Guest Christian Martinez, Finance Analytics Manager at Kraft Heinz, discusses game-changing uses of AI and Python in FP&A, including improving budgets and forecasting. He emphasizes the importance of getting comfortable being uncomfortable and his path to teaching practical application of AI in FP&A. Learn about the most awesome uses of AI in FP&A and how Gen AI will change the field in 2024.

Parth Kalunari, Head of FP&A at Adobe Express, discusses the FP&A team's approach to product-led growth, adopting a bottoms-up modeling approach, understanding the customer journey, and building financial planning around it. He also shares his transition from engineering to FP&A and the importance of data analytics in his role.

In this sequel episode of FP&A Today, guests Alejandra Boggione and Andrew Childress answer new burning budget and forecasting questions. Topics include budgeting in consulting firms, the link between forecasting and modeling, preparing for the budget ahead of time, static annual budget vs rolling forecast, challenges of getting funding for finance technology, and exploring Excel's versatility.

Frank Aburto, senior Director of Finance at Audible, shares his journey from military veteran to building FP&A at Audible. He discusses the importance of understanding customers, using SQL in your career, and recommendations for Audible books. Learn how to get a finance job at Audible or Amazon.

CFO of Airbase, Aneal Vallurupalli, discusses the challenges of spend management, building credibility and relationships, the importance of understanding context, the evolution of finance research, and the ease of finding information online.

Daniel Sousa-Lennox, a data scientist at Microsoft, discusses how the company uses AI for accurate forecasts. They developed FINN, an AI finance tool that has achieved 99% accuracy in revenue forecasting for an Azure product. Sousa-Lennox emphasizes that while AI isn't magic, it has transformed financial forecasting at Microsoft. FINN provides access to 25+ models, reducing forecasting time significantly. The podcast also covers building flexible budget models, improving forecasts with machine learning, the role of AI in data analysis and forecasting, and the curiosity about meeting historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci.

Jeff Duresky, Senior FinOps Commercial Architect at Amazon AWS, discusses cloud financial management and its importance for FP&A. He shares insights on trading fixed expenses for variable expenses in the cloud, common cost language, cloud forecasting, cost reductions, and core metrics. The episode also touches on challenges with budget inheritance, the significance of finance and engineering collaboration in cloud forecasting, and the importance of note-taking and learning from other companies in cloud finance.

Chewy Director of Finance Matthew Herbert reveals the secrets to effective business partnering and discusses insights from his 15 years of experience. He shares how Chewy does FP&A, the KPIs they manage, and the impact of being a self-taught programmer in a finance career. Herbert emphasizes the importance of customer service at Chewy and provides advice for starting a career in FP&A.

What happens when two highly-skilled Excel leaders compete in the Financial Modeling World Cup? Paul Barnhurst shares his experience and is joined by Ajay Patel, the "Excel Ninja," and Andrew Grigolyunovich, the FMWC Founder. They discuss Excel-at-speed, favorite functions, and optimization planning. They also reveal the inside story of their grueling FMWC experience and share advice for improving Excel skills.

Jim Cook, first finance hire at Netflix, shares his front row experience and lessons learned in building the company. Topics discussed include coping with unrealistic budgets at startups, rebirthing the browser market at Mozilla Firefox, lessons from M&A and IPO at Intuit, the power of finance partnership, and strategic finance moments at Intuit and Mozilla.