FP&A Today

Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a  growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.”
 
In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks:
 
His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies 
Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost”
The power of getting a marketing forecast  based on cohort behavior 
Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr
Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering 
The power of AI in marketing and finance 
 

Sales vs. Finance: What Great Business Partnership Really Looks Like

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 

Finance Business Partnering, part 1: lessons from Ontex, P&G, and Gillette

Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market. 
From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering   
Secrets to storytelling 
Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering 
Working capital as a partnering tool
Breaking bad news in business partnering 
When business partnering breaks down

“If the data's wrong, it doesn't matter how advanced your model is" - Tom Hinkle on AI and data strategy in FP&A

Tom Hinkle, senior leader in data and analytics at TIAA, has  built his career at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. He also has a budding YouTube channel (Tom's Data World, which includes instructional videos on Excel, SQL, and AI). He's worked extensively with Excel (is a Microsoft MVP) and SQL, as well as Tableau and Power BI, and has worked with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and TIAA. 
"Nobody really gets excited about spending money on data governance. They get excited about machine learning, about AI, about data storytelling — everybody wants seminars on that. But data governance? At the end of the day, you're coming up with something you thought was right anyway, and then you're asking someone to spend more money just to make sure it's right."
Why data governance is the foundation of AI 
Trust but verify challenges
The two sides of data governance: master data management vs. data quality and controls
How FP&A teams should think about their role as downstream consumers of data
Why domain expertise is still non-negotiable in the age of vibe coding
Tom's Minesweeper-in-Excel story, and what it taught him about prompting

From Rice Paper to AI: FP&A Lessons from 30 Years at the Top of Global Finance - Sébastien Privel

What does it actually take to move FP&A activities into a shared service organization at Coca-Cola— and then transform how a global marketing giant manages billions in spend? Sébastien Privel, Senior Director Financial Services FP&A, has done both.
Sébastien Privel career spans pharma controllership in late-'90s Beijing to country CFO for France, being involved in the implementation Coca-Cola's global FP&A shared services from scratch, before leading a multi-year marketing finance transformation
 
In this episode 
Building finance infrastructure from scratch in 1990s China — from rice paper ledgers to SAP, with floppy disks in between. 
Business partnering and being the finance voice in multi functions projects (including Coca-Cola buying Tropico an iconic French brand) 
Driving transformation in the FP&A area standardizing processes and moving key activities to a shared service organisation
Experimenting with AI including baseline forecasting and the real impact

More than 12 ERP implementations later…Cindy Vindasius

Cindy Vindasius is the founder and CEO of Vindasius Advisory, and former Corporate Controller, and has spent more than 30 years helping high growth and enterprise companies build scalable finance systems. She's led more than a dozen ERP implementations across platforms like NetSuite, SAP, and Oracle, and has supported multiple IPOs, M&A transactions, and global compliance efforts. Her interview provides a wealth of information for FP&A professionals
 
Why FP&A need to be involved in ERP implementation for enhanced reporting 
New wave of AI-driven ERPs: what I really think 
The ROI of an ERP Implementation 
ERP Mastery Program 6 video course: https://www.vindasius.com/mastery-program

Riding the roller coaster of finance: Mykola Chyzhevskyi, Merlin Entertainment

Mykola is Finance Business Partner at Merlin Entertainments – offering some of the most popular attractions in the world including LEGOLAND Resorts, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. Merlin welcomes more than 62 million guests annually to its diverse global estate in over 20 countries. Before Merlin, Mykola spent several years as a finance director at a fast-growing law firm, where the business tripled in size in just a few years.
In this episode:
Finance in a law firm - getting from technical finance to business partnering
Reducing risk as the Ukraine war started 
The business of Merlin Entertainment - from forecasting to cost control
Working with procurement on validation of costs
key metrics including attendance, guest spends and promotion
The power of business partnering: consistency, curiosity and understanding your business 

From Creation of Accounting Standards to Building an AI tool - Adam Hibbs

Adam Hibbs has pretty non-linear paths into finance:New Zealand telecom regulator, OfCom, Vodafone, Cable & Wireless, UK Ministry of Defense, and now Global Director of Commercial Strategy at AICPA & CIMA. Financial modeling, commercial contracts, cloud infrastructure, and leadership across blue-chip organizations was preparation for building Josie, that is AICPA & CIMA's generative AI tool for accounting and auditing.
In this episode:
What makes Josie genuinely different from ChatGPT or Claude for technical accounting work
Curated dataset of 40,000 pieces of proprietary IP, real-time updates to FASB, PCAOB, and auditing standards
Josie ($550 per subscriber) named after Josiah Wedgwood and a new form of cost accounting
CGMA vs CPA
Where AI and finance intersect in the next 12-24 months

FP&A vs Accountants in an AI era - with Accountant Emily Feinstone

Emily Feinstone is an accounting manager at Eventus Advisory Group and unusually tech-forward in how she works. Emily spends her days building better processes, automating repetitive finance workflows, and making high volume operational data usable. And instead of opting for a  traditional CPA first route after 20 years of experience, she is pursuing a degree in data science: “ I want to be the one that teaches the AI and not the one that is replaced by AI. I want to be the one that knows how to use it the best to my advantage.”
Emily also talks about accounting vs FP&A: You don't even see overhead. It's allocated…but you don't know that it took me two, two and a half hours to prepare that entry and another two hours to key it in.”
In this episode: 
Blurring of lines between data analysts and accountants 
The future of the accounting profession in an AI era 
Transforming an Excel based invoice and commission process 
Keeping raceability and controls + automation 
Why I wont trust AI to do my accounting journal entries 

After the Gold Rush: The $75M Operation behind America's Hockey Champions

The history-making USA Hockey won golds (and millions of fans in the process) at Milan’s Olympic Games. But behind the on-ice glory is a $75 million organization with a finance function as disciplined as its players. Kelly Mahncke , CFO of USA Hockey, joins Glenn Hopper and FP&A Today to pull back the curtain on what it takes to fund the gold-winning national hockey program — with business interests from memberships and sponsorships to restaurants and insurance. Kelly traces her own journey from center ice to chasing the bottom line, explaining how a hockey career shaped her instincts as a finance leader. She walks us through four-year "quad budgets" and the typical annual cycle, and what it took to weather COVID's financial shock, from cash management to the logistical nightmare of paused travel programs. She also gets into the digital transformation underway at USA Hockey. And why she believes curiosity is the defining trait of great FP&A professionals. Catch this fascinating look at finance leadership — at the peak of Hockey USA's Olympic moment.