FP&A Advisor | Strategic Modeler | Writer for Finance Leaders

Welcome—I’m Sarah Schlott, a finance professional with over 18 years of experience in FP&A, strategic modeling, and operational finance leadership. I’ve built this blog to share practical insights, tested frameworks, and lessons learned from years spent supporting high-growth SaaS, fintech, and private equity-backed companies.

This isn’t theory. The ideas here come from real-world experience working directly with CFOs, investors, and executive teams under pressure to get the numbers right—and make them meaningful.

What You’ll Find Here

This blog is dedicated to helping finance professionals:

  • Build better financial models that are scalable, reliable, and decision-ready

  • Strengthen their forecasting and budgeting processes with practical techniques

  • Streamline Excel-based workflows with structure and automation

  • Translate financial insights into strategic business value

Whether you’re a CFO managing complexity or a financial analyst working to sharpen your craft, the goal is the same: make FP&A more effective, more efficient, and less painful.

Why I Write

Over the years, I’ve seen a recurring pattern—finance leaders and their teams struggle not because they lack intelligence or effort, but because their tools, processes, or models don’t support the clarity and speed they need. I’ve built this space to contribute something useful: real FP&A advice for real operators.

The posts here draw from:

  • My hands-on work building and fixing models during M&A, capital raises, and board cycles

  • Lessons learned leading finance inside growth-stage companies

  • Conversations with the many talented CFOs, controllers, and analysts I’ve had the privilege to work with

About My Background

My specialty is FP&A support and Excel model design—whether that’s cleaning up legacy spreadsheets, building a forecast from scratch, or helping a finance team present clean numbers to a board or investor group.

I’m not a career blogger—I’m a practitioner who writes. That means everything you read here is grounded in firsthand experience and meant to be actionable, not academic.

A Few Topics I Cover

  • How to structure a forecast model that’s actually usable

  • Red flags in inherited Excel models—and how to fix them

  • Automating reporting without expensive software

  • Scenario planning for cash flow management

  • Preparing for a board meeting with confidence

Let’s Stay Connected

If you’re looking for an experienced partner to solve a modeling or FP&A challenge—or just want to swap notes on what’s working—reach out anytime.