“One of the myths I'd love to dispel is that nonprofits are not strategic. People think we aren’t forward thinking or just scrapping for change and trying to get things done. I've had the honor of working with organizations where we really focus on our mission in a nonprofit context in a very strategic way.” You don’t want to miss this masterclass with Amy Omand. Omand is Fractional CFO, at 7 Seat Consulting, working with not for profits getting from early to mid-stage growth. In this episode she reveals her journey from managing FP&A at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream (bought by Nestle) to former CFO of New Schools Venture Fund and setting up her business focused on not-for-profits. In this episode:  Dreyer's ice cream Budgeting Experience - the problems that can melt financial analysis with a new ice cream line launchPassion for K12 education and the finance factor in educationThe differences-and similarities- between nonprofit and "for profit" FP&A Why cash is (still) king at nonprofits Restrictions placed on how money is spent by nonprofitsTaking Revolution Foods, a Healthy School Lunch Company, through their first B Corporation certificationWhy Metallica works best for budget and modelingThe comfort in numbers Notes The Social Responsibility of Business: Kelly McElhaney. https://executive.berkeley.edu/kellie-mcelhaney Follow Amy Omand on LinkedIn

Christian Martinez, Finance Analytics Manager at Kraft Heinz  is an in-demand Conference Speaker and specialist who teaches a top-rated course, with (previous guest) Nicolas Boucher. In this episode discover the secrets about game changing uses of AI and Python for your FP&A career. “We’re in the same era as when Excel was first invented,” says Martinez “There were people still using calculators and pens while others shifted to Excel and dramatically improved performance.” In this episode:  Why Python and Excel together at long last as a “game changer” for FP&A“Explainable” AI in FP&A How AI is improving overall budgets and forecasting Can non-data science people jump right in with AI?Getting comfortable being uncomfortable His path to a “boutique” course teaching practical application of AI in FP&A Why the best way to fully learn something is to teach it The most awesome uses of AI in FP&AHow Gen AI is going to change FP&A in 2024Waterfall charts in Excel  Follow Christian Martinez (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmartinezthefinancialfox/ Links FREE COURSE – PYTHON FOR FP&A AND FINANCE. Curated by Christian Martinez Advanced ChatGPT for Finance course by Christian Martinez and Nicolas Boucher

Product led growth is a business strategy and philosophy that puts the product at the center and the key driver for customer acquisition, activation, adoption, and retention.  Parth Kulkarni, Head of FP&A, Adobe Express, recounts his chance to reimagine FP&A using product-led growth. He explains the process leading the FP&A team powering Adobe Express – a major new AI-driven product at the software giant (Adobe is competing with companies such as Canva and Microsoft Designer). Kulkarni says: “We optimized different parts of the customer journey  by adopting product led growth. From an FP&A perspective it was a fantastic opportunity for me and my team to reimagine the way that we approached financial planning and, and supported the business.” Describing the approach of FP&A underpinned by product-led growth, he says: “We tend to forecast based on historicals. But here we took a much more bottoms up approach in our modeling, starting with building forecasts and projections around every single critical upstream metric – whether it’s acquisitions, how customers are really engaging with the product, or what kind of conversion rates are we seeing in the product, or what kind of retention we are seeing. I got the opportunity to actually understand the customer journey, translate that into a financial model, and then build my financial planning around that. Kulkarni, with training and a background in engineering,  recounts his path to FP&A and why a background in data analytics is a perfect route to a top job. In this episode: Kulkarni’s path from Data analytics to FP&A as Senior Manager of FP&A at eBay – business partnering with the Merchandising / Shipping & Logistics Business and Product Teams. Followed by his career at Adobe.Moving from analytics to FP&A and why it is a perfect routeFour proven pillars to become a successful FP&A professional The tested formula to get a seat at the table in finance My framework for analyzing data to get the juiciest insights – SCQA framework explainedMy aha moment in FP&A automating ecommerce/holiday space reports Tabla playing and love of Indian classical musicSteve Jobs and what we can learn about his relentless desire to understand the consumer The SCQA framework explained by Parth Follow Parth Kulkarni on LinkedIn Catch the full episode on YouTube

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 hireWhy understanding customers matters more than P&L metricsThe power of investment banking as a route to FP&A and finance leadershipUsing SQL to get ahead in your careerRecommendations 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

How is Microsoft using AI to reach up to 99% accuracy in some forecasts? In this episode of FP&A Today, Daniel Sousa-Lennox, a data scientist at Microsoft with deep experience of financial analysis, reveals all. The Microsoft’s finance team – about 5000 people – saw its first foray into machine learning in forecasting. The team developed FINN (or Microsoft Finance Time Series Forecasting Framework) says Sousa-Lennox who sits within the finance organization, providing software engineering and data science expertise. Using machine learning and creating AI finance tools (such as FINN which has been open-sourced) Sousa-Lennox says the Microsoft finance team has replaced burdensome forecasting and Excel heavy lifting.  "The tool has helped, for instance, this one team in terms of accuracy to get the revenue that they were trying to forecast for an Azure product (the cloud computing platform run by Microsoft) to 99% accuracy".  But Sousa-Lennox adds that it is important to remember that AI is not "magic" and "wont lead to 99% in every single forecast" and the quality of data is paramount. Nevertheless the results are transforming financial forecasting at the $2trillion company. FINN alone provides access to 25+ models supporting Microsoft’s daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly forecasts, transforming the approach of FP&A. Sousa-Lennox says: “It takes on average for a forecast used run using our tool, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half, which is significantly less than a week [previously]. It is also an hour and a half where you don’t have to be actively doing anything.” In this episode Daniel Sousa-Lennox shares: Similarities and differences between FP&A in US and Panama (and banking vs Microsoft)Getting  an internship to full-time career at MicrosoftHow he trained in Data science and technologyHow to evangelize finance teams into adopting AIHow Microsoft is transforming its forecasting and FP&ADespite its success why AI is not a “magic bullet” for financeThe two most powerful lessons in presenting AI to finance teamsThe biggest advice for anyone starting in FP&ALast thing finance thing I Googled ChatGPT’dMy favorite Excel function   Links Follow Daniel Sousa-Lennox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsousalennox/ FINN (Open-sourced by Microsoft): https://microsoft.github.io/finnts/

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&Atrading 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 usersCore metrics to assess and unit costs (cost per gigabyte, cost per instance)First steps to begin forecasting cloud costsMy biggest finance strategic moment The last finance thing I googledThe 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.

The market for pet brands is enormous. Two-thirds of American households own a pet and collectively spent $136.8 billion on them in 2022. In this market, Chewy is winning the hearts of owners. The pet-food, health, and supplies company is famous for providing portraits, gifts, free food, and handwritten notes that delight pet owners. In this episode, Matthew Herbert, Chewy Director of Finance, reveals the FP&A undercoat that keeps this Fortune 500 favorite purring.   Herbert says customer service at the company is in “my opinion the strongest moat within the organization…it has its own finance arm, and it has the backing and support of technology and other resources to make it successful because we really believe that we’re here to provide a delightful experience for our customers. Pets are part of the family, and we want our customers to know that we view them that way.” In this episode: How Chewy does FP&AWhat KPIs does FP&A manage at Chewy and how its set upUsing data to help tell the story at ChewyHow Matt overcame adversity, such as being laid off and team conflicts facedLeading FP&A at the fortune 500 high growth eCommerce company (i.e. Chewy)Secrets to effective business partneringInsights from 15 years of Investment Banking, Programming, Retail, Consumer Products, and eCommerce experienceThe impact of being a self-taught programmer on a career in financeWhy finance remains the best role for strategic impact supporting C-Suite ExecutivesHis brand-new training courses (https://biztrix.us/) based on best-in-class Excel, PowerPoint, Word, SQL and VBA experience Links Follow Matthew Herbert on LinkedIn Matthew’s training course at https://biztrix.us/

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 CupAjay Patel (aka the Excel Ninja) a fifth degree black belt in Tang Soo Do talks his favorite Excel functions and his FMWC ultimate testOptimization planning and Analysis vs FP&AThe inside story of Paul and Ajay’s grueling FMWC experienceSecrets 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.

"I have been at the inception points of three companies-Intuit, Netflix and Mozilla Firefox. And now I’m just trying to give back as many lessons as possible” Jim Cook  Jim Cook shares his front row experience as first finance hire at streaming giant Netflix. He reveals the finance business partnering lessons learned from supporting fellow co-founders Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings building the company from obscurity to one of the biggest brands in the world. How did finance at Netflix contribute to the  design of  the first red envelopes? What are his lessons that can transform your FP&A? In this episode: Coping with unrealistic budgets experience at fast-growing startupsWhat it’s like as Finance Hire #1 at NetflixRebirthing the browser market at Mozilla FirefoxLessons from M&A and IPO at Intuit  Lessons to deliver blockbuster FP&A The FP&A as CEO The power of a “listening tour and finance partnership”Using your voice in FP&A What storytelling really means for a finance professionalTwo strategic finance moments that changed the game for Intuit and Mozilla Links from the Show Netflixed by Gina Keating (Amazon) That Will Never Work, Mark Randolph (Amazon) Netflix versus the World. (Full Documentary, YouTube) Five lessons I learned from Netflix – Jim Cook Contact Jim Cook on LinkedIn Email jimCook@benchboard.com

Drew Murphy nearly became a meteorologist. But he opted for a different type of forecasting, warning of impending storms as an FP&A professional. A fast-paced finance career saw him land a part role at Procter & Gamble (while studying)-his senior year saw him work 30 hours a week as a plant accountant. Following six years of FP&A at Procter & Gamble (including analysis for Gillette and Braun), he took roles at Vistaprint, Mimecraft (where he was central to their IPO) and a CFO gig. Drew then launched community FP&HEY with his co-founder Yarty Kim. The mission of FP&A Hey is to “help time starved FP&A professionals get their free time back, their personal freedom back” offering resources and mentoring for FP&A professionals. Core to his career approach is a clear mantra: “Find best practices, find people that make you better, work on things you enjoy.” In this episode he discusses the implications of this approach to upgrading your career and work life balance in a busy finance role. In this episode: Drew’s worst budgeting experience in his career Shaving forecasting with Gillette and Braunhow to impress sales executives with quarterly sales performance analysis Best practice for a monthly profit forecast and team management processWhy you need to be at a place with “people you respect and admire” The importance of relationships in financeHow the IPO process felt like a “wedding” His strategic finance moment delivering (at Mimecast) growth of 40%, EBITDA expansion over time as a percentage of revenueWhy FP&A pros must learn accounting and a business model  Links from the Show FP&A Hey. Because they don’t teach FP&A in school. Grow your skills, networks, and careers, all while having fun. How to impress sales executives with quarterly sales performance analysis: https://www.fpandhey.com/how-to-impress-executives-with-quarterly-sales-performance-analysis/ Contact Drew at Drew@fpandhey.com

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 seenBest advice for getting started with AI in financeRapid 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

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 coverageRick Moving from a political science degree to finance and ultimately CFOThe importance of Relevance over precision in FP&AThe nightmare budget which crashed before it was savedLessons 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&AFavorite 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 GuineaWho he would most like to meetHis Nothing Ventured podcast and key lessons talking to players in the venture ecosystemWhy he likes the constant “challenges” of Series B startups over other stage companiesThe difference between "building" the playbook and "running" the playbook in startupsHow to consider your finance tech stack scales pre-seed to Exit How FP&A should consider their tech stackWhy you need to spending your money at pre-seed Investing in early stage businesses in the UKHow 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 capitalHow to get your CFO to say yes Favorite Excel functionHow 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 leadershipHow I became a leading AI finance speaker and writer and started a tech startupTwo 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 ageAdvice to get started with AI in FP&AThe 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

“The male prison population in the United States is about 15% psychopaths. So if, if you’re a warden and you work all day with prisoners, and then at the end of the day you go to some award ceremony honoring local CEOs, you’re probably interacting with a similar number of psychopaths at each event." Jack McCullough – President of CFO Leadership Council and 26-time CFO. Jack MCcullough’s background gives him an unprecedented perspective on financial leadership. Having started hist career at Big Four audit firm KPMG, he subsequently served as a CFO for 26 different companies, often in a part-time or interim role, working with about 35 CEOs. In his words “several geniuses, a handful of lunatics, and two or three who were both. But I learned from each person and became a more effective leader.” In this episode Jack McCullough reveals: How to work with Psychopath CEOs Mental health and finance and overcoming difficult leaders The importance of personal brand-building for CFOs and FP&A analystsHow Jack invented the phrase “CF-No” in 1984Why FP&A professionals and CFOs need to build their brand todayThe things that CFOs most want from their FP&A leadersHis most strategic finance moment – or how COVID transformed his  businessMentoring in finance and the power of being mentored by Gen Z talent Why he headlines his finance conferences with Guns n’ Roses and AC DC Who would he most like to meet  His most manual processes everThe surprising two traits that CFOs must achieve today to have any chance of success How to become a CFO Episode Links Books by Jack McCullough: The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide: Jack McCullough Secrets of Rockstar CFOs: Jack McCullough The CFO Leadership Council Watch on YouTube Follow Jack McCullough on Linkedin Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

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 JokeHow 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 themThe 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 foundSnagging an unsung hero awardBiggest 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

Tom Hood is one of the most influential leaders in accounting. The Executive Vice President, Business Growth and Engagement, at American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA has been named the Second Most Influential Person in Accounting since 2011 by Accounting Today Magazine (only pipped to the post by AICPA CEO Barry Melancon). In giving him their award the publication cited his “legendary energy, imagination and ability to foresee the future, and focusing them specifically on management accountants, helping them reimagine “the Future of Finance.” On Linkedin  Tom has 780,000 followers and the platform recruited the accounting leader as one of their Top Voices. His passion for technological innovation in accounting has been evident since the early days of VisiCalc to Excel and ChatGPT. This combines with his rigorous enforcement against bad actors in the profession, and optimism about the future.  In this episode Tom Hood describes one of the biggest shifts in accounting as “The Great Join between accounting and FP&A”. Hood says: “We need accounting to make sure the numbers are right and to maintain our stewardship and trust. But we also need the financial viewpoint, which we saw big time in the pandemic. This is needed to reimagine what’s next in the profession.” Hood also reveals his passion reflecting accounting’s role as one of the most fundamental tenets of business- and wider society“Accounting is a language of business. It is a language that many people‒dare I say most people‒don’t truly understand. You become the value interpreter of everything about a business.” In this episode discover:  Tom’s career trajectory from to CFO at  to Maryland Association of CPAs to EVP  at the (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) The merger between the AICPA and CIMA (UK-based) and the global power base this provides the accounting professionThe Great Join between FP&A and Accounting His  passion for accounting tech as continuing to revolutionize business – from the dawn of VisiCalc to ChatGPT today His role in stamping out unethical accounting practices The changing up the CPA Exam and what it means for youHow AI has already changed the game for accountants and how companies are transforming accounting  How he got into accounting as a way of getting into the FBI and why that didn’t work out  YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

Jake Luerkens and Connor Frischmeyer are co founders and partners at Auxo Partners, a finance advisory firm that helps startups make better decisions and grow strategically.    They have been in "the sidecar" as companies scaled from $2m to $50m, providing internal finance, FP&A, capital markets advisory and SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) support.   In this episode:    When should startups think about bringing  in fractional FP&A servicesThe rise and fall of SPACs (including a rap about SPACs)Why investors are focused on a clear path to solid business models How FP&A can help companies *not* blow their fundraising The most typical problems companies face in raising money Why Excel is the most flexible tool for financeBiggest Excel nightmaresHow to get started in FP&A   YouTube video of the episode Transcript of the episode    Connect with Jake Luerkens and Connor Frishchmeyer on LinkedIn   Connect with Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn    Follow Datarails on LinkedIn   Links from the episode   Auxo Partners   Spac Dream By Cassius Cuvée featuring Mags Lionne