ABOUT SARAH
Finance is most useful when it makes the business easier to understand.
Iām Sarah Schlott. My work sits inside FP&A: forecasts, models, reporting and the judgment required to turn them into decisions.
HOW I WORK
The useful part of finance starts after the spreadsheet is open.
I work with finance leaders on the questions that sit underneath the forecast, model or reporting pack: what changed, which assumptions matter, where the process is creating noise and what management needs to understand next.
Iām most interested in FP&A when it helps the business see something sooner or make a difficult decision with a clearer view of the tradeoffs.
Where the work gets practical.
I care about the question behind the number.
A variance is only interesting if it changes what management understands or does next.
I like finance that can explain itself.
Models should survive questions. Forecasts should reveal assumptions. Reporting should make the conversation shorter.
Iām skeptical of inherited process.
A report, meeting or model does not become useful simply because Finance has produced it for five years.
HOW I THINK ABOUT IT
Good FP&A is less about producing more finance.
Curiosity before certaintyUnderstand what changed before deciding who or what is responsible.
Judgment over false precisionThe right level of accuracy depends on the decision the number needs to support.
Clarity is an operating advantageBad news, changing assumptions and weak signals need to travel quickly enough to matter.
If the finance problem is hard to frame, that is usually a useful place to begin.
Tell me what management is trying to understand and where the current process is getting in the way.