FP&A Today Aligning Sales and FP&A: Adam Shilton
Dec 4, 2025
In this conversation, Adam Shilton, a seasoned founder and writer who transitioned from selling finance software to empowering entrepreneurs, shares key insights from his decade in sales. He emphasizes the need to bridge the sales-finance divide, arguing that commissions should be tied to deposit receipts to ensure financial accountability. Adam also discusses how AI can personalize accounts receivable processes and help predict churn by analyzing CRM and payment trends. His unique approach combines humor with finance to enhance collections and align team incentives.
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Require Deposits Before Commission
- Align pipeline stage definitions and probabilities between sales and finance to avoid misleading forecasts.
- Require sales to secure a deposit before paying commission so deals convert to real cash and reduce risk.
Pipeline Forecasts Are Naturally Fluffy
- Sales forecasting is inherently fuzzy because of human motivations and uncertainty in deal timing.
- Finance expects concreteness while sales rely on gut feel, so shared definitions reduce that gap.
Poem To Humanize Finance
- Finance turned invoice chasing into a playful poem during a quarterly meeting to humanize themselves to sales.
- That creative approach broke down barriers and improved cross-team communication about overdue payments.
