Podcasts about datarails

Swati Bagri, head of FP&A for a major global FMCG company was told early in her career: “Either you are sales or you are helping sales”. In this second in our series of finance business partnership Swati, representing finance, is joined by Stephanie Troy, VP of Sales at Datarails, for a candid conversation with host Glenn Hopper about what sales leaders actually need from FP&A, and what great revenue-producing partnerships look like. In this special episode:  The dynamics of sales vs finance needs  Pipeline communication challenges  The problems with forecasting Where lack of communication hurts sales and finance What finance needs from sales leaders in budget season Dealing with the Office of No 

What if your marketing team could predict revenue like a finance team predicts cash flow? Daniel sits down with Aviv Canaani (CRO & CMO of DataRails) to break down how to actually build a predictable revenue engine. Aviv shares how he reverse engineers aggressive revenue targets into pipeline, meetings, and budget, and why most companies get this wrong by hiring more reps instead of fixing demand. They go into the mechanics: cost per meeting, conversion rates, tiered lead scoring, and how to align marketing, SDRs, and sales into one machine. Aviv also explains why he eliminated prospecting for AEs entirely…and instead built a system where marketing fills calendars at scale. If you're trying to prove marketing ROI, scale pipeline predictably, or turn marketing into a true revenue driver, this episode is for YOU.  ⁠https://customer.io⁠⁠ helps brands turn data into personalized messages that actually connect, across email, SMS, and beyond. Learn more at ⁠https://customer.io/tmm⁠ Follow Aviv: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avivcanaani/ Follow Daniel: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murray-marketing/ Sign up for The Marketing Millennials newsletter: www.workweek.com/brand/the-marketing-millennials Daniel is a Workweek friend, working to produce amazing podcasts. To find out more, visit: www.workweek.com

In this episode of the Profit Cash Growth Podcast we focus on AI in the finance function: Xero's AI bank reconciliation feature (its limitations and risks), OCR and machine‑learning invoice processing (Dext, others), AI commentary tools for management accounts (Sift, Fathom, DataRails), and the wider question of whether AI can replace CFOs, accountants or bookkeepers. The discussion explains where current tools help, where they fail, and why human nuance, trust and complete data capture remain critical. Key takeaways: current AI tools can speed up tasks and act as copilots but often introduce errors without careful oversight; high‑trust roles like CFOs and advisory accountants are unlikely to be fully replaced in the near term; businesses should focus on better data aggregation and training tailored models if they want useful AI assistance.   ⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together! ⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe ⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book   VALUABLE RESOURCES Website LinkedIn YouTube Facebook ABOUT THE HOST: Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 6 & 7 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers. As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years' experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business. Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn't working and where your opportunities lie. Claire's mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.    *The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

We're back! After a little hiatus between new guest episodes, we return in style as Dave sits down with Aviv Canaani, Chief Revenue Officer at Datarails, to discuss his firm belief that there is no real way to grow a B2B company without building a brand - especially not today.Aviv shares his unique journey from marketing leader to Chief Revenue Officer, and how he transformed a traditional outbound sales machine into a high-growth inbound powerhouse through a constant process of experimentation, risk-taking, learning and iterating. Along the way, he and Dave dismantle the myth (prevalent amongst many scaleup marketers) that brand is just "fluffy" creative work. We also dive into:The CRO's case for brand: Why revenue leaders should obsess over brand as the ultimate "revenue tomorrow" engine.The outbound/inbound shift: How Datarails moved from 90% outbound to 90% inbound through intentional brand-building and community.Balancing short-term & long-term: Managing separate growth and brand teams to hit this quarter's targets while fueling future demand.B2B doesn't mean boring: How memes, a niche podcast, and sponsoring the Microsoft Excel World Cup drove massive engagement in the typically corporate finance space.If you're a marketing leader looking to learn more about brand-building's impact on revenue growth, or moving beyond over-reliance on short-term outbound activity, this masterclass in modern B2B growth is for you.

Didi spent five years building a product that no one really wanted. He raised $10 million, tried endless pivots, and was known as the "black sheep" of his investors' portfolio. Then, with his back against the wall, he made one final bet on a boring, unsexy market: FP&A for Excel users.In this episode, Didi breaks down how that final pivot turned into a rocket ship. He reveals why he sold cheap monthly contracts to prove demand, how he used his kids to automate LinkedIn outreach, and why targeting the market everyone else ignores (Excel lovers) was the key to unlocking massive growth.Why You Should ListenHow to survive 5 years of wandering before finding PMF.Why he sold $790/month contracts to validate a pivot.How to scale from $0 to $20M ARR with 100% outbound sales.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, pivot, B2B sales, outbound sales strategy, FP&A software, excel automation, Didi Gurfinkel00:00:00 Intro00:02:42 The First 5 Years of Wandering00:11:39 Being the "Black Sheep" of the Portfolio00:14:12 Identifying the FP&A Opportunity00:20:55 The Pivot: Selling $790/Month Contracts00:30:30 Scaling from $1M to $20M with Outbound00:33:18 Why the Mid-Market is Wide Open00:34:22 The Moment of True Product Market FitSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Most B2B marketing falls flat because it plays it too safe. Aviv Canaani, CMO/CRO at Datarails, explains why it's time to rethink how we approach marketing, creativity, and revenue ownership.In this episode of CMO Convo, Aviv shares how he flipped DataRails from 95% outbound to 95% inbound, why B2B teams should borrow tactics from B2C, and what it really means to own the full funnel as a CRO. The result? Marketing that stands out, drives revenue, and finally earns its seat at the table.What you'll learn in this video:→ Why most B2B marketing gets ignored→ How UGC, humor, and scroll-stopping content win attention→ The rise of the CRO role and what it means for CMOs→ Why marketing's job is to make sales easier→ How startups can balance creativity with measurable revenue

Connect with Datarails CRO Aviv Canaani on LinkedIn THE PREPARED SELLING COURSE | A free 29-minute course that shows Account Executives how top performers prepare for demos, discovery, and referrals — and win more deals, faster. GET FREE ACCESS The Elite Sales Professional Assessment: Answer 15 Questions to Benchmark your ability to sell vs elite sales professionals. GET YOUR SALES BENCHMARK HERE Summary In this conversation, Aviv Canaani, the CRO of DataRails, shares insights on building a successful go-to-market strategy focused on driving inbound leads, optimizing sales processes, and fostering a high-performing sales team. He emphasizes the importance of metrics, conversion rates, and a structured sales methodology to ensure predictable revenue. Aviv also discusses the significance of team motivation, effective hiring practices, and the role of preparation in achieving sales success. Takeaways Creating a go-to-market machine is essential for driving inbound leads. Metrics like meeting to close one are crucial for evaluating sales performance. A structured sales methodology helps in scaling the sales process effectively. Speed to lead is critical in converting prospects into customers. Trust and collaboration within the sales team enhance overall performance. Promoting from within and recognizing top performers fosters a motivated sales team. Evaluating sales talent through simulations can reveal true capabilities. Forecasting sales requires a mix of historical data and current pipeline insights. Preparation for sales calls is vital for success and should be prioritized. CROs must focus on building a predictable revenue model to satisfy stakeholders.

Send us a textIn this episode we interview Jonathan Marciano, VP of Brand and Content at DataRails, a B2B SaaS platform for the CFO's office.What you'll learn in this episode:Why DataRails built a mascot—and how it's redefining B2B brand storytellingThe strategy behind launching Bob Sheetner, the FP&A PandaHow humor, character, and relatability build social media momentumTips for creating a mascot that lasts beyond a founder's brandReal-world tactics for scaling content with 3D, AI, and in-house productionHow to use fluent brand devices to increase recall and buying preferenceWhat it takes to build internal buy-in and creative alignment across teamsHow a mascot can make niche SaaS content unforgettable

Annette DeYoung, Principal Solutions Consultant at Datarails, is an accountant-turned FP&A manufacturing leader. She has deep experience in leading finance teams at manufacturing companies including Berner Food and Beverage, Rockford Products, Fairbanks Morse Engine, and JL Clark. It was at JL Clark, as Director of FP&A, that Annette implemented FP&A Solution, Datarails to mop up inefficiencies and end drain all-late night sessions at the finance department— she  liked the product so much she ended up joining the company and has since spoken to more than 1000 FP&A professionals seeking to love FP&A again by removing tedious repetitive processes. In this episode  Why I fell in love with manufacturing and finance over my career  How creativity drew me from accounting to FP&A Why a hard-coded accountant attitude was difficult to reconcile with more creative FP&A  How to create finance business partnerships on the manufacturing floor  Why I brought Datarails into my finance team at JL Clarke  The future of Excel in FP&A Is finance (finally) making a move with AI?  The power of getting out of your comfort zone in finance  Connect with Annette on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahdeyoung/

פרק מספר 491 של רברס עם פלטפורמה, שהוקלט ב-11 בפברואר 2025, יום חורפי במיוחד. אורי ורן מארחים בהפסקת אש את עודד מחברת DataRails לשיחה על איך עושים AI (חביב-הקהל בפרקים האחרונים) בעולם ה-Finance והאתגרים המאוד מיוחדים בעולם הזה.

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Aviv Canaani, CRO at Datarails, who shares how he helped move the company from 90% outbound to 90% inbound. "One of our best performing ads is something actually I saw, usually it comes from the team, but I saw this TikTok ad for I think it was a B2C company. Something like, someone asked a lady a question and whatever they ask she says 'yup'. 'Oh, does it do this?' 'Yup'. 'Does it do this?' 'Yup'. So I sent it to the team. I'm like, let's try to do something like that for Datarails. It's been our one of our best performing ads on TikTok. So I think it's really understanding, you know, the channel you're focused on and you have to create the fun, engaging videos that align with what works in the channel, but with our own spin of marketing, our own software." Aviv shares: • Diversification and reducing dependency on any single ad channel • TikTok success in B2B; from user-generated content to understanding the algorithm • Reducing attribution confusion: the simple switch the DataRails team made to categorise and analyse data • How they've scaled their marketing budget in direct proportion to AE hiring: their data-driven system that predicts meeting generation based on marketing spend • His transition from VP Marketing to CRO and his biggest learning managing sales teams • Combat rising ad costs: why creating platform-specific content rather than using a one-size-fits-all strategy is key and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of Corporate Treasury 101, we dive into the impact of AI in Treasury and FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) with Sloane Kolt from DataRails. AI and machine learning are rapidly transforming how treasury professionals manage cash flow, risk, and financial strategy. But how much of it is hype, and what are the real applications for treasurers today?Sloane Kolt, a finance expert with over a decade in corporate finance, is the Head of the Materials Lab at DataRails, an AI-powered FP&A platform. She shares how AI is shaping the future of financial planning, forecasting, and decision-making, including generative AI use cases, predictive analytics, and the intersection between Treasury & FP&A.Expect to LearnHow AI is transforming cash flow forecasting and financial modelingThe biggest risks and limitations of AI in TreasuryGenerative AI vs. Machine Learning – What treasurers need to knowHow Treasury and FP&A can collaborate using AI-driven insightsAI's role in risk management, cash positioning, and strategic decision-makingEpisode Breakdown with Timestamps [00:00:00] - Introduction & Why AI in Treasury Matters [00:02:36] - AI 101: What it is & How It Works in Finance [00:06:14] - Generative AI vs. Machine Learning in Treasury [00:09:17] - AI in Treasury Today: Practical Use Cases [00:16:51] - AI for Cash Flow Forecasting: Pros & Cons [00:19:30] - The Risks & Limitations of AI in Treasury [00:29:45] - AI & The Future of Treasury & FP&A Collaboration [00:38:07] - AI for Treasury Policies & Compliance Automation [00:48:02] - The Future of AI in Treasury: What's Next [00:54:17] - How to Get Started with AI in Treasury TodayFollow Sloane Kolt on Socials: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sloanekolt/ Website: https://www.datarails.com/ Follow Corporate Treasury 101:Website: https://corporate-treasury-101.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/86645197/admin/dashboard/ Follow Hussam & Guillaume:Hussam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hussam-ali-6bb69186/ Guillaume on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-jouvencel/ Gha Marketing Website: https://ghapodcast.com/ #CorporateTreasury #TreasuryManagement #AIinFinance #CashFlowForecasting #FP&A #RiskManagement #Fintech #FinancePodcast----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Get $100 off any AFP product, including their CTP Exam Prep Platform, using our discount code! Find this and More on our partner's pagehttps://www.corporate-treasury-101.com/partners-page

In this special episode (part of Datarails' FP&A Con 2024) Glenn hosts an all-star panel to debate AI and FP&A: Hype vs reality.   Join Nicolas Boucher, Christian Martinez, and Gabriela Gutierrez, alongside CFO Glenn Hopper, host of FP&A Today, and an AI thought leader and author. Delve into real-world applications, separating fact from fiction, and gain valuable practical insights into the present and future of AI in financial planning and analysis.    The Guests: Nicolas Boucher, Keynote speaker on AI for Finance & FP&A Christian Martinez, Finance Analytics Manager, Kraft Heinz Gabriela Gutierrez, Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist   In this episode:  How many FP&A pros are using AI in their work - how do you compare vs the results of our poll  The main misconceptions + and what not to do in the  finance and AI era The significance of ChatGPT 4o The biggest barriers to AI adoptions  Practical uses of AI to use today , including forecasting and practical ways to save time  FP&A AI use cases that have shocked the panel  Which FP&A processes could most use AI help? How to get started practically AI capabilities in existing tools  such as PowerBI Why 2024 is about Python as the tool to learn to break the barrier of AI Automation in finance's relationship with other departments Creating your own chatbot services The importance of data maturity (before AI maturity) How you will start to see AI inbuilt to all your finance techstack Download financial data (balance sheets, savings) from a company on  Yahoo Finance and plug into Chat GPT 4o (Prompt: Act as a management consultant and analyze this data with an FP&A lens” (and getting volume analysis, volatility analysis, moving averages..)  FP&ACon 2024 (on demand) https://www.datarails.com/events/fpa-con-2024/ Join the AI Finance Club: https://ai-finance.club/  “Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models,”

There are two different directions for AI in finance, says Didi Gurfinkel, Co-Founder and CEO of Datarails. You can use AI to extend your hands. Or, your brain.  He says: ”Using AI to extend your hands involves automating processes, making everything faster, reducing headcount shortening time to deliver, which is amazing. But it's not a life changer. In this situation maybe you can reduce the gap between 10 employees to five employees but this will not be what will save your business or ultimately make it successful. “The more interesting part is to look at AI as an extension to your brain. Here, I think this is a life changer. Letting the CFO or the FP&A manager have a tool that can be like an extension to the FP&A brain. If you take your analysis or approach to analyze your business, the AI can run it at scale with all your historical data, internal data and external data.” In this episode Didi Gurfinkel talks about setting up Datarails, the FP&A the AI-powered Financial Planning and Analysis platform for Excel users and the multiple challenges and learnings along the way. He reveals: Starting his career at Cisco the biggest IT company in the world (“I imagined that everything will be automated end of month – I was wrong”) Setting up Datarails in 2015 and the challenges of getting traction for an initial concept of “connecting organizational spreadsheets into one centralized database” Four years of trying (and How he finally found product market fit)  Understanding the power of Excel as core to finance allowed us to focus on finance How FP&A use cases are the classic consolidation challenge because every FP&A process starts from collecting data from multiple sources in different structures, different shapes, and  different systems.  Our capability to transform semi-structured data into structured data landed a very strong competitive edge, Our “SaaS wake up call” – how we learnt to grow at the same pace with 50% less expenses   AI is either an extension of your head vs AI as an extension of your brain and why the latter is the real game-changer From a good CFO to an amazing CFO with AI My expectations as a CEO from my finance team Why ChatGPT is amazing at text but the challenges come with replicating this with accurate numbers My favorite Excel function Surprising fact you wouldn't know about me  Didi was previously a GM at Cisco. He has extensive senior management experience with a focus on growth and innovation. Didi oversees business, strategy and operations. He holds a B.Sc in economics and computer science, and an MBA in business management. Follow Didi Gurfinkel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/didigurfinkel/

This follows one of our most popular ever episodes (episode 19: Budgeting all your questions answered). In this sequel episode, new and returning  guests answer all your new burning budget and forecasting questions and challenges. Joining us in the budget and forecasting war-room are:  Alejandra Boggione, FP&A Manager and Senior Business Controller, FASTA Follow ⏩https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandraboggione/ Andrew Childress, FP&A Solutions Consultant Datarails (ex finance at Accupac, One Inc and Flint Group) Follow ⏩https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewrchildress/ Annette deYoung, Senior FP&A Solutions Consultant, Datarails (ex finance at JL Clark, Berner Food & Beverage, Fairbanks Morse Engine) Follow ⏩ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahdeyoung/ Some of the questions tackled in this LinkedIn Live episode of FP&A Today (November 2023): What's budgeting and forecasting good for? How do you approach budgeting in consulting firms? Which type of budget process works best (top down or bottom up?) How can FP&A be the bridge between the two? How does the budget work in a startup? What is the linkage between forecasting and the model? How can finance best prepare for the budget ahead of time to avoid crazy late nights? Revisiting the previous year's budget – (what can be cut)? How can you ensure alignment between the financial plan and operational plan? Static annual budget versus a rolling forecast? How do budgets help with inflation challenges? How do you kickstart scenario planning? How often should you reforecast? FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails the AI-powered Financial Planning and Analysis platform for Excel users.

From Camp Taji in Iraq, to Will Wheaton's narration of Ready Player One, this is the story of Frank Aburto who helped build Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) at Audible.  Frank Aburto, senior Director of Finance, leads strategic finance and FP&A at Audible the audio storytelling subsidiary of Amazon. In his role, Aburto supports more than 150 partners across marketing and product where the FP&A function has been central to Audible's success in reaching millions of listeners around the world and becoming the largest player in the audiobook market (sales of audiobooks hit $1.8 billion in the US alone in 2022).  In this episode: How the military veteran applied his strategic skills learnt in Iraq, Hawai, and South Korea to finance and business  Building FP&A at Audible through the "lens of the customer" The one trait he looks for in a finance hire Why understanding customers matters more than P&L metrics The power of investment banking as a route to FP&A and finance leadership Using SQL to get ahead in your career Recommendations for your next Audible book  How to get a finance job at Audible or Amazon FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. www.datarails.com  Follow and connect with Frank Aburto: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fcaburto/ Watch the Full YouTube episode: https://youtu.be/9w-MfrBN6K0

Airbase, a spend management company currently processes over $5 billion of annual payments on behalf of finance teams. It is a pain point Vallurupalli is all too aware of. "Moving to Airbase solved a challenge I had personally experienced at previous companies were there were 65 or 70 physical [credit]cards in a 300 person company and spend was not controlled. There was no way to forecast when someone was thinking of using a physical card, which was for anything at that time". CFO Aneal Vallurupalli joins Paul, on Datarails' podcast FP&A Today, to talk about what CFOs increasingly require from the best in FP&A, his experiences of financial planning and analysis at previous companies, stretching from investment banking to series A companies and public companies. In this episode: • The importance of understanding the context and priorities when coming into a new company or role. There's always a rationale for why things were done a certain way before. • Building credibility and relationships across the organization by understanding pain points, providing value , and conveying industry expertise. • Moving from growth at all costs in SaaS to revenue growth • Why he has no single favorite financial metric to analyze a business. The most important metric is often "not financial" and varies by company. • How AI will displace some repetitive, manual tasks but not logic-based and contextual decision making which is core to finance roles. • Why having a hunger for knowledge as the most crucial way to win in your FP&A career - with most technical skills being "table stakes"   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Read the full transcript: https://www.datarails.com/how-to-never-be-left-out-of-the-conversation-again-in-fpa-with-airbase-cfo-aneal-vallurupalli/ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J0keFw4WPjM

Worldwide spend on cloud infrastructure hit a staggering $169 billion in 2022 with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) combined, accounting for 62 percent of the cloud market share. In its first quarter of this year revenue from AWS totaled $21.35 billion, representing almost 17% of Amazon's overall revenue. What lessons can we learn from within AWS about effective cloud financial management? How can FP&A teams better understand this complex line item? We are joined by Jeff Duresky, Senior FinOps Commercial Architect, Amazon AWS. He is a finance leader who supports the cloud leader's largest and most strategic customers – and has also held strategic FP&A roles at companies including Capital One. “As a finance professional the more you understand cloud, the better the insights you'll be able to drive” – Jeff Duresky In this episode Jeff's worst budget experience (aka professional service accrual releases). The link between cloud financial management and FP&A trading fixed expenses in cloud  Smart decisions related to cloud expenditures and management  Common cost language – how to get it right  Secrets to cloud forecasting  Promoting the best finance and engineering team conversations around the cloud  Finding reductions in costs for cloud users Core metrics to assess and unit costs (cost per gigabyte, cost per instance) First steps to begin forecasting cloud costs My biggest finance strategic moment  The last finance thing I googled The importance of taking notes in a career in FP&A Notes How to establish and drive a forecasting culture  How to talk about cloud with a non-cloud audience (business partnering) The Key to AWS Optimization Follow and connect with Jeff Duresky on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffduresky/ FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails, Datarails is the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform.  Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning.

What happened when two highly-skilled Excel leaders took on the "best of the best" in the sport? Paul Barnhurst reveals the inside story when he pitted his FP&A-based Excel wits in the The Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC). Taking the ultimate test alongside him is fellow-first timer “Excel Ninja” Ajay Patel, who teaches thousands of subscribers advanced Excel. Giving his opnion on the two Excel jousters is Andrew Grigolyunovich, FMWC Founder and CEO of AG Capital. The trio talk Excel-at-speed, improving skills, and the functions they can't live without. Getting to know Andrew Grigolyunovich: From being a CFO at 21 to founding the Financial Modeling World Cup Ajay Patel (aka the Excel Ninja) a fifth degree black belt in Tang Soo Do talks his favorite Excel functions and his FMWC ultimate test Optimization planning and Analysis vs FP&A The inside story of Paul and Ajay's grueling FMWC experience Secrets to creating classic Excel use cases  Advice for getting started in competitive Excel  Best advice to improve your Excel skills  Guests: Andrew Grigolyunovich, Financial Modeling World Cup: Founder & CEO of AG Capital https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgrig/ Ajay Patel, The Excel Ninja, Founder of the Excel Dojo https://www.linkedin.com/in/theexceldojo/   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform. Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning.

This special edition of FP&A Today saw 1,524 finance pros sign up for this LinkedIn Live session. In this episode Paul and a special panel answer all your burning questions on how Finance teams are practically using AI to advance their careers (and bring instant productivity to their businesses). Joining Paul is Adam Shilton, Founder, Tech for Finance and a world expert on “Helping finance pros turn systems into superpowers with AI”. In addition he is joined by Sloane Kolt, Head of Datarails Labs, which recently launched FP&A Genius, an AI powered solution transforming FP&A. Some of your big audience questions answered: What was the last thing you used Generative AI for?  Ethical questions in AI and Finance (eg. Do we own the model that AI built?) What are the most common use cases for AI in FP&A, and accounting post ChatGPT? What are the differences between AI in big vs small companies?  How should finance leadership use AI and adapt it in their team ethos and processes? Privacy, security, AI and Finance - what are the risks? What are the secrets of effective Prompting in finance? Clarifying tasks with your AI Chat  Lessons from building a new finance AI tool  Favorite non ChatGPT AI tools you have seen Best advice for getting started with AI in finance Rapid fire questions: favorite Excel function and person I would most like to meet.  FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform. Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning. YouTube video of the episode Blog post and full transcript Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

Joining Host Chris Mechanic on today's episode is a passionate, data-driven marketer with over 20 years of experience in marketing and communications. They've won 12 marketing awards including “The Innovator” award for the most creative use of Gong. Aviv Canaani is the VP of Marketing and Sales at Datarails. Aviv shares how to make B2B The post Breaking the cycle of boring B2B content with Aviv Canaani appeared first on WebMechanix.

Rick Warren, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer, Innovation Care Partners, brings lessons from more than 25 years in Healthcare Finance. This includes roles as senior finance and FP&A roles at Ascension (one of the one of the largest private healthcare systems in the United States), Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, and CVS Health, one of the US's largest retail pharmacy store chains. This is a must-listen for anyone who is interested in finance procedures in healthcare and the most important metrics in healthcare for anyone in finance.   This episode covers:  How finance can help transform healthcare equity –  the challenge of getting lower socioeconomic group fair  healthcare coverage Rick Moving from a political science degree to finance and ultimately CFO The importance of Relevance over precision in FP&A The nightmare budget which crashed before it was saved Lessons from Boy Scout leadership positions  Margins for hospitals still struggling post-covid  The fundamental healthcare financial metrics including reducing hospital expenses, admissions per thousand, ER visits vs primary health care physician, SNF nursing home days spent, revenue and expense per member per month  The secrets to effective business partnerships in FP&A Favorite Excel Function FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform.  Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning.

Aarish Shah is Founder of EmergeONE a Fractional CFO firm for venture backed UK tech startups and scaleups (from Seed to Series B). He has spent close to two decades operating as a CEO or CFO, and now specializes in helping startups understand and act powerfully on their numbers.  In this episode, Aarish shares his insights on financial planning and analysis (FP&A) in startups and the fundamental lessons he has learned in his career.  His “worst budget ever” when one of his factories burnt down in Papua New Guinea Who he would most like to meet His Nothing Ventured podcast and key lessons talking to players in the venture ecosystem Why he likes the constant “challenges” of Series B startups over other stage companies The difference between "building" the playbook and "running" the playbook in startups How to consider your finance tech stack scales pre-seed to Exit  How FP&A should consider their tech stack Why you need to spending your money at pre-seed  Investing in early stage businesses in the UK How do we go about creating a budget and forecast for a startup? Key metrics I use to analyze startups  How startups can cope with the drying up of cheap capital How to get your CFO to say yes  Favorite Excel function How AI understanding is the one skill every FP&A practitioner needs  Episode links: Nothing Ventured Podcast EmergeOne Fractional CFOs hello@emergeone.co.uk (to contact Aarish) FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform.  Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning. Follow Aarish on LinkedIn YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

Ashok Manthena has supported FP&A teams at some of the biggest and most well-known companies on the planet including Google, GAP, and Ingersoll Rand. This included a period at Google which was striking because of “the amount of resources available for finance” particularly when it comes to killing manual finance processes. He says there is an in-built DNA to “automate manual processes”. He says: “This bubbles up naturally when they find there is an, there is a manual process and everyone comes together and thinks about how to automate that process.” In a second career stage Ashok has been a leader in AI finance carrying out practical research, giving keynote speeches and providing practical advice on transforming businesses through the use of AI. Rapid fire questions: Why I want to meet Gandhi – to doing Doing sensitivity analysis in ChatGPT  Why we should all be embarrassed by the  stat that 70% of FP&A is spent on getting the data (vs only 30% on insights)  The power of meetups meetups and the return of face to face meetings for finance learning  What my career FP&A career at Google taught me  The near future of automation and AI including running daily reports to the CFO  Why data priority needs to be the #1 priority alongiside faster surfacing of data issues to leadership How I became a leading AI finance speaker and writer and started a tech startup Two ways AI is going to revolutionize FP&A Departments forever  How ChatGPT will be a new interface for finance – practical examples  The playbook for smaller finance teams and businesses to  thrive in the AI age Advice to get started with AI in FP&A The role of data science in the future of FP&A FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform.  Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning. Follow Ashok on LinkedIn YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

כשדידי והקו-פאונדרים שלו הקימו את דאטהריילס ב-2015 הם הגיעו עם תפיסה אחת רחבה: "בואו נציל את העולם מאקסלים." הם רצו ליצור טכנולוגיה שיודעת לקחת את כל האקסלים בארגון ולרכז אותם בתוך מבנה נתונים אחד, וככה לפתור בעיות מהותיות בחברה. הוא משתף שהיו להם חמש שנים מאוד מפותלות ומאתגרות שבהן הם ניסו לחפש את הפרודקט מרקט-פיט שלהם: "להגיד שזה רכבת הרים זה אפילו קצת קלישאתי, כי ברכבת הרים יש לך הצלחות גדולות, וכאן זה היה יותר כמו הליכה במדבר; כל פעם אתה חושב שאתה רואה את נווה המדבר הקרוב, מתקרב ואז מבין שזאת סתם השתקפות, מטפס על הר וחושב שהגעת לפסגה אבל בעצם יש עוד. זה מסע של פאטה מורגנה."   צוללים להכל בפרק 112 עם דידי גורפינקל, מנכ״ל ומייסד שותף ב Datarails 

Robin Kiziak is Financial Controller and Finance Business Partner  at VF Corporation (home of outdoor brands Vans, North Face and Timberland). Previously he has been a finance business partner at Hotel Chocolat and UK home improvement leader, Wickes. He also runs the website, There's Nothing Funny About Finance which aims to move finance away from stereotypes (think Dr No or Beancounters). In this episode Robin reveals how he has used humor to disarm tension in meetings and become a finance business partner  trusted by his colleagues  In this episode:  Robin's Favorite Finance Joke How to be a finance business partner (“with a part of the business that don't want you  there”). The negative stereotypes of finance and how to overcome them The power of soft (or human) skills  The distribution metrics behind Vans and Timberland's finance successes  Costs vs service as the “holy grail” in retail  How to start off in a new finance role – which financials to look at first  The biggest financial surprise  you found Snagging an unsung hero award Biggest advice to an aspiring FP&A professional  FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails,the AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform.  Keep your own Excel financial models and spreadsheets and benefit from AI for data consolidation, reporting and planning. Links – There's Nothing Funny About Finance Follow Robin Kiziak on LinkedIn  YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

When FP&A Meets Treasury with Mike Richards “Spend 10 minutes a week on yourself. Nobody else is going to take charge of your career except for you. If you sit back, you are going to lose.” Mike Richards, CEO & Founder of The Treasury Recruitment Company, has helped professionals in the US, UK and Europe find dream treasury roles at companies such as Chanel, IKEA and Porsche for two decades.   Mike also hosts the popular podcast, The Treasury Career Corner Podcast which has seen  250 treasury guests and more than 120,000 downloads In this episode:  Modern treasury defined The best paths to collaboration between Treasury and FP&A  (aka grab a coffee ☕) Association of Finance Professionals' certifications for treasury and FP&A The guide to understanding treasury operations for aspiring CFOs.  Financial risk management, capital structure, cash management, banking, relationships, and decision-making for treasury  How to get a job in a job market that sucks Horrible finance job descriptions   Links  Upcoming speeches and conferences featuring Mike Richards - https://treasuryrecruitment.com/treasury-roadshow/ Including New York Cash Exchange, then EuroFinance – Barcelona & then AFP, San Diego Listeners can connect with Mike here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrtreasury/ Head to Treasury Corner podcast here - https://treasuryrecruitment.com/podcast/   YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails (www.datarails.com) is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.

“You can throw me in any water. Stormy, cold, or hot and I'll start swimming.”  And swimming is exactly what Jenny Fuss did.  Jenny Fuss, CFO of Boart Longyear, talks about the challenges of international experience, the importance of having a diverse set of skills in an FP&A team and  how to achieve storytelling and influencing in FP&A. Originally from a small town in Germany, Fuss wanted experience of working and living abroad. When the opportunity to move to become a CFO of a joint venture in China presented itself she took it before relocating again to continue her global career in Houston Texas, and expertise as a finance leader walking the shop floor in manufacturing companies.  This episode covers:  Jenny's advice for an international-based career  The power of FP&A to provide game changing analysis when you have new customer, need to find a new way to contract or enter new markets What CFOs expect from a new breed of FP&A teams The challenge of doing less F and P (and more analysis) when facing high pressure cycles such as month end closes and budget planning Why she favors a three-year forecast from FP&A The #1 priority for a CFO in their first 90 days in a new role  Owning up to a million dollar mistake   Jenny's favorite thing about Excel Her top  advice for someone starting out in FP&A Follow Jenny Fuss on LinkedIn YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.

Wassia Kamon built FP&A from the ground up at Intralot, a state lottery vendor behind the US Powerball lottery (as an insider she couldn't play the lottery for nine years). And Wassia knows something about winning against the odds. She arrived in the US aged 17. As she points out “only 3% of people getting a CPA are black”. Wassia says: “Growing up in the Ivory Coast I was not a minority. Coming to the US I had to learn what it was to be a minority.” She started posting regularly on LinkedIn after “seeing that there's nobody that looks like me that's talking about finance. “I never had a black boss, I never reported to somebody that was black. So the fact that I'm in this role means that other people saw me for what I could bring to the table and hired me.” Her rapid rise has seen her become a finance executive with roles as VP of Finance at Boehringer Ingelheim From there, she moved on to more FP&A-focused roles at Boehringer Ingelheim, a global pharmaceutical company, as finance business partner for different business units, to VP of Finance at Low Income Investment Fund (the company manages $2billion of investments). She was recently recognized as an up the 40 under 40 honoree by CPA Practive Advisor. In this episode learn: Her approach to learning *on the go* in switching from accounting to FP&A  The value of “starting where you are”  How to make sure finance speaks the same language as the rest of the business Putting ongoing meetings ahead of an annual meeting when it comes to budget and other big ticket items Secrets to managing a team and getting the most out of colleagues Book recommendations to boost your FP&A career How being “overly confident” led to her biggest FP&A career blunder  Her favorite Excel function that changed her life forever  What's better, chocolate or Cheetos? YouTube video of this episode  Full episode transcript Follow Wassia Kamon on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification. 

Today's guest is…Paul Barnhurst. Usually sitting in the presenter's chair, this special edition sees Paul Barnhurst, aka The FP&A Guy (and host of FP&A Today), reveal the highs and lows from his storied career in FP&A at American Express, Solera, and DigiCert. Guest host  is Annette deYoung, FP&A Solutions Consultant at Datarails, herself an FP&A veteran at companies including manufacturer, JL Clarke.   Highlights? Discover a rookie error that saw Paul deliver bonuses to the worst performers (yes, you read that right), rather than the best. How he met Jimmy Carter. The inside story of FP&A forecasting for American Express's (then) money-spinning Travelers Cheques business, and how his biggest FP&A tech accomplishment is still in place at a previous company.   Get to know your host as Paul reveals: The winding road to FP&A from his beginnings in government procurement contracts His big break at American Express despite “not really knowing what  FP&A was” With a love of numbers, why he was drawn to FP&A as his passion  Accounting vs FP&A and the best techniques he has used to manage the relationships His key learnings to becoming a truly excellent FP&A business partner The fears and journey in leaving big corporations to become a top FP&A consultant  Why finance tend to be such laggards when it comes to tech adoption What's it actually like using Google Sheets? YouTube video of this episode  Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com   For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification. 

Danielle Stein Fairhust  literally wrote the book on Excel and Financial Modeling. Well two books, actually. Using Excel for Business and Financial Modelling and Financial Modeling in Excel for Dummies.    Here, the Excel MVP from Australia provides her secrets to financial modeling.   Her road to financial modeling after traveling for seven years, and leaving investment banking Why Excel is so crucial for businesses  Budgeting and forecasting vs financial modeling  How she was commissioned to write her famous books Difference between creating a LinkedIn course vs writing a book Encouraging and raising the profile of women in financial modeling  Secrets to training and behind the scenes of the Financial Modeling World Cup  How to Become an Excel MVP The biggest issue people face with financial modeling The Financial Modeling Institute work and how to ace the test  Favorite Excel Function? Biggest advice for someone starting in FP&A today?   Links Danielle Stein Fairhurst: Using Excel for Business and Financial Modeling  Danielle Stein Fairhurst: Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies Danielle's LinkedIn course (new), Excel: Financial Functions in Depth.    Follow Danielle Stein Fairhurst on LinkedIn  YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com   For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification.   

Bjarte Bogsnes has worked with companies, from IKEA, H&M,Pernod Ricard, Volvo and Equinor (Scandinavia's largest company). His approach, “Beyond Budgeting” involves wholesale rethinking about budget approaches. In today's episode, Bogsnes rails against the “misery” and “borderline unethical behavior” in traditional budgeting within companies, as he talks about the seachange happening in businesses. He talks to Paul Barnhurst as he publishes his new book, This Is Beyond Budgeting: A Guide to More Adaptive and Human Organizations (2023).   The episode covers   Definition of beyond budgeting as an antidote to “serious problems with traditional management” How traditional budgeting gets “trust” and “predictability” wrong  Your answer to “Why are you budgeting?” shows the problems inherent in existing process How budget process are “borderline unethical” Equinor (Scandinavia's case study) change  Making organizations more adaptive and human in the process of transformation Don't start with rolling forecasting  How a Vinyl collection of 3,5000 is a unique musical passion  How Beyond Budget “will happen” in the next decade    Links    Bognes Advisory bogsnesadvisory.com   FT (case study of Ikea): CEOs forced to ditch decades of forecasting habits   Bjarte Bogsnes: This Is Beyond Budgeting: A Guide to More Adaptive and Human Organizations     Follow Bjarte Bogsnes on LinkedIn   YouTube video of the episode   Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn    Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.

In this special FP&A Today episode, Paul is  joined by three Excel experts whom Microsoft has recognized as Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). Learn why it is important to up your Excel game and how you can do it. Below check out offers (saving $$$) from our MVPs exclusively for listeners of FP&A Today. Get all your questions about Excel answered by the expert panel: George Mount, Founder Stringfest Analytics Celia Alves, CEO, Solve and Excel Consulting Mark Proctor, Excel Off The Grid In this special episode: Our MVPs on when Excel first emerged as a difference-maker in their lives George Mount on the failure of finance to adapt to technology The challenge of finance teams descending to the lowest common Excel skill set The untapped power of PowerQuery and where to start The power of prepping your data properly Python vs Excel Automating Excel reports using Python How to deal with tricky Excel issues Will Excel go extinct with the rise of AI The thing that you absolutely could not live without in Excel Connect with George Mount Connect with Celia Alves Connect with Mark Proctor Special Offers Exclusively for FP&A Today listeners 1) George Mount Subscribe to George's newsletter to get access to his data analytics resource library and many other goodies https://stringfestanalytics.com/subscribe/ 2) Mark Proctor https://exceloffthegrid.com/fpa is an exclusive offer for our training academy to the listeners of FP&A Today - 30-day full access trial for $1, followed by a $100 annual discount. This is valid until 31 May. Excel Off the Grid  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelOffTheGrid LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markstephenproctor/ 3) Celia Alves Celia offers an online course about automation of Excel Reporting procedures. Check out the special FP&A Today discount here https://snapreportschamp.com/course DISCOUNT CODE for 20% OFF: FPA20 (valid up to June 4, 2023). Subscribe to Celia's newsletter https://snapreportschamp.com/subscribenewsletter Celia Alves - Solve & Excel - on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/CeliaAlvesSolveExcel YouTube video of today's episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Syed Nadeem is a top finance leader in Saudi Arabia. But the director of Budgeting at listed telecom company, Zain KSA, says he considers his previous failures as pivotal to his position today.  He says: “When I was young [and experiencing failure] I felt so disappointed I thought my world was going to end. Sometimes  you don't get a promotion and you see other peers getting a promotion. I struggled after getting my CMA (Certified Management Accountant). Sometimes you are not getting good increments, or you are about to hire someone and they reject you. But what I learned is this failure actually makes you strong for the future role.” Today, he shares his full breadth of experience-both good and bad and explains why he provides (free) mentorships to businesses on a daily basis and to his 15,000 followers on LinkedIn.   In this wide ranging interview Syed explains: Uncovering the power of FP&A in companies providing a “helicopter view of companies”. The role and limitations of certifications in FP&A How “selling”  is the core to getting a good job in finance  The power of technology in FP&A and “unlearning and relearning every day”     The secrets to effective communication with senior leadership How bad experiences make strong finance business leaders  The secret to talking to Investors in a Language they Understand    Links  Get a free one-to-one career session with Syed at https://calendly.com/syednadeem/connect   Read the full transcript and blog Follow Syed Nadeem on LinkedIn YouTube video Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com

  Maura Feddersen, behavioral research manager at Swiss Re, is an economist who previously worked in the economics team of two of the Big Four Accountancy firms: PwC and KPMG.   She got switched on to behavioral economics as “I always felt there was something a bit missing in economics. [Economics] assumes that people act quite rationally…and that was just not the case. Behavioral economics brings together the economics, as well as insights from psychology, to try to assess how humans really make decisions”.   This  fascinating episode with Maura, uncovers the lessons that FP&A teams can learn from behavioral economics to improve forecasting and the power of “knowing what knowing what you don't know.”   This episode includes      New research revealing that investors predictions are only slightly more accurate than a chimp How new forecasting methods improved accuracy at Swiss Re by 5% The cognitive biases we need to be aware of that undermine accuracy (such as the dangers of groupthink) Meryl Streep's Oscar nominations and your forecast confidence levels tested  How to try and manage cognitive bias The true economic impact of uncertainty in the global economy and in your business  The opportunities and limits of AI forecasting  Using RIO (Rational Impartial Observers) The biggest failure in her career Favorite Excel function Her biggest advice for someone starting out to get really good at forecasting    Further reading    Actuaries magazine: So You Think You Can Underwrite [Maura Fedderson]    Insurers, take heed of these 3 common forecasting fallacies [by Maura Feddersen]    Recommended books   Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Paperback - Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan, the Impact of the Highly Improbable    Annie Duke, How to decide   Adam Grant, Think Again, The Power of Knowing what you Don't Know    Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment   Read the full transcript and blog Follow Maura Fedderson on LinkedIn YouTube video Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn   Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com   For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification.   

Are you starting to think about your budget for the next year? Stop right now, argues Mikus Krams. As a former senior director of strategy and finance at Chili Piper, he described budgets as a shackle — you'll be held prisoner to the assumptions you make for the next year. In this episode, Mikus Krums, the B2B Saas finance leader turned co-founder of Trace Space, says budgets are unlikely to be relevant for small agile companies. He tells Paul Barnhurst: “Let's say you're doing some activity and it's yielded you some results. If halfway through the activity you figured that it's not working, why would you still keep pushing it? But if you have a budget, that's exactly what you are doing…it just felt silly to be living that way.” In this episode Mikus describes  Bottoms up planning as the most impactful strategy for agile  B2B SaaS companies The reason that budgets are bad for business ROI mindset as core to his finance thinking  Managing incentive structure through a Rev Ops approach How on target earnings are sometimes more mirage than reality  Managers as “powderkegs” and “snipers”  The path to moving to a continuous forecasting methodology His biggest failure in his FP&A career Banking as a powerful route to FP&A career success The importance of lunch with business leaders and individual contributors in a business  Read the full transcript and blog Follow Mikus Krams on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification. 

“I would like to see FP&A drive the planning process for go- to-market just because I think they will have a better natural understanding of what it means to actually build a plan.” Scott Stouffer, a former engineer, is a serial entrepreneur and founder. Currently he is CEO and Founder at scaleMatters, the world's first Go-to-Market Optimization Platform. Previously, he executed the sale of Salsa Labs, a non profit CRM to PE firm Accel-KKR at a period of $12MM annual revenue and 70 employees. In this wide-ranging interview he reveals the real impact he believes CEOs, such as himself, are looking for in choosing CFOs and building a finance team. He also argues for  a bigger role for FP&A – including leadership of a company's go-to-market strategy incorporating how an organization can engage with customers to convince them to buy their product or service.  This interview covers Scott's roadmap for growth leading fast-scaling companies Why many CFOs are “glorified controllers” (and why that is a problem) How FP&A can prevent sales and marketing teams “from winging it” by bringing the “analytical brain power” to the  The power of a good plan in a fast-scaling business Should Rev Ops and Data be owned by the CFO How FP&A should be the first port of call in building a companies Go-to-Market strategy  How finance teams can work better with sales teams and better modeling sales capacity Why in 60% of cases companies have too many sales people by failing to do proper modeling Why you need to hone self-confidence as a skillset Read the full transcript and blog Follow Scott Stouffer on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com For AFP FP&A Continuing Education credit please complete the course via the Earmark Ap, must pass the quiz with 80% accuracy and send the completed certificate to pbarnhust@thefpandaguy.com for issuance of 1 hour of credit toward your AFP FP&A Certification. 

The second-biggest bank collapse in U.S. history created a storm for CFOs and their finance teams during a panic-induced 48 hours in March. It only ended as regulators took control of Santa Clara, Calif.-based SVB and a dramatic intervention by financial regulators. In this special edition of FP&A Today, meet those in finance and FP&A who saw the events at Silicon Valley Bank first hand. Understand how the banking crisis played out and how ongoing ripples continue to impact everyone in FP&A and how your finance teams can cope with the ongoing aftermath. The panel: Josh Aharonoff (aka Your CFO Guy), CEO and Founder, Mighty Digits had many clients banking with SVB and had to make quick decisions as news broke. He shares Finance & Accounting Best Practices & Advice everyday to his nearly 85,000 LinkedIn followers Follow Josh on LinkedIn   CJ Gustafson is a CFO at a series B startup, PartsTech. He has been in the startup space within the  private equity sector and has helped to scale venture backed companies for the last 10 years. He also authors Mostly Metrics, an irreverent and analytical spin on metrics which has crossed more than 10k subscribers. Follow CJ Gustafson on LinkedIn Casey Woo is a seven-time high Tech CFO- turned investor. He has held finance and CFO roles at Silicon Valley companies including at WeWork and property tech companies before founding an “operators community” turned investment fund FOG ventures. Follow Casey Woo on LinkedIn   What is covered in this episode: Casey Woo explains being at the “heart of the storm” in Silicon Valley with a close personal relationship with SVB The reasons that VCs put pressure to withdraw money from SVB in a classic “prisoner's dilemma” How the fallout from SVB continues to impact companies and particularly finance professionals  The challenges for CFOs, particularly in tech, seeking to fundraise after SVB's crash  What are the differences between fractional banking and Ponzi schemes The initial $250,000 ceiling on federal deposit insurance explained How could KPMG have given SVB a clean bill of health with so many stored-up challenges?  Why is the impact of raising rates so dramatically different than in the 1970s when no banks failed? Strategic advice for Treasury and FP&A pros going forward post-SVB  The importance for CFOs and FP&A leaders to understand “second order effects” beyond cash entering and leaving the building.  How the SVB saga has emphasized the value of an FP&A function that can show everything that's happened, is happening, and is going to happen “and being in control of that story” - allowing you to take action quickly. FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog  

“I am definitely starting to see more people with an FP&A background becoming fractional CFOs.”   Michael King, founder of The CFO Accelerator, coaches hundreds of  fractional CFOs and accountants in building “6 and 7-figure advisory firms”.   King arrives on the bustling fractional CFO scene at a time when demand for part-time finance chiefs working for several companies is  higher than ever. In King's words in the next decade a small business having a fractional CFO will be just as common as bringing in a bookkeeper as hiring fractional CFOs becomes the “cost of doing business” at small and medium-sized enterprises. And according to King, those with an FP&A background have a significant advantage.   “FP&A really gets people ready for those CFO technical skills. So when I think about FP&A, I'm thinking about things like forecast projections, budgets and models, and data management, alongside communications across functional divisions within a business. And that's a huge part of what a fractional CFO has to understand”.   Covered in this episode King's path from being a navy nuclear engineer to a fractional CFO leader The essential skills you need to be a fractional CFO When should an SMB choose a fractional CFO  Why budgeting and forecasting are “everything”  The key to using the fractional CFO position to connect the strategic goals of a business Why people in finance must learn to love sales When to move away from a fractional CFO and appoint a full time finance chief  Why cash flow is always “the first” and most important metric for any fractional CFO service Why you only need a small number of clients to “make a killing” as a fractional CFO How the Fractional CFO space will explode in the next decade “regardless of the economic picture” Fractional CFOs need to be “operating as far away from the decimal as possible” to be successful The process of adopting kids as the thing few people know about Michael     Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog   Follow Michael King on LinkedIn  Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails, the FP&A platform for Excel users. Episode links  The CFO Accelerator podcast with Michael King The CFO Report (Youtube channel) The The 5-Minute Fractional CFO Newsletter

“I must admit, when I was doing accounting, I never liked my FP&A colleagues. In fact, as a matter of at times, I hated them. I thought they didn't understand accounting. They always push to reduce the number of days it takes to close the books when they have very little clue what's going on.” Abdul Khaliq, Group Financial Controller, at Abu Dhabi National Hotels   In our 50th episode of FP&A Today, we bring together an all-star guest list who have had experience working as both accountants and in FP&A. Drawing on their experience they  look at the frequent clashes between FP&A and their accounting colleagues (be warned no one pulls any punches!). Plus, the secrets to a more harmonious relationship between FP&A and accounting. Get ready for The Dual of Accruals, the Toe-to-Toe on Cash Flow….with all of your questions answered about the day-to-day realities of FP&A vs Accounting. The panel:   Lyndi Porter is accounting controller at Solera, a  global leader in vehicle lifecycle management. She  has more than 16 years accounting experience and has managed FP&A teams   Follow Lyndi on LinkedIn   Abdul Khaliq, Group Financial Controller, at Abu Dhabi National Hotels. 20+ years of progressive experience in accounting for Real Estate Development and Hospitality industries.   Follow Abdul on LinkedIn   Josh Aharonoff (aka Your CFO Guy), CEO and Founder, Mighty Digits. He shares Finance & Accounting Best Practices & Advice everyday to his nearly 85,000 LinkedIn followers   Follow Josh on LinkedIn   Terrell Turner: Co-founder and fractional CFO at TLTurner Group (NY Times featured CFO | 40 Under 40 CPA). He also provide bookkeeping services to law firms to make accounting and finance less complicated.   What is covered in this episode: The crucial differences between accounting and FP&A? The 4 main reasons FP&A practitioners and their accounting colleagues clash. The business fallout when FP&A and accounting fail to co-exist  Best practices that have worked in your career to bridge the gaps. Potential impact of AI in the FP&A-accounting relationship The crucial role of a Tech stack The importance of the chart of accounts in this relationship Getting the 10Qs and 10Ks out and the impact on FP&A requests The fastest way to get from accounting and FP&A and the qualifications  Favorite Excel functions for accounting and FP&A pros   Read the full transcript and blog Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn     FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com  

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What does Carmen Turner love about FP&A? “Being able to provide businesses the insights they need to make great business decisions.”   The Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Carmen Consulting Group who has managed the FP&A business partnerships at top companies such as McGraw Hill, says: “I work to help the businesses manage their budgets to target and understand their financial story.” But she started her career not in finance (or through a traditional route). She began her career as an electrician. But programming robots and wiring facilities saw her gain skills which have been used daily in her 14-year finance career - not least troubleshooting, problem solving, collaboration, communication and the ability to educate others on complex (financial) wiring.  In this week's podcast Carmen provides insights into how FP&A teams can give business the appropriate insights to deliver great decision-making.  This episode covers: Carmen's definition of FP&A as a primary educator in the business How doing an MBA switched her on to FP&A as a passion How she built the first FP&A certification more than a decade ago and how it helped her understand how processes differ across industries and companies Putting her finance-first thinking to the test when starting her FP&A consulting business Her four step approach to mastering sales-FP&A business partnerships How to effectively build a sales compensation strategy that works Why she advocates for rolling forecasts  The importance of adopting a risk and opportunities approach in budget and forecasting  The importance of a buffer in place when it comes to budget deadlines  Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog Follow Carmen Turner  on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com  

Asif Masani has an inner belief that has guided his entire career. “Whatever I learn something, I don't feel good if I don't share it”.     This ethos has taken Asif on a journey to become an FP&A leader and author. He has just published his first book about FP&A, hit nearly 60,000 followers on LinkedIn and his daily advice has almost single handedly opened the eyes of Indian finance people to FP&A as a career. Unsurprisingly, his education-first focus has led him to lead FP&A (APAC and India) at e-learning company Coursera (which facilitates 7000 courses, and which set up its FP&A team three years ago).    For such a stalwart of FP&A only nine years ago Asif  admits “I had never heard about FP&A before” until he landed on a role as financial analyst at Citi. He has since had FP&A roles at companies including Pfizer, and Great Learning.   In this episode Asif talks to Paul Barnhurst about his career journey:    From audit at EY to FP&A How a struggle to find a job led him to become a top FP&A influencer The top advice for finance people to build their own online brand How he embarked on writing his new book, All About FP&A, a 220 page guide for those entering the profession How FP&A operates at e-learning provider Coursera a 4k employee company offering 7000 courses The importance of special projects driving value in FP&A at Coursera Core metrics which he tracks closely  The evolution of FP&A in India  The outsourcing of finance functions to Indian companies The biggest trend in FP&A in 2023   Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog https://www.datarails.com/fpa-today-episode-44-asif-masani-all-about-fpa/ Follow Asif Masani on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com

The VC behind buzzy startups Calm, GoFundMe, Udemy and Gong is bullish on FP&A.  Ryan Abdullah an Investor at Norwest Venture Partners tells FP&A Today says there are four reasons why VCs rely on FP&A, particularly during a downturn. Firstly there is a huge increase in appetite for forecasts. Secondly  FP&A must take account of labor shifts in startups (not least caused by large layoffs). Thirdly, ( investors who are all about growth) see FP&A as an ally and “profit center” to help businesses “grow and do better”. Fourthly FP&A is delivering an agenda with other departments to define budgets “rather than just entering numbers in a spreadsheet.” In this episode Paul talks to Ryan Abdullah covering:   How VCS look at the role of FP&A and the benefit to their portfolio companies Which financial insights and KPIs matter most to investors The role FP&A plays in big fundraising? What do VCs see as FP&A magic  The importance of realistic and accurate models for VCs The importance of robust software for handling and cleaning financial data The challenges and opportunities for SaaS KPIs His biggest success and biggest failure Ryan's photography hobby and how it helps him to think about investing  Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog Follow Ryan Abdullah on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models. Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Kevin Appleby, COO of Grow CFO, asks potential CFO applicants a simple question.   Okay, I  know you want to become a CFO.   But what sort of CFO do you want to become?   In fact, he explains, there are three types of CFO.   You need to know which one you will be.   The “Financier”. Specialists in startups, they excel at tackling fundraising rounds, and M&A. They often move from company to company. The “Transformational CFO”. This CFO wants big improvements in processes and in the way that the internals of the company work together. This CFO often heads several departments including finance, procurement, HR, and IT. The “Strategist” – the clear right-hand man or woman of the CEO, constantly analyzing the strategic direction of the company.   Somebody from an FP&A background fits into any of those roles depending on what they want and their strengths, argues Appleby.   But getting to know your strengths as CFO or in FP&A is crucial to achieve the most from your career. He says: “If you're strong in something and you take time to develop it, you can become fantastically good. If you weak in something, you can spend a lot of time to become mediocre.”   This is just one of the insights that Kevin Appleby has gained as he mentors top CFOs in the UK and the US as part of the fast-growing mentorship service Grow CFO. In this episode of FP&A he maps his career from audit (“I never really wanted to be an auditor”) and FP&A (“back then FP&A as a term didn't really exist”) at one-time great manufacturing company, Imperial Chemicals Chemical Industries (ICI) and as a management consultant at PwC turned mentor and consultant with Grow CFO.   This episode is essential for anyone seeking to move from finance or FP&A to the top finance position. Kevin Appleby explains to Paul.   How GrowCFO was founded and how it is identify skills launching CFOs you into the next phase of their career The core competencies of highly successful CFOs The importance of budgeting and zero-based budgeting and the increasing power of FP&A for CFOs Why the value of your business is a multiplier of the bottom line (not the top line) Why every business (not just manufacturing) must engage with activity analysis His biggest FP&A Failure His best advice for FP&A professionals   Links from the show   Grow CFO - https://www.growcfo.net/   Grow CFO Competency Framework https://www.growcfo.net/growcfo-competency-framework/   Career routes to the CFO https://www.growcfo.net/research/career-routes-to-cfo-2022-report/   Watch the full show on YouTube   Read the full transcript and blog   Follow Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn   Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn   Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails.   Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com  

First the good news. FP&A hiring is not slowing down. In fact, FP&A is considered even more crucial in challenging business circumstance,  according to FP&A recruiters and hiring managers brought together in this special edition of FP&A Today. Michael Jouris, finance recruiter, Addison Group says: “I have seen a lot of acquisitions by private equity backed companies in the recent months and they want to be more sophisticated with their reporting and in these times, FP&A is more important than ever.” Sophie Bunce, Director of FP&A at fast-growing SaaS company Paddle who, has just hired more FP&A professionals in her finance team, adds: “In any economic environment, good FP&A is necessary. But In  a rough economic environment, FP&A is even more important.” Joining Paul Barnhurst for this special episode: Sophie Bunce Director of FP&A at Paddle Angela Kulzer, Director of Sales and Recruiting, RiverLink Staffing Michael Jouris, Addison Group Executive Search Consultant, Finance & Accounting. This episode is essential listening for anyone looking to a future role in FP&A, or seeking to hire for an FP&A role in the future. Highlights from this episode on lessons to secure your next role include: Perspectives on the current market for FP&A job seekers Remote working in 2023 within the CFO's Office How to separate the “what” and the “how” in updating your finance experience and talking about your career  How to powerfully show the outcomes previously achieved in your roles (based on what employers actually want to hear) LinkedIn vs Resumes How best to apply for a new role in FP&A while in an economic downturn The importance of your network Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog Connect with our guests on LinkedIn: Sophie Bunce Director of FP&A at Paddle. Angela Kulzer, Director of Sales and Recruiting, RiverLink Staffing Michael Jouris, Addison Group Executive Search Consultant, Finance & Accounting Connect with Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Connect with Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Aviv Canaani, VP Marketing, Datarails, and Christian Wattig, Head of Training at Datarails and founder of FP&A Prep,  join Paul Barnhurst for a conversation about marketing vs finance in a business.  In the world of business it sometimes feels like finance and marketing are talking a different language. Christian Wattig has been the FP&A leader at some of the highest profile marketing teams on the planet at P&G and Unilever where campaigns for brands such as Dove, Skippy and Hellman's saw marketing spend hundreds of millions of dollars.  In this episode he talks about some of the biggest challenges, misconceptions, and opportunities between FP&A and marketing and actionable insights when partnering with creatives in a business.  Joining Paul and Christian is Aviv Canaani, VP Marketing, Datarails.  Giving the marketing take on the finance-advertising relationship, Canaani has led multi-million dollar marketing campaigns at companies including IBM. Since then he has led marketing at hyper growth startups, Workiz and Datarails. In this frank discussion Canaani talks about the conflicts with marketing: “We are not always sure that the finance people have our best interests at heart.” Also in this episode How can FP&A teams work with marketing on long-term marketing investment  How to build trust between finance and marketing The best way to make a finance case for marketing investment  How to best market to an FP&A audience How FP&A can help measure direct response marketing Making yourself aware of the wildly different incentives for finance teams vs marketing teams  Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog Connect with Christian Wattig on LinkedIn Connect with Aviv Canaani on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn Links from the episode FP&A Prep https://www.fpaprep.com/ FP&A Prep is a one-stop shop for content, training, and mentoring on Financial Planning & Analysis topics. The #1 FP&A Community (Slack) Join here  https://www.datarails.com/the-global-community-for-fpa-leaders/ A global community and resource hub for modern FP&A leaders like you

A slightly different episode this week, featuring not a finance chief, but a CEO talking about the power and impact of FP&A on business strategy. Jeanette Dorazio, CEO of Leadpages, joins Paul to discuss the daily impact FP&A is having for her company, a leading SaaS no-code website and landing page builder. In this episode Jeanette Dorazio discusses with Paul: How FP&A teams can actually get that coveted seat at the table by “seeing the patterns” in a business How FP&A works with her in monitoring key metrics for growth  The CEOs playbook for FP&A during a downturn  The best and worst FP&A work she has seen in her career  Why FP&A should be a “very close first” for hiring into the finance team after the CFO Why the visibility of FP&A needs to improve  The power of Excel in shaping her journey through product management to CEO Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog Follow Jeanette Dorazio on LinkedIn Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the financial planning and analysis platform that automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.   Get in touch at www.datarails.com

Learning FP&A is difficult, especially if you try to master it yourself. Ideally, you need skillful and experienced mentors to guide you along the journey. But finding great mentors who can teach you the science behind FP&A is a challenge. Luckily, we found one. His name is Christian Wattig. Christian is an FP&A leader with twelve-plus years of experience in multinational consumer goods companies and fast-growing tech startups. He is the Head of FP&A Training at Datarails and teaches FP&A skills to finance teams and business leaders via his live online course, FP&A Bootcamp. Christian is also the Founder of FP&A Prep and was previously Financial Planning and Analysis Lead at Squarespace, Senior Finance Manager of FP&A at Unilever, and FP&A Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble. In this episode, we discuss: -What is FP&A Bootcamp? -How to enhance and automate FP&A processes -FP&A essential skills -What makes a great CFO? -How can CFOs ensure they have a seat at the table when big strategic decisions are made? -Building trust with cross-functional teams Presented by Personiv https://insights.personiv.com/cfo-weekly