There’s this idea floating around that forecasting is a young company’s game. Fast, agile startups pivoting on a dime. Old companies? Too slow. Too political. Too stuck in their ways. I used to believe that too. Until a friend of mine who works at a 120-year-old manufacturing company told me how they completely transformed their […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-artempodrez-5716001-1.jpg6751200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-06-04 23:15:062025-08-14 00:47:31How a 120-Year-Old Company Unlocked Forecasting Value
I’ll say it: most finance teams are built to report on the business, not to drive it. That’s the one thing I’d change. Too many functions are still structured like it’s 2003—hierarchies built to deliver variance reports and close books, not to influence what actually happens next. I’ve worked inside these teams. I’ve consulted for […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-lexovertoom-1109543-1-1.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-06-03 20:36:052025-08-14 00:47:34One Thing I’d Change About How Finance Functions Are Structured Today
Here’s a dirty little secret of finance: the more polished the deck, the more likely there’s duct tape holding the data pipeline together. I’ve seen it. Flashy dashboards. Perfectly aligned KPIs. Everyone nodding in the boardroom—until someone asks, “How was that calculated?” Cue the mad scramble: Slack threads, undocumented Excel formulas, a stale mapping file […]
https://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pexels-mareklevak-2265488-1.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://sarahgschlott.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icon-10c-two-blob-light_clearspace-1030x1030.pngSarah Schlott2025-06-01 17:04:112025-08-14 00:47:37Avoiding Hidden Risks: Data Integrity Best Practices with Excel Power Query
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 11:52:422025-08-14 00:47:40The 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 19:43:152025-08-14 00:47:42How 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 10:10:352025-08-14 00:47:4410 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 21:31:292025-08-14 00:47:477 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 00:23:132025-08-14 00:47:545 Ways Excel Power Query Can Automate Your Financial Data Prep
How a 120-Year-Old Company Unlocked Forecasting Value
There’s this idea floating around that forecasting is a young company’s game. Fast, agile startups pivoting on a dime. Old companies? Too slow. Too political. Too stuck in their ways. I used to believe that too. Until a friend of mine who works at a 120-year-old manufacturing company told me how they completely transformed their […]
One Thing I’d Change About How Finance Functions Are Structured Today
I’ll say it: most finance teams are built to report on the business, not to drive it. That’s the one thing I’d change. Too many functions are still structured like it’s 2003—hierarchies built to deliver variance reports and close books, not to influence what actually happens next. I’ve worked inside these teams. I’ve consulted for […]
Avoiding Hidden Risks: Data Integrity Best Practices with Excel Power Query
Here’s a dirty little secret of finance: the more polished the deck, the more likely there’s duct tape holding the data pipeline together. I’ve seen it. Flashy dashboards. Perfectly aligned KPIs. Everyone nodding in the boardroom—until someone asks, “How was that calculated?” Cue the mad scramble: Slack threads, undocumented Excel formulas, a stale mapping file […]
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. […]