control, transparency, and accountability.

Key Topics:

• What AI governance means in practice
• Model risk, bias, and explainability
• Data privacy, compliance, and auditability
• Human oversight vs automation
• Vendor risk and third-party AI controls
• Governance frameworks that enable (not slow) progress

EXPO & Lunch

The exhibit hall will officially open at 11:30. Join us to network with some of the top service providers in the industry, as well as your peers, and fuel up with lunch before the Forum sessions begin!

Welcome/Opening Comments

Opening comments and reminders from CRF President, Matt Skudera, and Chief Content & Education Officer, Mike Bevilacqua.

Risk Profile Deep Dive from Restructuring Experts: Key Trends Shaping the Second Half and Beyond

Presented by:
Richard Newman, Managing Director – Alvarez & Marsal
Conrad Ragan, Director – Alvarez & Marsal

This session provides a forward-looking view of the evolving risk landscape, highlighting the trends expected to shape the remainder of the year and into early next year. The A&M team brings together compelling data and insights across key industries to outline both near and mid-term risks, helping you anticipate and navigate what’s ahead.

The Trapped Cash Problem: Why $1.7 Trillion Sits Stuck Between Buyer and Bank – and How to Release It

Presented by Jake Fernandez, Manager Product – Billtrust

Every credit and A/R leader knows the number that matters most is DSO — but few frame it the way the data now demands: as cash you’ve already earned, sitting trapped somewhere between your customer’s approval and your bank account. New research puts trapped cash across U.S. receivables at $1.7 trillion, with the average company carrying 11% of revenue tied up in receivables and over half of B2B invoices running late by nearly two weeks.

This session unpacks why AR automation solved the paperwork problem but left the cash problem largely untouched. We’ll look at how AI-powered Credit and Collections speed up the release of trapped cash, and share benchmark data on what top-quartile performers are doing differently. Attendees will leave with a framework for identifying where their own trapped cash lives and a way to talk about the size of the opportunity in terms their CFO will actually act on.

 Break

AI Mythbusters: Preparing Your Portfolio for AI That Actually Delivers

Presented by Rhonda Buras, Dun & Bradstreet

For years, automation was the hallmark of an efficient credit and accounts receivable operation. Today, that buzzword has been replaced by AI. But what does AI really mean for credit and A/R —and what is just hype?

In this session, Dun & Bradstreet’s Rhonda Buras will cut through the hype to explain how AI should be practically applied in credit risk management today. Attendees will learn why any initiative can only be as effective as the data behind it, and how teams can maintain their A/R portfolio’s integrity in the age of AI.

Rhonda will explore how to ensure their portfolio is AI-ready so that the downstream insights can help to surface risk faster, identify patterns, and prioritize where expert judgment matters most. Just as automation once helped teams scale without sacrificing control, AI can enhance—not replace—the role of the credit professional.

EXPO & Reception

Join us for a reception in the exhibit hall – grab a drink and some appetizers as you take another spin around the EXPO and discuss your needs with the industry’s top service providers!

Breakfast

Provided by CRF and Bectran

Fuel up with coffee and breakfast before heading into the morning sessions! This is also a great opportunity to chat and network with other attendees.

Opening Comments

Opening comments and reminders from the Board and CRF team.

Part Acquisitions, Divestitures, and the Hidden Realities in Accounts Receivable: What Credit Leaders Should be Considering and Planning For (Part 2)

Presented by:
Bob Anderson, Director Order-to-Cash – Hubbell
Andrew Behlmann, Partner – Lowenstein Sandler
Ryan Neff, Managing Director – Protiviti
Ali Ashiqali, Managing Director – Protiviti
Phillip Becker, Sr. Credit Risk Mgr. III – Coca-Cola Bottlers

As M&A activity accelerates in an uneven economy, the Accounts Receivable function may be called upon to evaluate and/or execute upon acquisitions and divestitures that impact your portfolio. This session brings together experienced practitioners and professionals to unpack the operational and financial issues that surface during acquisitions and divestitures. Panelists will discuss a myriad of issues that practitioners may face pre and post close, including AR quality, risk categorization, unrecorded credits, customer mix/concentration, bad debt reserves, systems, processes, and people. The discussion will cover potential issues/opportunities within a Transition Services Agreement (TSA) that likely will be in place post-close. These topics will all be covered with an eye to the all-important workforce implications and how best to embrace the change with your team. Participants will walk away with practical guidance to strengthen due diligence, guard against hidden liabilities, and ensure a smoother integration or separation process.

From Invoices to Insights: Practical AI Use Cases Transforming Accounts Receivable

Presented by Sarah-Jayne Martin, Sales Director Upper Mid-Market – Quadient

Accounts receivable teams are under increasing pressure to improve cash flow, reduce manual effort, and deliver a better customer experience—all while managing growing transaction volumes and complexity. This presentation explores the most common and high value use cases for artificial intelligence in accounts receivable, focusing on how AI is being applied today rather than theoretical future state. Topics include intelligent invoice delivery and tracking, automated cash application, predictive collections prioritization, dispute and deduction management, and conversational AI for customer inquiries. The session highlights how embedded AI and automation capabilities can streamline end to end AR processes, surface actionable insights, and enable AR teams to shift from reactive task execution to proactive working capital management. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of where AI delivers measurable value in AR and how to evaluate these use cases within their own organizations.

 Break

Provided by CRF and CRF Solutions

The Cash Doesn’t Lie: Five Myths About AI in O2C (and Where It Actually Creates Value)

Presented by:
Mark Mitchell, SVP – Cadex
Seth Carter, Chief Digital Officer – Cadex
Anthony Buxter, Senior Director of Operations Strategy – Cadex

AI is reshaping Order-to-Cash, but more automation does not automatically mean better outcomes. As organizations race to adopt new tools, the greatest risk may be starting with what AI can do instead of identifying where people, processes, and data are preventing cash from moving.

This session challenges five common myths about AI in credit and collections—from the belief that AI should make collection decisions or replace skilled professionals to the assumption that more automation always means more cash. Through practical examples, the presenters will explore where human judgment still creates value, why automating broken processes can accelerate the wrong outcomes, and how organizations can build toward more advanced AI without skipping the fundamentals.

The takeaway: The best AI strategy isn’t the one that automates the most. It’s the one that removes the most friction between an invoice and the cash it should produce.

“Why Grit is the New Degree”

Presented by:
Adam Easton, VP Credit – Ferguson
Aaron Wilkinson, Regional Credit Manager – Ferguson

The value of a traditional four-year college degree is undergoing a dramatic re-evaluation by the American public. The declining perceived value of traditional degrees is elevating the importance of noncognitive traits like grit. This session covers the importance of grit in long-term success and how to find candidates that exhibit it.

Lunch

Provided by CRF and Handle.com

Join us for a delicious lunch! A well-deserved break and an opportunity to network with attendees while you fuel up for the afternoon sessions!

Forensic Files – CRF Edition: Catching and Evading Dangerous Customers

Presented by:
Bruce S. Nathan, Partner – Lowenstein Sandler LLP, Bankruptcy and Restructuring Department
Andrew Behlmann, Partner – Lowenstein Sandler LLP, Bankruptcy and Restructuring Department
Gianfranco Finizio, Partner – Lowenstein Sandler LLP, Bankruptcy and Restructuring Department

Following on the heels of the busiest year for chapter 11 filings since the end of the global financial crisis, 2026 continues the trend of both out-of-court refinancing transactions and chapter 11 filings exploding. None of that should have surprised astute credit professionals who were paying attention. This program helps credit professionals think like investigators, using case studies of companies that ultimately filed Chapter 11. The speakers will dissect the factors that led to each bankruptcy filing, then review clues that were readily visible well before the subject companies ever set foot in a bankruptcy court. Using the clues gleaned from the case studies, the presenters will help credit professionals build rapid response playbooks—tightening terms, securing assurances, deploying UCC tools, and dealing with potential preference liability—to help pivot from detection to protection with confidence. Finally, the speakers will discuss the risk of extending credit to a chapter 11 debtor in a world where administrative solvency—long a forgone conclusion in large bankruptcy cases—is no longer guaranteed after the 2018 Toys ‘R’ Us and Sears debacles

Why Credit & AR Transformations Stall (And What Nobody Tells You Before You Buy the Software)

Presented by:
Ali Kidwai, Senior Director, Product, Implementation & Engineering – Bectran
David Reinauer, Senior Manager, Product & Implementation – Bectran

Most credit and AR transformations don’t fail when the software is selected, they stall months later, when the expected gains in speed, visibility, and efficiency never fully materialize.

Despite investing in automation and AI, many organizations still rely on manual workarounds, fragmented data, and disconnected processes between credit, AR, and sales. The issue isn’t just the tools it’s what it takes to make them work in a real operating environment.

In this session, we’ll break down why transformations stall and what’s often overlooked, including:

• Vendor decisions that don’t align with real workflows
• Data fragmentation that limits automation and AI
• Misalignment across credit, AR, and sales
• The operational effort required to turn systems into outcomes

Break

Provided by CRF and CRF Solutions

Grab some coffee, tea, water or soda and a TREAT…chat with attendees…then return refreshed for the final sessions!

Private Credit at the Inflection Point

Presented by:
Taylor Ricketts, VP – RetailStat
Michael Blackburn, Executive VP – RetailStat

Private credit exploded from $250 billion to $2 trillion in fifteen years, and it is now facing its first real stress test. Redemptions are surging, $14 billion is trapped in fund queues, defaults just hit a record 6 percent, and the largest private credit restructuring in history wiped out $5.1 billion of PE equity overnight. Your customers are increasingly funded by lenders you cannot see, on terms you cannot read, at valuations no one has to defend. This session cuts through the noise with hard data: how the market got here, how stress actually spreads, what case studies, and a tactical playbook you can use.

Data, AI, and Agents: The New Order-to-Cash Operating Model

Presented by:
Elaine Nowak, Global VP of Product Marketing – Sidetrade
Dan Howarth, AVP of PreSales – Sidetrade

AI in credit and collections is moving from prediction to execution. This session breaks down what that shift actually looks like: how agentic AI differs from the automation and scoring tools most AR teams already use, how open standards such as Model Context Protocol let AI work across the enterprise systems credit teams rely on, and why none of it performs without a deep data foundation.

Drawing on network-level intelligence built from more than a billion payment experiences across tens of millions of buyers, Sidetrade will show how AI agents turn a natural-language question into a ranked recommendation, then act on it, from prioritized outreach to outbound collection calls tailored to a buyer’s payment history. The session includes a live demonstration and a practical framework for evaluating where AI agents fit in your own credit operation.

Key Takeaways:

• A clear framework for where today’s AI actually sits on the path from rules-based automation to autonomous agents, and which capabilities deliver measurable collections impact now rather than in theory.
• An understanding of fundamental AI components and why they are critical for the finance team to successfully navigate AI implementation for finance.
• Why data, not models, is the differentiator: how network-level payment intelligence across shared buyers produces sharper payment predictions and credit risk signals than any single company’s ledger can.
• What agentic execution looks like in practice: autonomous, governed workflows across collections, credit, disputes, and cash application that expand team capacity without added headcount, with humans focused on exceptions and strategy.

AI in Credit & Order-to-Cash: Execution, Use Cases, ROI, and Governance for Finance Leaders: Certificate Course

Session 3: Leading Transformation — Change Management That Actually Sticks ​

Presented by:
Charles Edwards, VP of Credit Operations – SRS/The Home Depot/Heritage
Chris Arrington, SVP & Chief Credit Officer – SRS/The Home Depot/Heritage

Equip participants with practical strategies to lead and sustain transformation initiatives within credit and finance organizations.

Key Topics:

• Why transformation efforts fail (and how to avoid it)
• Aligning stakeholders across credit, finance, and sales
• Driving adoption of new tools and processes
• Overcoming resistance and cultural barriers
• Establishing metrics to measure success and progress
• Overcoming control & governance concerns
• Strategies that aligned with legal requirements

Breakfast

Join us for coffee/tea and breakfast to fuel up for the final day of the Forum!

AI in Credit & Order-to-Cash: Execution, Use Cases, ROI, and Governance for Finance Leaders​: Certificate Course

Session 4: Building the Business Case — Securing Executive Buy-In for AI & Transformation

Presented by Conrad Ragan, Director. Corporate Restructuring – Alvarez & Marsal

Enable participants to develop credible, data-driven business cases that resonate with executive leadership and secure approval for transformational initiatives.

Key Topics:

• Structuring a compelling business case (ROI, cost, risk, efficiency)
• Translating operational benefits into financial impact
• Aligning proposals with executive priorities and strategy
• Communicating value to CFOs and senior leadership
• Common mistakes that weaken credibility

Economic Update

Presented by Steve Isberg, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Credit Research Foundation

Steve Isberg, PhD. will share his insights and observations on economic indicators and TARIFFS.

Open Forum

The Open Forum is often one of the most highly rated sessions at our live events. This is an open discussion session giving all attendees a chance to participate – ask questions and/or provide answers to others. As always, this Open Forum session allows for immediate feedback from your peers on the questions/topics that are important to YOU!

Please be sure to submit any questions or topics you would like to discuss on the registration form or email them to Angela.

National Building Materials Wholesale Best Practices Group Meeting

This is an independent, members-only group for senior level Credit & A/R professionals to engage in best practice processes and benchmarking conversations in an anti-trust compliant environment. The meeting includes lunch followed by a presentation by Lowenstein Sandler on the use and utility of Lien Waivers.

For information about this group, to become a member or join this meeting as a first-time guest, please contact Matt Skudera.