As tariffs and global trade policies evolve, many companies are uncertain whether to change their supply strategies or stay the course. In a recent webinar co-hosted by the CFO Leadership Council (CFOLC) and NetSuite, three-quarters of surveyed attendees indicated that tariffs were impacting their businesses—11% stated it was impacting their business significantly.

However, nearly one third of respondents in the webinar survey said they still need a strategy to respond to recent shifts in trade policies. When asked about plans for future tariff changes, 44% said they are somewhat prepared but still evaluating options, while 34% said they are not prepared and watching for developments.

According to the expert panel from the CFOLC-NetSuite webinar, finance leaders should ask themselves four questions as they plan:

1. What sources should we use to get tariff information?

Not all information sources are created equal, making it essential for businesses to evaluate the accuracy of insights when shaping their response strategies. Dan Gardner, president of supply chain, logistics, and trade compliance consultancy Trade Facilitators, noted three sources he uses for up-to-date information:

Because trade policy is changing so rapidly, information can quickly be rendered incorrect, incomplete, and outdated, making it critical for leaders to not only choose reliable sources but frequently verify they’re working with the most current data.

2. Who should be involved in discussions?

CFOs play a critical role in addressing shifting trade policies, but their impact extends beyond finance. Because tariffs affect sourcing decisions, pricing strategies, operational efficiency, and compliance obligations, CFOs need to work alongside the appropriate stakeholders.

“Don’t operate as a standalone island,” said Gardner. “I’ve talked to companies with a tariff task force in place made up of multiple professionals across functions. Creating that multifunctional team that addresses as many of these issues as possible as a normal part of business is what I’ve seen be successful.”

In addition to creating a task force, the panel recommended designating a person to monitor the sources listed above and determining ahead of time who would be the final decision-maker on all policy changes—whether it be the task force itself, CFO, CEO, or someone else entirely.

3. What tools are we using?

Experts from the panel agreed: Spreadsheets aren’t going to cut it when it comes to tracking highly variable costs.

“I've worked in environments where it's very much an Excel-based environment—it becomes very tricky to even understand the costs around your own products and map it to what is truly impacted within your portfolio,” said Ron Monteiro, founder of consulting and training company KICT. “It’s important to ask, ‘Do we have the right technology, and how do we advance that technology such that we can understand our data as quickly as possible?’”

Having consolidated, accurate data becomes even more important, according to Bona Allen, SVP and CFO of Kajima Building and Design Group, because you’ll need it for accurate and timely scenario planning.

“You need the information integrated on a platform so you can quickly adjust or develop a new scenario that changes as things like volume and the cost of goods change,” said Allen. “Excel doesn't work anymore unless you want to take a couple of weeks to develop each scenario.”

4. How do we make decisions faster?

Considering the volatility of global trade policies, companies need to determine how to use the information they have on hand to make decisions more quickly than they may have in the past.

“A huge lesson to be learned around tariffs is how do you move faster? How do you go, for example, to a sprint budget or sprint forecast?” said Monteiro. “And then the second lesson is, how do you make decisions with imperfect information? How do you use the 80-20 approach as opposed to needing to lock down everything first?”

According to Monteiro, the 80-20 approach allows you to focus your forecasting efforts on the tariff exposures that have the greatest impact on your business, rather than getting bogged down trying to model every possible tariff scenario in detail.

Want to learn more? Check out the full Tariffs, Trade, and Making Decisions in Uncertainty webinar on demand.