CFO Survey 2026: CFO priorities and lessons for a Belgian SME

What does the CFO Survey 2026 reveal about the business climate?

Deloitte's CFO Survey for the first half of 2026 describes French finance leaders whose confidence has slipped over six months and who protect their balance sheet above all. The French edition, authored by Mansour Belhiba and published on 7 September 2026, polls CFOs of large companies and benchmarks their answers against the European average. At the end of 2025, Deloitte still presented them as the architects of resilience; six months later, the study's headline speaks of falling confidence.

The number to remember: 78% of French CFOs rate external uncertainty as high or very high, 9 points above the European average of 69%. Caution is therefore not a French exception, but it runs markedly deeper there. In the same logic, 77% consider the period unsuitable for balance sheet risk: financial solidity comes before expansion ambitions.

The causes Deloitte lists add up: geopolitical tensions, inflation, interest rates, energy costs and weakened supply chains, an instability presented as the new normal. For the owner of a Belgian SME, this climate feels familiar, with the same uncertainties on the order book, purchase prices and payment terms. The difference lies in the means of analysis, as we explain in our article on steering an SME through uncertainty, which extends this reading.

What are the priorities of finance leaders in 2026?

In 2026, French CFOs put organic growth at the top of their strategic priorities, with 7.19 on a scale of 1 to 10, ahead of cost reduction (6.87) and growth in their current markets (6.82). According to the Deloitte CFO Survey for the first half of 2026, digitalisation and new product launches come next, without reaching that leading trio. Capital expenditure comes last at 4.22, which Deloitte reads as a defensive stance.

This ranking reflects a dual goal: protecting margins while widening the customer base, without opening new fronts. Offensive strategies, external expansion or higher capex, are pushed back. Meanwhile, CFOs are securing three links to protect revenue and operating margin: the supply chain, pricing policy and energy resilience.

The place of digitalisation deserves a Belgian SME's attention: large groups treat it as a margin lever, not as an IT project. For an SME, the topic is concrete: e-invoicing via Peppol, accounting automation, first uses of artificial intelligence in reporting. We detail these use cases in our article on AI in SME financial management, with small-scale examples.

Our reading for an SME: this trio of priorities applies directly, provided you can measure margin by customer and by product. Many Belgian SMEs still steer on total revenue and discover at year end, with their ITAA accountant, that some customers cost more than they bring in. Without that transparency, cost cutting strikes blindly.

Which risks worry CFOs most in 2026?

Geopolitics tops the list of threats perceived by French CFOs, cited by 79% of them, ahead of the economic outlook (67%) and tighter regulation (39%). Mansour Belhiba, a Deloitte partner, describes a role that has become « the point where geopolitical, energy and regulatory issues converge » (Deloitte, 2026). The CFO is no longer just the keeper of the accounts: they arbitrate between balance sheet solidity, margin protection and growth investment.

The most cited impact areas are the supply of essential materials (53%) and then, tied, energy supply and trade policy (49%), in a world where trade flows serve as a bargaining weapon. Deloitte's qualitative interviews specify that these risks reach large companies mostly indirectly: revised customer budgets, supply constraints and regulatory inflation. Cyberattacks, tensions in the Middle East and logistics disruptions complete the list of points under watch.

For a Belgian SME, the indirect effect is even truer: it feels the decisions of its large customers and suppliers before it feels geopolitics itself. Hence the value of mapping your exposures, in six points.

• Supply: list the suppliers with no alternative and how long it would take to find one.
• Energy: know its share in the cost price of each product or service.
• Currency and trade policy: measure exposure to customers and suppliers outside the euro area.
• Regulation: anticipate Belgian obligations, such as e-invoicing via Peppol.
• Wages: build Belgium's automatic indexation into every cost projection.
• Cybersecurity: identify the systems whose outage would halt invoicing or production.

Are energy costs already weighing on margins?

Yes: 74% of French CFOs report that rising energy costs in Europe already weigh on their operating profitability or have slowed investment decisions. More precisely, 38% anticipate a moderate to significant negative effect on their margins. At European level, 48% of CFOs signal greater exposure or a more marked wait-and-see attitude, a somewhat less exposed position for the French.

Despite this, 68% believe their model will absorb energy disruptions without major impact over the next twelve months. Deloitte reads this as CFOs' confidence in the French energy fabric and in their companies' fundamentals. Oil shocks are taken as given; the question is how the model takes the hit.

For a Belgian SME, energy resilience is not declared, it is measured: what is the share of energy in the cost price of each product or service? A company that knows this ratio can pass an increase on in its prices or renegotiate its contracts before margin erodes. One that does not know it discovers the problem in the income statement, too late to react.

How are large companies preparing for these shocks?

The most widespread response is scenario analysis: 53% of French CFOs have invested in scenario and impact studies, and 46% have written geopolitical risks into their three- to five-year strategic planning. Deloitte sees in this the rise of scenario planning and the rolling forecast, that continuously updated projection. Only 8% have done nothing, against 11% on average in Europe: the supposed French lag does not exist on this point.

Deloitte adds a caveat, though: the adaptation levers actually deployed remain few, analysis still precedes action. Large companies work on several trajectories, with resilience stress tests and the securing of critical flows (materials, energy, logistics). Turning these scenarios into decisions still largely lies ahead of them.

The study sets out three workstreams for the coming months, each transferable to an SME. We restate them here.

• 1. Spot the points of fragility: raw materials, logistics, price movements, cybersecurity, to limit the effect of an external shock and react fast.
• 2. Keep enough cash and equity to absorb the unexpected, with tight liquidity control and regular stress tests (inflation, rates, slowdown).
• 3. Stop waiting for the annual close to revise forecasts: refresh them at regular intervals and test several scenarios, so that risks feed into medium-term strategy.

Self-financing or debt: how do CFOs fund growth?

Internal financing prevails for 44% of French CFOs, against 60% of their European peers. Deloitte explains this gap not by French disinterest in self-financing, but by a greater availability of equity within large European companies: where the capital is already there, it gets used. The goal remains shared: keeping control of the balance sheet.

The report sums up the 2026 strategy in three internal fundamentals: margins, cash and self-financing. This return to basics is not standing still: French CFOs still anticipate rising revenue and margins, betting on solid fundamentals and on their ability to absorb successive shocks. The caution applies to the balance sheet, not to the business.

For a Belgian SME the question is different: self-financing assumes a regular cash surplus, rare after a round of wage indexation. Good practice is to prepare your file before you need the bank, so you negotiate from strength rather than in a hurry. It is one of the points we address in our five-lever method for steering through uncertainty, useful before the close.

Revenue and margins: why are they the most sensitive indicators?

Deloitte notes that revenue and operating margins have become the most sensitive indicators for French CFOs, a corollary of receding optimism. In an unstable macroeconomic environment and under cost pressure, these two lines move first, and they condition self-financing, access to credit and the capacity to invest.

A Belgian SME has an extra reason to watch its margins closely: automatic wage indexation. When inflation picks up, the payroll follows mechanically, while selling prices are only readjusted at the next negotiation. In between, margin gets squeezed without any decision. Monthly margin tracking by activity is the only way to see this scissor effect in time.

In concrete terms, this requires a documented pricing policy: which customers accept an indexation clause, which contracts are frozen, and until when. The large groups surveyed place pricing among the three links to secure; an SME can do it with a simple table of its contracts, reviewed at each renewal, without waiting for a dedicated tool.

Which practices can a Belgian SME adopt at low cost?

Five practices drawn from the CFO Survey 2026 transfer to a Belgian SME without expensive software or a dedicated team: it all comes down to rhythm and discipline. What we see with our clients: the difficulty is never technical, a spreadsheet is enough. It lies in the monthly cadence, hard to keep when operations absorb the owner.

This is where a part-time CFO comes into their own: they set up these routines, run them and interpret them for the owner, a few days a month. A full-time CFO costs 150,000 to 200,000 euros a year in Belgium, social charges included; an adjustable presence makes this steering affordable for an SME. The role of this part-time CFO is not to produce reports, but to turn numbers into decisions.

• 1. Three cash flow scenarios (base, downside, upside) over twelve months, refreshed monthly as a rolling forecast, each with the decisions triggered if a threshold is crossed.
• 2. Margins reviewed monthly by customer or product, to know where money is made and lost before cutting.
• 3. A financing plan prepared six to nine months ahead of the need, so you approach the bank with a costed file rather than an urgent request.
• 4. Investment triage by expected return and reversibility: a project you can stop without major loss comes before an irreversible commitment.
• 5. Energy, supplier and cybersecurity watch: a quarterly check on energy contracts, critical suppliers and vital systems.

Where should you start?

Start with the downside cash flow scenario: it is the one that reveals your real room for manoeuvre fastest. Take your flows from the last twelve months, apply a plausible drop in revenue, longer customer payment terms and a rise in your energy costs, then spot the month when cash gets tight. Half a day is enough.

For an outside view on these first steps, a free mini-diagnosis is the simplest option. Argafin offers a QuickScan, a free 30-minute financial mini-diagnosis, online and without commitment. Walloon SMEs can fund more complete support through the Walloon Region's business vouchers, including the Diagnostic voucher covered at 50%. The goal is the same as for the large groups Deloitte surveyed: not to endure 2026, but to prepare for it.

• Build the three cash flow scenarios and set the alert thresholds.
• Extract margin by customer and product from the accounts, with your accountant.
• Rank planned investments by expected return and reversibility.
• Open the conversation with your banker before the need arises, costed financing plan in hand.