FP&A Today

Jon Allen and Duke Heninger, experienced finance professionals from Amplēo, discuss the challenges of managing data in small to medium-sized companies, the advantages of paying off investments, exploring alternative career paths in FP&A, and using chat GPT for finance and Excel. They emphasize the importance of education and communication to gather necessary data quickly and continuously learning to open doors for career opportunities.

Didi Gurfinkel, Co-Founder and CEO of Datarails, talks about the two directions for AI in finance - extending hands or brain. Using AI as an extension to the brain is a life changer, allowing CFOs to analyze businesses at scale with historical, internal, and external data. Didi shares his journey of setting up Datarails, challenges faced, and finding product-market fit. The podcast also explores the benefits of AI in finance, advice for implementation, and the potential of AI to push boundaries.

Tunc Tezel, VP Group FP&A at Ontex, shares his experiences managing FP&A during economic crises, the shift to private label manufacturing, coping with the pandemic, and the challenges of data in FP&A work. He also discusses the role of FP&A in supporting ESG, the importance of storytelling in finance, and using technology in the finance industry.

Guest Jack Alexander, author of Financial Management: Partner in Driving Performance and Value, discusses post-pandemic practical approaches to performance management, planning, forecasting, business valuation, mergers, acquisitions, and capital investment. He emphasizes the need for FP&A to consider external forces like hyperinflation and geopolitical events. Jack also shares his journey to becoming a CFO and highlights the importance of attitude and understanding job value in the FP&A profession.

Cayla Pingel, a senior director with experience at Warner Bros, Fox Sports, and 2K Games, discusses managing FP&A for major sporting events like the Super Bowl, the impact of COVID on live sports, differences between accounting and FP&A, and the challenges of forecasting in the evolving media and entertainment industry.

“I last came on FP&A Today before I started my new CFO gig, and I was pretty nervous. I was talking a lot in theory of what I thought it would be, and now I can tell you a little bit more of the reality. So it's been quite the ride.” Returning guest CJ Gustafson–master of the hugely popular Mostly Metrics newsletter–delivers in his custom funny and frank style the lessons from his first year as CFO and the practical lessons for anyone in finance (and particularly FP&A). His worst budget experience - working six months on an operating plan  thrown away within a week during COVID (and the surprising conclusion) Getting stamps on my finance passport getting me to CFO The biggest lessons on being a CFO-as removing blockers and letting an organization go faster. CFO as chief psychologist, chief contract signer, and chief risk officer How I prioritized my finance hires Views of FP&A as a CFO  How knowing numbers better than anybody else projected me to CFO Why BI was put under the CFO function (“it’s like putting data insights on steroids and you combine FP&A and BI”) Why ARR per employee is my favorite SaaS metric CAC payback period as the golden SaaS metric  How I (painfully) learned about the power of the “meeting before the meeting”  Creating a category for yourself as CFO Sign up for the Mostly Metrics Newsletter from CJ Gustafson: https://www.mostlymetrics.com/ Check out Run the Numbers hosted by CJ: a weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/run-the-numbers-startup-finance-strategy-and-operations/id1704418764 Follow CJ or get in touch with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/ Or Twitter https://twitter.com/cjgustafson222

Taylor Otstot, VP of Finance at Dashlane, shares insights on the worst budget experience, the importance of tradeoffs in finance conversations, managing an FP&A team, psychology learnings in finance, and decision frameworks. He also talks about the secrets to building a high performing team and the big sales comp revelation. The podcast covers leveraging technology, challenging safe choices, implementing tools, improving team meetings, and the benefits of using name ranges in Excel functions.

Howard Tunnicliffe, Head of FP&A at The Economist, and Brett Hampson, Director of Finance at AllState, join host Paul Barnhurst to answer the most burning questions about FP&A in this special edition of FP&A Today. Topics include switching industries in FP&A, the need for a CPA in an FP&A job, developing KPIs, and upgrading to an FP&A tool. They also discuss preventative approaches to financial management, different approaches to headcount planning, managing stress and digital minimalism, and share their favorite Excel functions.

Jeff Epstein, former CFO of Oracle, discusses the skills needed to be a top CFO and the different routes to becoming one. He shares insights on budget setting, including the right percentage of time to hit budget goals and balancing between aggressive and conservative targets. Epstein also talks about the critical role of FP&A in making strategic decisions and revisiting processes during mergers. The podcast covers topics such as the importance of forecasting accuracy, managing expectations with Wall Street guidance, and focusing on key drivers and metrics in budgeting.

Ed Hyer, as VP FP&A at Verizon, built one of the most ambitious centers of excellence (COEs) undertaken in finance.  Put simply, a center of excellence centralizes similar types of work into a single entity. While relatively common for payroll functions or “back-end transactional work”, FP&A presented an altogether bigger challenge for the COE concept.  The creation of Verizon’s Center of Excellence at the  $134 billion revenue 118,000 employee company counts as one of the most audacious challenges undertaken in FP&A–ultimately comprising 175 professionals, took more than a year to complete and fanning through 24 different waves  transformation to take effect. Though the impetus from the beginning was on proving the concept could work, Verizon's FP&A COE has now transformed the business in impactful and unexpected ways. “I remember one case, where someone showed there were 16 different processes here. He said he could  get it down to two, and I've just saved myself six hours on workday one. It didn't require any new tools or technology. In this must-listen to episode Hyer reveals the secret of Verizon’s FP&A transformation: In this episode: How my passion for FP&A was lit compared to other finance work Leading FP&A for some of the biggest US companies including Hertz and Verizon The “why” of creating an FP&A CoE - and it is not just about cost saving The lessons of building a Center of Excellence How COE-building places finance teams at the vanguard of automation The  oh-crap moment when building the COE Heretical answer on his favorite Excel function‼ Ed Hyer/LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-hyer/ Paul Barnhurst LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguy/Datarails LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/datarails