Let me give it to you straight: most finance teams are flying their planes while building the wings. And that’s fine—until you hit turbulence. I’ve worked with scaling companies where the first $10M in revenue was built on ad hoc Excel reports, stitched together the night before the board meeting. And hey—it worked. Until it […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-mikhail-nilov-6963857-1.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-06-01 11:52:422026-09-24 21:58:03The CFO’s Guide to Scaling Financial Data Prep: From Manual to Automated Workflows
Let’s start with a truth no one likes to say out loud: audits don’t fail because the numbers were wrong. They fail because no one can prove they were right. I’ve seen it too many times. You’ve got a perfectly accurate board deck. A forecast that matches actuals to the penny. But when the auditors […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-serpstat-177219-572056-1-1.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-31 19:43:152026-09-24 21:58:08How to Build an Audit-Friendly Financial Data Pipeline with Excel Power Query
Here’s a hard truth they don’t tell you in finance onboarding: most “financial reporting” is glorified janitorial work. You know the drill. Dump the GL. Copy and paste into five different workbooks. Filter out the junk rows. Reformat dates. Fix that one column that always comes in as text instead of numbers. Then pray your […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-vojtech-okenka-127162-392018-scaled-e1748310603244.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-31 10:10:352026-09-24 21:58:0910 Common Financial Reporting Tasks You Can Streamline with Power Query
Let’s start with the harsh truth: most non-finance teams hate your spreadsheet. Not because the math is wrong. Not because they don’t care about performance. They hate it because it feels like a Rubik’s Cube built by someone who thinks in SQL joins and nested IF statements. To them, your model is less of a […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-serpstat-177219-572056-scaled-e1748310581268.jpg8011200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-28 21:31:292026-09-24 21:58:117 Tactics to Get Non-Finance Teams to Actually Use Your Model
Let me tell you something about forecasting that doesn’t make it into the glossy investor decks: it’s less art, more street fight. Forecasting is what happens when you’re locked in a room with imperfect data, an impatient executive team, and the ticking clock of a quarterly board meeting. I’ve lived that loop more times than […]
I’ve seen more dashboards die in the wild than PowerPoint decks in an abandoned investor folder. You know the type—some over-engineered, visually stunning, SaaS-powered monstrosity that looks great until someone asks for a new metric and you realize no one on the team knows how it was built. Or worse: the original architect left the […]
Let me start with a confession: I’ve burned more hours on manual data cleanup than I care to admit. The kind of hours that feel like you’re trapped in a Kafka short story—endlessly copying, pasting, sorting, and cross-checking a mess of numbers that don’t want to behave. The irony? Most of this work is invisible. […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-weekendplayer-187041-scaled.jpg19202560Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-26 00:23:132026-09-24 21:58:165 Ways Excel Power Query Can Automate Your Financial Data Prep
Let me start with a simple truth that finance teams rarely say out loud: most reporting processes aren’t strategic. They’re reactive, redundant, and riddled with risk. And yet, we keep clinging to them like a CFO to their last clean version of Excel. I’ve worked across startups, mid-market firms, and corporate mazes. The pattern never […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-pavel-danilyuk-7868972-scaled-e1747874851857.jpg8011200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-24 11:58:272026-09-24 21:58:185 Hidden Costs of Manual Reporting—and How to Eliminate Them Fast
There’s an awkward silence in every pitch deck review, and you usually know when it’s coming. It’s the moment you flip to the financial model and someone on the investor side leans forward, squints at your screen, and says: “Walk me through this part again.” If you’ve been there, you know. The narrative stalls, confidence […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-pixabay-265087-scaled-e1748002234248.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-05-23 08:15:402026-09-24 21:58:20Why Most Models Fail in Fundraising Conversations—and What to Do Instead
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 […]
The CFO’s Guide to Scaling Financial Data Prep: From Manual to Automated Workflows
Let me give it to you straight: most finance teams are flying their planes while building the wings. And that’s fine—until you hit turbulence. I’ve worked with scaling companies where the first $10M in revenue was built on ad hoc Excel reports, stitched together the night before the board meeting. And hey—it worked. Until it […]
How to Build an Audit-Friendly Financial Data Pipeline with Excel Power Query
Let’s start with a truth no one likes to say out loud: audits don’t fail because the numbers were wrong. They fail because no one can prove they were right. I’ve seen it too many times. You’ve got a perfectly accurate board deck. A forecast that matches actuals to the penny. But when the auditors […]
10 Common Financial Reporting Tasks You Can Streamline with Power Query
Here’s a hard truth they don’t tell you in finance onboarding: most “financial reporting” is glorified janitorial work. You know the drill. Dump the GL. Copy and paste into five different workbooks. Filter out the junk rows. Reformat dates. Fix that one column that always comes in as text instead of numbers. Then pray your […]
7 Tactics to Get Non-Finance Teams to Actually Use Your Model
Let’s start with the harsh truth: most non-finance teams hate your spreadsheet. Not because the math is wrong. Not because they don’t care about performance. They hate it because it feels like a Rubik’s Cube built by someone who thinks in SQL joins and nested IF statements. To them, your model is less of a […]
Advanced Excel Forecasting Models for CFOs: From Scenario Planning to Sensitivity Analysis
Let me tell you something about forecasting that doesn’t make it into the glossy investor decks: it’s less art, more street fight. Forecasting is what happens when you’re locked in a room with imperfect data, an impatient executive team, and the ticking clock of a quarterly board meeting. I’ve lived that loop more times than […]
Why Smart Finance Teams Build Dashboards in Excel First: 4 Tactical Wins
I’ve seen more dashboards die in the wild than PowerPoint decks in an abandoned investor folder. You know the type—some over-engineered, visually stunning, SaaS-powered monstrosity that looks great until someone asks for a new metric and you realize no one on the team knows how it was built. Or worse: the original architect left the […]
5 Ways Excel Power Query Can Automate Your Financial Data Prep
Let me start with a confession: I’ve burned more hours on manual data cleanup than I care to admit. The kind of hours that feel like you’re trapped in a Kafka short story—endlessly copying, pasting, sorting, and cross-checking a mess of numbers that don’t want to behave. The irony? Most of this work is invisible. […]
5 Hidden Costs of Manual Reporting—and How to Eliminate Them Fast
Let me start with a simple truth that finance teams rarely say out loud: most reporting processes aren’t strategic. They’re reactive, redundant, and riddled with risk. And yet, we keep clinging to them like a CFO to their last clean version of Excel. I’ve worked across startups, mid-market firms, and corporate mazes. The pattern never […]
Why Most Models Fail in Fundraising Conversations—and What to Do Instead
There’s an awkward silence in every pitch deck review, and you usually know when it’s coming. It’s the moment you flip to the financial model and someone on the investor side leans forward, squints at your screen, and says: “Walk me through this part again.” If you’ve been there, you know. The narrative stalls, confidence […]
Building Smarter, Not Bigger: Finance Strategy When Budgets Shrink
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 […]