FP&A Today

Mikus Krams: Why We Scrapped Budgets At Chili Piper

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
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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. 

CEO Scott Stouffer: Can FP&A Get your Go-to-Market strategy to work better?

“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
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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. 

Silicon Valley Bank: Finance teams in the eye of the storm

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
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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
 

The FP&A’s Guide to Winning in the Fractional CFO Galaxy

“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 
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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

FP&A vs. Accounting: Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

“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
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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
 

Alison Allsopp: Building the NHS back better and battling self-doubt

“It’s like a fuse being blown. You can push as much power as you want through the device, but if the fuse is gone, it isn't going to work. That's exactly how I felt.”
Alison Allsopp is Head of FP&A at NHS Supply Chain, a crucial cog in the UK’s National Health Service. Prior to this, Alison was promoted nine times in her previous role at credit card company, Capital One. Despite (or maybe because of) this rapid rise up the finance ranks, Alison faced prolonged self-doubt and feelings of “imposter syndrome”. One day she reached breaking point. “As much as it was a real low point in my life, it was a huge turning point.”
In this episode Alison reveals how she managed these challenges in her career and lessons for those facing a similar situation.
Other highlights:
Spearheading FP&A in the supply chain of the NHS just as COVID-19 hit throwing the NHS into crisis
The importance of building trusting relationships and being open and transparent
The secrets to getting nine promotions within a company
Differences between big business FP&A and  public sector FP&A
The untold role of FP&A’s strategic role at the NHS during the pandemic
The biggest opportunities and challenges for FP&A professionals today
The interesting fact that many do not know about Alison
Her favorite Excel function
The power of a good Waterfall
Her biggest advice for someone starting out in FP&A
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Alison Allsopp on LinkedIn
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Great FP&A? It has to be Heinz - with Egor Lyasko

Egor Lyasko is Head of FP&A, Northern Europe at The Kraft Heinz Company, encompassing some of the world’s most loved brands including Heinz ketchup, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Lunchables. After gaining a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford, Egor started at Kraft Heinz as a trainee rising rapidly in six years to Head of FP&A, Northern Europe.
What we covered in this episode:
His rapid career rise at Kraft Heinz attracted by the ketchup maker’s “culture of ownership.”
The principles of finance transformation and the core lessons learnt
How Kraft Heinz manages its annual budget cycle (and what he would do differently next time)
The role of integrated business planning at the world’s fifth-largest food and beverage conglomerate
The importance of being a “mini CFO’ in a sales finance partnership role
FP&A as Guardians of the P&L
Why he doesn’t have an ambition to become a CFO
His perfect retirement dream
His favorite Excel function
 
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Egor Lyasko on LinkedIn
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Glenn Hopper: Using ChatGPT to Build an FP&A tool and What Happened Next

Many CFOs preach about keeping up with technological change. But CFO Glenn Hopper went a step further. As ChatGPT talk reached fever pitch he was ready with a proof of concept for an FP&A version of Chat GPT. For good measure he also provided 30 pages of documentation about the process (“Application of ChatGPT to Build an FP&A Tool”) - to acclaim among FP&A professionals.
Hopper, a serial startup CFO, and U.S. Navy veteran who earned a master’s degree at Harvard says: “I wanted to see if someone with just a base understanding of the underlying technology could use artificial intelligence to first off build a tool that would help automate some of the FP&A processes and secondly, get to a way where you could use that tool to interact with your company's financial data.”
The Chat GPT project was a perfect technical project for Hopper, playing to his technological mindset and  skills foreshadowing technological transformation for finance professionals as explored in his book Deep Finance In the Information Age: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Finance-Corporate-Information-Age/dp/1637351240. The study also draws on his career and love of FP&A.
In this episode Glenn Hopper discusses
His unusual transition to CFO, moving from journalism in the Navy to product manager.   
How a passion for writing helps to formulate projects and challenges in finance
His experience with financial transformation in finance companies and the lessons he learned from the experience – as set out in his book Deep Finance
How having a mathematical and analytical mindset is crucial for anyone in FP&A
How his biggest corporate failure (missing a $1.5million invoice in budget preparation) was essentially his “origin story” to becoming a transformative CFO
How he wrote a feature film – a low budget horror movie, The Hanged Man which streamed on Netflix
His favorite Excel function
Links from the show
Deep Finance In the Information Age: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Finance-Corporate-Information-Age/dp/1637351240
“Application of ChatGPT to Build an FP&A Tool” - https://github.com/ghopper3/ChatGPT-Project/blob/main/ChatGPT%20for%20FPA.pdf
The Hanged Man (2007) Written by Glenn Hopper https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185596/
 
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Glenn Hopper on LinkedIn
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Unleashing your audit skills to be a successful FP&A leader

Nicolas Boucher has a simple message to anyone who wants to move from audit to FP&A.
The  Head of Finance and Controlling at Thales says: “You can do it. I am an example of that.”
He says many skills are transferable from audit to FP&A. “Looking at financial statements from different companies in different situations and different industries” is one. Another is understanding “the figures compared to the past or compared to trends to give assurance to the figures. This is actually what you are doing as FP&A when you are analyzing the actuals against the budget or against last year.”
After seven years in audit at PwC which took him around the world and saw him get “battlefield promotions” Nicolas didn’t want to remain in audit forever and wanted “something more operationally close to the business.”
In this week’s podcast he explains how he made the move from audit to FP&A and the skills he has learnt in his 15 years as a finance leader.
Whether it is his past as a DJ (“When you have control of the microphone from 500 people, you need to know what you have to say and to have the confidence to do it”) or board reports and his daily content as a global finance thought leader with 127,000 followers on LinkedIn he explains the importance of stopping people from being “ bored” or losing attention.
He also reveals the inside scoop on a new course “giving everything that I learned the last 15 years” - that he wishes he had been given when starting out. 
In this episode Nicolas reveals:
How to shape your audit skills to to get a role in FP&A
His key learnings in a finance career that has taken him all over the world including France, the US, and Singapore, and across audit, controlling and FP&A roles.
The secrets to hitting 126,000 followers on LinkedIn as one of the leading FP&A (and general finance) influencers
His lessons from a large-scale finance transformation at Thales
The importance of communicating “bad surprises” early 
His early DJ Career and the lessons for a career in finance
His new course, Become a High Performing Finance Professional
His favorite Excel function
Links from the show
https://nicolasboucher.online/ Become a High Performing Finance Professional course with links to his content online 
 
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Nicolas Boucher on LinkedIn
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Carmen Turner: Giving the Insights for Great Business Decisions

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
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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