Sarah Schlott
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The night before the board meeting, my forecast broke.

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

A financial model should be able to survive a bad afternoon. I do not mean a meteor strike. I mean an ordinary finance bad afternoon: a source file changes, a link breaks, someone inserts a column, the forecast needs an update two hours before a meeting, and the person who built the workbook is not […]

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We rebuilt our churn reporting last quarter—because it burned us in a board meeting.

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Churn reporting can be wrong even when every number is technically correct. That usually happens when people use the same word for different calculations. Logo churn. Gross revenue churn. Net revenue retention. Contraction. Cancellation. Non-renewal. Put six people in a room and ask, “What was churn?” You may get six defensible answers. That is not […]

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Your calendar isn’t full because you’re important. It’s full because you’re reactive.

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Every SaaS CFO knows the feeling — twelve Excel tabs open, four Slack threads buzzing, an ERP sync failing in the background, and a board deck flashing “final_v8.” We call it “multitasking.” But really, it’s a slow bleed of attention disguised as productivity. Context switching is the silent killer of strategic thinking. It’s like trying […]

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Your ERP isn’t scaling. It’s gaslighting you.

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Every SaaS CFO hits this point — the system that was supposed to automate reporting now argues with itself every close. ARR doesn’t match CRM. Billings lag revenue. And the “integration” feels like a long-distance relationship. The board call where ARR missed by 10%? That wasn’t a forecast issue. It was your ERP whispering sweet […]

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Your forecast isn’t wrong. It’s just lying to you politely.

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Last quarter, I watched a SaaS CFO defend a $1.5M ARR miss with a 30-tab model that looked like a Vegas light show. The formula math was flawless. The logic was delusional. Pipeline coverage was “strong.” Churn was “stable.” And bookings? “Seasonally delayed.” Translation: we built a castle on assumptions nobody questioned. I’ve seen SaaS […]

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The Hidden Cost of “Free” AI: What You’re Really Trading Away

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Just read a LinkedIn post from: Kai Blakeborough That started with … “If you’re using an AI tool for free, you’re not the customer.You’re the product.” – Kai Blakeborough That’s not cynicism — it’s the modern business model. This week proved it beyond doubt: Meta announced plans to serve ads based on what users say […]

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Market Regulator Furloughs: Lessons for FP&A Oversight

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Why a Government Furlough Should Worry CFOs The headline reads:“U.S. market regulators begin furloughs as federal funding lapses, curtailing oversight and delaying IPOs.” On the surface, it’s Washington politics.But the ripple effect is economic. When regulators go silent: IPOs freeze. Investor confidence falters. Transparency evaporates. It’s not that companies stop operating. It’s that the referee […]

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AI for Account Reconciliations: Automating Month-End Close with ChatGPT

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Why AI for Account Reconciliations Speeds Up Month-End Close Every controller knows the pain: reconciliations eat hours. Skip them, and the fallout is immediate — trust erodes with executives, auditors, and even your own team. AI isn’t replacing reconciliations. It’s making them faster, cleaner, and more audit-proof. What ChatGPT Adds to Account Reconciliation Workflows Unlike […]

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How to Keep Your Forecasts Alive Beyond Q1

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

Every CFO has lived this nightmare: You spend weeks on the annual plan.By March, it’s useless. The issue isn’t poor forecasting. It’s that traditional planning cycles weren’t designed for today’s pace. Forecasts die young because the tools are static while reality is dynamic. This article breaks down a new solution: AI-powered forecasting prompts that keep […]

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From Annual Planning to Rolling Forecasts: What Really Changes

1 Comment/by Sarah Schlott

The first time I killed the old annual planning cycle, I thought I was solving my biggest headache. No more department wish lists stacked like Jenga blocks.No more 80-page plans that went stale by March.No more pretending the future was predictable. I rebuilt the system into something alive: driver-based, rolling, and operator-ready. And for about […]

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Sarah Schlott

FP&A consulting, forecasting, accounting support and finance strategy for CFOs and growing finance teams.

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