Here’s a hard truth most finance professionals avoid: AI won’t replace you. But it will expose you if you don’t know how to think strategically. Today reminded me why this matters more than ever. AI-Powered Valuation: Smarter, Not Easier I started the day wrestling with valuation multiple justification. Not the sexy kind you read about […]
Here’s the truth most FP&A leaders won’t say out loud: the majority of financial models aren’t built for decision-making. They’re built for optics. They exist to be opened in board meetings, skimmed over by execs, and bookmarked as evidence that Finance is doing its job. But when Sales wants to run a hiring scenario or […]
Here’s the truth no one wants to admit: most 13-week cash flow forecasts are just glorified guesswork. We treat them like gospel because they’re standard. Safe. Palatable. But if you’ve ever had to explain a sudden shortfall to your CEO or board, you already know: Thirteen weeks is not a crystal ball. It’s a snapshot. […]
Let’s start with a blunt truth most leaders don’t want to admit: You’re not going to predict the future. Not with that pristine forecast. Not with that 50-tab spreadsheet. Not even with your new AI-powered tool that’s supposed to “learn” the business. And that’s okay. Because scenario planning isn’t about guessing right. It’s about being […]
Let’s skip the pleasantries. If you’re in strategic finance and still fumbling around with basic formulas, you’re wasting time, missing insights, and burning credibility. I’ve seen it firsthand: high-performing FP&A teams with broken models, inconsistent logic, and bloated files that barely run. The fix? It’s not another dashboarding tool or AI-powered platform. It’s mastering the […]
Let me say this up front: Month-end reporting doesn’t have to feel like an endurance sport. We all know the drill. You build your reporting pack. You double-check numbers. You chase down last-minute actuals from operations. You rebuild links that broke since last month. You massage charts to be board-ready. And somewhere along the way, […]
Let me be honest: budgets are broken. At least, the traditional kind. You know the one: twelve-months-in-advance, set-it-and-forget-it, rooted in last year’s numbers, built to please the board rather than steer the business. I’ve built those. I’ve torn them apart, too. Rolling forecasts, when done right, aren’t just a better planning tool—they’re a better way […]
Financial models are fragile beasts. They look solid—clean lines, smart formulas, pristine formatting—but it only takes one wrong input or overconfident growth assumption to turn that glossy forecast into a cautionary tale. We’ve all seen it: one bad board question and the model unravels like a sweater caught on a nail. The real test of […]
I used to think we could scale our finance team with grit, hustle, and spreadsheets. And for a while, we did. Forecasts were living documents (in five tabs). We tracked cash burn on whiteboards. The budget was something I explained out loud more than I ever wrote down. Eventually, I realized that if we were […]
I remember the moment I realized our FP&A team had become a reporting machine. It was a Tuesday. 7:43 p.m. I was still in the office. Someone from ops had just Slacked me asking for a version of the Q2 forecast that accounted for a 5% shift in headcount timing. I was on version 17 […]