FP&A Today

Asif Masani: All About FP&A

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/
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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

Why a Top VC is Backing FP&A all the way

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
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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

How Can you get the Top Finance Job (and be Effective)?

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
 
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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
 

How to Land your Next Awesome FP&A job (in a Downturn)

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

How Marketing and Finance can Click Better

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

Jeanette Dorazio: What do CEOs really want from FP&A?

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
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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

Casey Woo: My Adventures in Finance from Wall Street to Silicon Valley

Casey Woo is a serial high Tech CFO turned investor. The Harvard educated financier “escaped” a life as an Investment Banking Analyst, at Morgan Stanley to take a big pay cut and join a 10-person startup (“If you wanna do tech, you gotta go to the Bay Area”).
Since then, he has held finance at CFO roles including at WeWork and property tech company Landing before founding an “operators community” turned investment fund FOG ventures.
 In this episode Casey talks to Paul Barnhurst about his journey: 
How finance was seen as a “second class” citizen when he entered Silicon Valley and how he had to “learn a new language”
How he built up the Operators Guild “a club of number twos” ( finance, ops, HR, talent, legal, IT) into an exec community of 700 leaders who now run the FOG VC
What good FP&A looks like at an early stage company
When early stage companies are making $200,000 $300,000 total is when FP&A can be a powerful addition
Why FP&A leaders need to focus on business first rather than finance first 
The CFO’s future as the Office of Business Intelligence that will separate the The Ancien Régime CFOs with those who can adapt
If CFOs are not “pounding their fists on the table” asking to own data they will not survive
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Casey Woo 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

Ian Schnoor: Going from Good to Great in Financial Modeling

This episode is all about financial modeling from one of the world’s experts. Ian Schnoor is  
Executive Director at the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) & President and Founder at The Marquee Group. In this episode he provides frank assessment of why most financial models fail and how you can take instant actions to instantly transform your financial modeling.
This is absolutely essential listening for anyone considering taking the Financial Modeling Institute’s world-respected accreditation program. The program is recognized by companies like Goldman Sachs, Moody’s KPM and Morgan Stanley as the most rigorous validation of financial modeling skills and ranges from foundational, to advanced, to Chartered Financial Modeler and Master Financial Modeler. 
In this episode:
From investment banking to creating the world’s only accredited financial modeling training
The skills you will need to pass the robust accreditation by the Financial Modeling Institute
Why employees are increasingly requiring proof of financial modeling skills
The multi-disciplinary skills required to excel in modeling including design, data flow, communication and storytelling
How the integrated 3 statement model is the table stakes for being considered a good financial modeler
How you can get your financial model humming smoothly - you should not have to pop your car hood to show the engine
The power of a committee approach to modeling and design in a company
Nixing our favorite function question: There should be no favorites in Excel, but pick the tools that will help you to get the job done you have in front of you
Watch the full show on YouTube
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Ian Schoor 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

The Complete Year in Review with Top FP&A 2023 Predictions

In this special jam-packed episode Paul Barnhurst looks back on 2022 (and with special guests) reveals the biggest predictions for FP&A in 2023.
 
This episode looks back at one year of FP&A Today and how our dedicated audience helped us reach more than  40,000 downloads in our first 35 episodes across 100 countries.
 
In between we hear Paul’s favorite FP&A guest insights from the first 35 episodes interspersed with new hot takes on everything you need to know in FP&A for 2023 from FP&A leaders, Soufyan Hamid, Hector Rubalcava, and Mario Vasquez.
 
In this episode:
The winner of the yearly question of FP&A Favorite Excel function revealed 🥇
The best Excel jokes you need to know 
The favorite Excel functions of Jordan Goldmeier, Lance Rubin, Kathy Svetina, Francesca Valli, Jon Laudi, Chris Reilly and Paul Barnhurst 
The #1 advice to make your FP&A journey better in 2023  from Jack Alexander, Zoe Cooke, Stéphanie Herbots, Chris Reilly, Carl Seidman, and Paul Barnhurst
Predictions for FP&A in 2023 from Soufyan Hamid, Hector Rubalcava, and Mario Vasquez 
How to move from accounting to FP&A with Cameron Janke
The revolution with Gen Z FP&A with interns at Credit Suisse and American Express entering the finance workforce for the first time
 
Watch the full show on YouTube
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

Glenn Snyder: The Secrets to Building World-Class FP&A teams

Glenn Snyder, builds high performing FP&A teams from scratch. 
Now VP of FP&A at Mobileum, a telecom analytics leader, Glenn continues to enhance a reputation for transforming FP&A into an engine for Silicon Valley growth earned over nearly two decades. 
Previously he has built finance partnership teams At Charles Schwab, followed by  revamping annual budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting at $4B global Real Estate company Digital Realty, restructuring  a15-person FP&A team at Global Growth Holdings,  and leveling up the FP&A and Data Analytics teams at online design marketplace Zazzle before his latest FP&A adventure at Mobileum .
In this episode Glenn reveals the secrets to building high performance FP&A teams. Glenn discusses:
His reason for sticking with FP&A over 18 years (not least the ability to strategically interact with every aspect of a company)
The power of quarterly forecasts to secure alignment in a business and transform a business direction
Why building a new FP&A team will see you work 80 hours a week and considerable “mental awareness”
The power of creating a three-year FP&A Strategy in your first 90 Days which sees 95% of goals hit
The power of eliminating manual work in FP&A
How to powerfully speak up in FP&A (even as an introvert)
How to differentiate a leader’s role in FP&A vs those you manage 
The secrets to hiring  someone for an FP&A role and how to find the things that can be taught vs those that can’t 
Why FP&A and data analytics need to work better together 
The real way to approach build a successful finance business partnership that lasts
His most valuable lessons after achieving several finance software implementations 
The failure that forced Glenn to work on his soft skills and transformed his career
His secret life as a lifelong baseball fan and published  author 
 
Watch the full show on YouTube.
Read the full transcript and blog
Follow Glenn Snyder 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