I can usually tell pretty quickly when a finance function isn’t working. Not because the forecast is wrong. Forecasts are wrong all the time. If being wrong disqualified a finance team, we’d have to shut down the profession. It’s usually smaller things. Someone says, “Let me check with Mike.” Then someone else says it. Then […]
I have trust issues with beautiful financial models. Not because I don’t like them. I do. Give me clean tabs, consistent formatting, sensible colors and a model where I don’t need an archaeological expedition to find the assumptions. I’m happy. But I’ve been around Finance long enough to know that a beautiful spreadsheet and a […]
I have a slightly inconvenient habit in Finance. When the numbers are bad, I ask questions. When the numbers are good, I ask more questions. Revenue is $800,000 ahead of forecast? Great. Why? Gross margin improved three points? Wonderful. What happened? Cash collections suddenly accelerated? Now I’m suspicious. This is probably not the personality trait […]
I started my career as a billing temp. Not exactly the traditional origin story for a finance executive. No investment banking. No glamorous rotational program. No dramatic montage involving Wall Street, three computer monitors and someone yelling about EBITDA. I was billing people. But one of the first things I remember doing was asking if […]
One of the more curious things I’ve noticed over the years is that budgets are often approved long before anyone walks into the conference room. That sounds ridiculous, of course. The meeting is on everyone’s calendar. The deck is polished. The assumptions have been circulated. People ask questions. Slides get skipped. Someone inevitably says, “Let’s […]
And Somewhere, an FP&A Model Just Started Lying The number dropped.Below 200,000. Cue the headline writers polishing the word resilient like it’s a participation trophy. But if you work in FP&A, that number doesn’t mean “things are fine.”It means nothing is giving way. And nothing costs more than pressure that refuses to release. The number […]
The most useful AI conversation in FP&A has changed. A year ago, a lot of the discussion was still about whether AI could write a formula, summarize a variance or save someone fifteen minutes in Excel. Those uses are fine. They are also the least interesting part now. The question I care about is what […]
An ARR report that does not tie is not a reporting inconvenience. It is a trust problem. And in SaaS, it usually exposes something deeper than one broken formula. CRM says one thing. Billing says another. The general ledger recognizes revenue on its own schedule. A spreadsheet sits between them trying to make everyone behave. […]
A churn model can be mathematically correct and still lie to management. Not because the formulas are wrong. Because “churn” is often asked to summarize several different customer behaviors in one comforting average. That works until the mix changes. Enterprise renewals slip. SMB customers cancel for price. A large account contracts but does not leave. […]
There are days in Finance when the calendar looks less like a schedule and more like evidence. Board prep. Forecast review. A system issue. Three business-partner questions. A meeting about the meeting that will decide when the next meeting happens. Then 5:30 arrives and the one piece of work that actually required judgment is still […]
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