I have trust issues with beautiful financial models. Not because I don’t like them. I do. Give me clean tabs, consistent formatting, sensible colors and a model where I don’t need an archaeological expedition to find the assumptions. I’m happy. But I’ve been around Finance long enough to know that a beautiful spreadsheet and a […]
I have a slightly inconvenient habit in Finance. When the numbers are bad, I ask questions. When the numbers are good, I ask more questions. Revenue is $800,000 ahead of forecast? Great. Why? Gross margin improved three points? Wonderful. What happened? Cash collections suddenly accelerated? Now I’m suspicious. This is probably not the personality trait […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/pexels-karola-g-6028573-modified-scaled.jpg17072560Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2026-09-25 08:59:252026-09-25 09:00:59Good News Makes Me Nervous
I started my career as a billing temp. Not exactly the traditional origin story for a finance executive. No investment banking. No glamorous rotational program. No dramatic montage involving Wall Street, three computer monitors and someone yelling about EBITDA. I was billing people. But one of the first things I remember doing was asking if […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/pexels-googledeepmind-17485658-modified-scaled.jpg14402560Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2026-09-24 16:29:302026-09-24 22:06:29Finance Is Supposed to Know the Business. Somehow We Made That Optional
One of the more curious things I’ve noticed over the years is that budgets are often approved long before anyone walks into the conference room. That sounds ridiculous, of course. The meeting is on everyone’s calendar. The deck is polished. The assumptions have been circulated. People ask questions. Slides get skipped. Someone inevitably says, “Let’s […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pexels-artempodrez-6779567-2-modified-1-1.jpg6751200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2026-08-19 16:29:232026-09-24 21:56:17The Budget Was Approved Long Before the Meeting
Your 40s are where financial decisions stop being theoretical. You’re earning, juggling responsibilities, and thinking ahead—all at once. But this is also the decade where small missteps compound faster, and “I’ll fix it later” gets expensive. I’ve made some of these mistakes myself. Others I’ve seen play out repeatedly. None of them look dramatic in […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/88u-TQ8Sx5MiT8TjXZQh07NOqO1zzg3DT3oJYJnH6fceHyTIIBRGPSDUtlN0dK45nCm-qt_bNo8z4tDgEMUNZ4gVvW2TpWfPNQCp-d8_PPnGrULTpUb05R6xacyXHbAt8-_wEfcN-nU1jJ5ea9DkPDgQ_jqX23v9aQmBInhEpu1DsG9EgzGphk7Yel0Tn0SR.jpeg13652048Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2026-04-26 21:57:342026-09-24 21:56:188 Financial Mistakes Women in Their 40s Make—and How to Fix Them (2026 Guide)
And Somewhere, an FP&A Model Just Started Lying The number dropped.Below 200,000. Cue the headline writers polishing the word resilient like it’s a participation trophy. But if you work in FP&A, that number doesn’t mean “things are fine.”It means nothing is giving way. And nothing costs more than pressure that refuses to release. The number […]
It looks clean.Effortless.No helper columns.No visible mess. That’s the problem. We’ve all been told that modern Excel formulas are smarter — that dynamic arrays make reporting faster, cleaner, more “automated.”But some automation hides danger better than any manual error ever could. And nothing proves that more than =UNIQUE(). Why =UNIQUE() Can Quietly Wreck Your Model […]
Every finance analyst has a love story that ends badly.Mine started with =IF(). It seemed harmless at first.A quick fix here, a logic tweak there — a little “if this, then that” to make a stubborn report behave. But one day, I opened a model with 1,742 nested IFs.No macros. No VBA. Just raw logic […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pexels-goumbik-590022-1-modified-1.jpg7951200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-10-23 19:40:482026-09-24 21:56:19The Most Dangerous Excel Formula in Finance
A few years ago, “AI in FP&A” meant faster reconciliations and prettier dashboards.Now it means something radically different. It means systems that think, not just calculate.That interpret, not just automate. Across finance, a quiet revolution is unfolding.Teams aren’t using AI to replace themselves — they’re using it to reason with reality faster than ever before. […]
I just found out I’ve been nominated for the 2025 Office of the CFO Awards by Datarails — the closest thing finance has to the Oscars. And honestly, I’m still not sure if I should thank my forecasting model or apologize to it. Because if you’ve ever spent 11 p.m. whispering “please balance” to a […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pexels-goumbik-590022-1-modified-1.jpg7951200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-10-18 08:25:062026-09-24 21:56:20I Didn’t Choose the Spreadsheet Life — The Spreadsheet Life Chose Me
I Have Trust Issues With Beautiful Financial Models
I have trust issues with beautiful financial models. Not because I don’t like them. I do. Give me clean tabs, consistent formatting, sensible colors and a model where I don’t need an archaeological expedition to find the assumptions. I’m happy. But I’ve been around Finance long enough to know that a beautiful spreadsheet and a […]
Good News Makes Me Nervous
I have a slightly inconvenient habit in Finance. When the numbers are bad, I ask questions. When the numbers are good, I ask more questions. Revenue is $800,000 ahead of forecast? Great. Why? Gross margin improved three points? Wonderful. What happened? Cash collections suddenly accelerated? Now I’m suspicious. This is probably not the personality trait […]
Finance Is Supposed to Know the Business. Somehow We Made That Optional
I started my career as a billing temp. Not exactly the traditional origin story for a finance executive. No investment banking. No glamorous rotational program. No dramatic montage involving Wall Street, three computer monitors and someone yelling about EBITDA. I was billing people. But one of the first things I remember doing was asking if […]
The Budget Was Approved Long Before the Meeting
One of the more curious things I’ve noticed over the years is that budgets are often approved long before anyone walks into the conference room. That sounds ridiculous, of course. The meeting is on everyone’s calendar. The deck is polished. The assumptions have been circulated. People ask questions. Slides get skipped. Someone inevitably says, “Let’s […]
8 Financial Mistakes Women in Their 40s Make—and How to Fix Them (2026 Guide)
Your 40s are where financial decisions stop being theoretical. You’re earning, juggling responsibilities, and thinking ahead—all at once. But this is also the decade where small missteps compound faster, and “I’ll fix it later” gets expensive. I’ve made some of these mistakes myself. Others I’ve seen play out repeatedly. None of them look dramatic in […]
Jobless Claims Fell Below 200,000
And Somewhere, an FP&A Model Just Started Lying The number dropped.Below 200,000. Cue the headline writers polishing the word resilient like it’s a participation trophy. But if you work in FP&A, that number doesn’t mean “things are fine.”It means nothing is giving way. And nothing costs more than pressure that refuses to release. The number […]
The Most Dangerous “Modern” Excel Formula: =UNIQUE()
It looks clean.Effortless.No helper columns.No visible mess. That’s the problem. We’ve all been told that modern Excel formulas are smarter — that dynamic arrays make reporting faster, cleaner, more “automated.”But some automation hides danger better than any manual error ever could. And nothing proves that more than =UNIQUE(). Why =UNIQUE() Can Quietly Wreck Your Model […]
The Most Dangerous Excel Formula in Finance
Every finance analyst has a love story that ends badly.Mine started with =IF(). It seemed harmless at first.A quick fix here, a logic tweak there — a little “if this, then that” to make a stubborn report behave. But one day, I opened a model with 1,742 nested IFs.No macros. No VBA. Just raw logic […]
The Quiet Revolution: AI in FP&A 2025
A few years ago, “AI in FP&A” meant faster reconciliations and prettier dashboards.Now it means something radically different. It means systems that think, not just calculate.That interpret, not just automate. Across finance, a quiet revolution is unfolding.Teams aren’t using AI to replace themselves — they’re using it to reason with reality faster than ever before. […]
I Didn’t Choose the Spreadsheet Life — The Spreadsheet Life Chose Me
I just found out I’ve been nominated for the 2025 Office of the CFO Awards by Datarails — the closest thing finance has to the Oscars. And honestly, I’m still not sure if I should thank my forecasting model or apologize to it. Because if you’ve ever spent 11 p.m. whispering “please balance” to a […]