Jon Allen and Duke Heninger, of Utah-based Amplēo, have brought their finance game to fast-growing companies which are between $5m and $50m in revenue. They are “fractional CFOs” – that is experienced finance professionals advising these companies on a part-time basis. For instance, one business they work with, Korean barbeque restaurant Cupbop, appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and got $1million from Mark Cuban in 2022. Other companies they advised include Burt Brothers (a tire and services company). Collectively Amplēo helped more than 3000 companies.

But they always find the same story when they look at financials at such companies.

“It’s always the data”, says Duke Heninger, Financial Partner at Amplēo. “It’s getting things put in a way so that people can understand what they’ve even spent. Most of my clients are on a very simplified accounting system. They aren’t classifying anything in separate departments. So it’s breaking it out, trying to understand who owns what, where should it go, and ultimately everybody just sandbags just so that they don’t trip a budget”.

In this episode of FP&A we meet Jon Allen Managing Partner, Finance, and Duke Heninger, finance partner at Amplēo.
They provide a masterclass on the value of FP&A at fast-growing companies, revealing:

Our worst budget experiences
Our journey through finance to CFO
What we wish we had known earlier in our career
Restaurants in COVID Times – how we used FP&A to help businesses
The powerful value of FP&A in restaurants
Why FP&A is a superb career choice
Founding companies as finance leaders
Teaching FP&A at University
Why great FP&A must lead to actions and decisions
How FP&A can become good business partners
Reporting vs forecasting
The importance of choosing a great finance leader to work for early in your career
Getting out your chair and talking to people
The last things we asked ChatGPT

Follow Duke Heninger:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dukeh/

Follow Jon Allen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyallen/

Amplēo provides business professionals, such as CFOs, CMOs and CHROs, to companies on a fractional basis in order to help them achieve their full potential. https://ampleo.com/

Episode 66 - Tuesday Tip, One Question The Pros NEVER Ask