FP&A Today

A compelling FP&A story is essential. In this second (and final) session from FP&ACon 2024, Glenn hosts Soufyan Hamid, FP&A leader for 16 years who runs the Financial Storytelling Program, and Matthew Herbert, Chewy Director of Finance.  First poll: How confident are you in your ability to craft a compelling FP&A Story:? The move  from numbers to storytelling Soufyan on why the finance director was always frustrated by my business presentations (when I was even invited to meetings) By contrast Matthew was forced to get to grips with storytelling early in investment banking (but faced a different challenge as an FP&A business partner at Walmart) The gap between perception and reality in our storytelling  When information becomes insights  The connection between business partnering and storytelling  What (selfishly) do FP&A pros get by developing storytelling skills? Remember you are not giving a TED Talk  The 5 Points that FP&A Pros Most Struggle with in their Storytelling Actionable tips in your presentation  Follow and connect with Soufyan Hamid: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufyanhamid/ Follow and connect with Matthew Herbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-herbert-6a56637/ Matthew’s training course at https://biztrix.us/ Soufyan (The Finance Circle) training www.thefinancecircle.com

In this special episode (part of Datarails’ FP&A Con 2024) Glenn hosts an all-star panel to debate AI and FP&A: Hype vs reality.   Join Nicolas Boucher, Christian Martinez, and Gabriela Gutierrez, alongside CFO Glenn Hopper, host of FP&A Today, and an AI thought leader and author. Delve into real-world applications, separating fact from fiction, and gain valuable practical insights into the present and future of AI in financial planning and analysis.    The Guests: Nicolas Boucher, Keynote speaker on AI for Finance & FP&A Christian Martinez, Finance Analytics Manager, Kraft Heinz Gabriela Gutierrez, Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist   In this episode:  How many FP&A pros are using AI in their work - how do you compare vs the results of our poll  The main misconceptions + and what not to do in the  finance and AI era The significance of ChatGPT 4o The biggest barriers to AI adoptions  Practical uses of AI to use today , including forecasting and practical ways to save time  FP&A AI use cases that have shocked the panel  Which FP&A processes could most use AI help? How to get started practically AI capabilities in existing tools  such as PowerBI Why 2024 is about Python as the tool to learn to break the barrier of AI Automation in finance’s relationship with other departments Creating your own chatbot services The importance of data maturity (before AI maturity) How you will start to see AI inbuilt to all your finance techstack Download financial data (balance sheets, savings) from a company on  Yahoo Finance and plug into Chat GPT 4o (Prompt: Act as a management consultant and analyze this data with an FP&A lens” (and getting volume analysis, volatility analysis, moving averages..)  FP&ACon 2024 (on demand) https://www.datarails.com/events/fpa-con-2024/ Join the AI Finance Club: https://ai-finance.club/  “Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models,”

FP&A professionals are the original business intelligence (BI) experts, says Len Mcfall, senior consultant, finance at Windstream Holdings, a $1billion US telecoms company. “FP&A itself is synonymous with business intelligence,” he says. “And honestly, weren’t, weren’t we the first business intelligence? We’ve always been working with data. We’ve always been trying to simplify and present data in a  meaningful way to people who might not,otherwise be literate.” In this frank and honest interview McFall, whose background is heavily influenced by BI, gives insights from a 20 year career including HCT Investments, Sitel, Crossroads Treatment Center and a minefield of data at Windstream.   “I’m not a bullet point guy. I’m a paragraph guy” says Len– warning he’s not one for short, snappy answers, but a storyteller who loves to dive deep,  as he reveals: Why 40% of my job is touching base with people to curate all the data we use across the organization Putting sales on blast:  how often do you catch a forecast from a sales organization that’s even 50%, right? Coming into a company to save them after they were delivering finance reporting 30 days after close (from 30 days to day 8) the role of data analysis and bi  in finance and in the decision making process. How business runs on “hunches” and why it is FP&A to prove that hunch  Why if you cannot communicate to the business you are useless  The vast amount of data we have access to in telecoms and how we separate the signal from the noise  How finance rubs against IT and why it’s not pretty  Why AI in finance is like a “very smart but green intern” and prompt engineers are ridiculous Killing for food in winters during his childhood Connect with Len on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/len-mcfall-6274857b/

CFO Seth Zimmerman faced a triple blow of tests in his decades-long  real estate career. Firstly, he witnessed the Lehman collapse first-hand from within a real estate division of the famed bank (“We just got a call from our New York office, a guy in New York. He’s like, well, it’s done. We’re bankrupt.”). Secondly, being forced to blow the whistle when his CEO boss pocketed $1m into his bank account–the day after a $10m raise (the startup is now defunct). Finally, being the finance person when a developer absconded with $12m. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that when it comes to money, you never know what somebody’s going to do”. In this episode, Seth Zimmerman, CFO at Invest with Roots, explains the core metrics in finance real estate and why things are never cookie cutter (“Every deal is, is different and you have to look at them individually”) Zimmerman talks: Life as CFO at Invest with Roots, one of the hottest companies in Atlanta,the only real estate portfolio that creates wealth for renters. The role of finance at a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) – a security that trades like a stock on the major exchanges and reports to the SEC.  Blowing the whistle in finance  when a former CFO pocketed $1m Creating $700,000 for residents at Invest with Roots Becoming CFO and bringing in budgeting and FP&A processes Love of modeling and how I am using  modeling skills to get into the multifamily space How to find great finance staff +the accountant recruitment challenge  Favorite Excel function  My motorbike crash  Follow Seth on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethazimmerman/

As a lifelong gamer, David Fortin successfully landed  his dream job managing FP&A at Ubisoft – the $2.79 billion gaming company responsible for Assassin’s Creed, Driver, and Far Cry, For Honor. The former PwC auditor then decided to take on an even more daunting leap. He ran FP&A at  Saas Startup Polka “building the plane while we were flying” – cue  his boss leaving, learning how to fundraise, facing disinterested investors, budgets rejected by the board,  the CTO crying, before managing an eventual successful exit (in 2023 the company was acquired by Swedish enterprise software giant IFS). Now he is a full-time YouTuber teaching Excel and Microsoft Copilot – still using finance and analytics to build his business. In this episode David talks: PwC CPA audit coming up that way to FP&A Quebec, loving video games and landing a role at Ubisoft Moving from a big company to a startup and a steep finance learning curve Building the plane while flying in FP&A Learning the sales pitch of funding round facing questions and disinterterested investors CTOs crying when the budget is rejected by the board Due diligence and exit – lessons Becoming a YouTuber making Excel fun again and grasping Microsoft Copilot  How CoPilot and AI will transform FP&A Scenario analysis in Copilot  20,000 hours of gaming and my favorite Excel function Follow David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-fortin-cpa-816b20b5/ Follow David’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@piggybankaccountant

From being the First kid in her family to finish high school, Swati Bagri began as a role as auditor at Deloitte (“I did what any 17-year-old smart kid would do. I just followed my friends”). At Deloitte she discovered a “love of finance” realizing it’s “what I want to do for the rest of my life”. Swati cemented her FP&A career at some of the world’s biggest brands: Nestlé, Mars, Amazon, and Kraft Heinz. At these giants she absorbed and built a playbook to get from “good” to “great” FP&A. Behing the success of FP&A at these teams, she explains is 3 things: strategic planning and forecasting, technology and risk management. In this episode Swati talks about: Finance transformation as a significant part of her role (the slippery term of “finance transformation” defined as the “effective use of technology to free up people’s time”) How predictive analytics was used at Nestlé from rainfall data, and the wider playbook of building financial models with consumers in mind  Hyperinflationary markets like Turkey and Egypt and FP&A and the lessons learned Business partnering roles at Amazon and Nestlé and what I have learned about successful relationship building towards common objectives  Co-founding The Strategy Story (including learning about Marriage insurance for wedding days) Start by Explaining the P&L and coaching non-finance folk War stories – annual planning cycles  FP&A-led transformation at an ecommerce marketplace business and getting buy-in from senior management through a data story The power of podcasts to keep your at the top of your finance game  Sky Jumping and my favorite Excel function Connect with Swati Bagri on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/swatibagri/ Book a mentoring session with Swati at https://topmate.io/swatibagri

We host our first ever FP&A guest from the US casino and gambling sector with the head of FP&A at Genting Americas, a world leader in casinos and lodging with luxurious loactions in Las Vegas, Bimini, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Bill Singh is VP FP&A of Genting Americas, part of the world’s largest Destination Resort operator operating as Resorts World . Genting boasting five public companies capitalized at $45 billion and employing more than 50,000 people worldwide. This episode  reveals their inside FP&A game including metrics such as “win per unit per day” tacking the “hold”. Bill is strategic leader with more than a decade leading FP&A and providing insights on skills and budgeting management, to insider advice about gaming. In this episode: Getting an unexpected offer of an FP&A role at a casino in Nevada Why FP&A at the “nexus of data and decision-making” is an “ultimate” career path  Critical skills you must develop in FP&A  Giving “X+1” in your FP&A answers Salesmanship in FP&A FP&A metrics: “Win per unit per day and hold” Lodging: occupancy, your ADR, your revenue per available room Odds and statistics from tables, games and FP&A modeling  Insider advice about gaming (including “Don’t play a game right by the door”) The power of leading budget for the operating side and the capital budget for all divisions +lessons from 10 years of budgeting   The impact of AI in getting answers faster for operators MATCH+TEMPO – My favorite Excel function and lessons from drumming   Follow and connect with Bill Singh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsinghprofile/

What’s the connection between FP&A and Taylor Swift? To answer we are joined by Michael Stotland, Vice President of FP&A at AEG Presents. AEG Presents is one of the largest live music companies in the world, and most famously the concert promoter behind the $1 billion dollar revenue Eras Tour by Taylor Swift: the highest grossing tour of all time. For good measure, Stotland’s FP&A team also supports the tours of Paul McCartney, Katy Perry Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, and 25 music festivals, including the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, along with Stagecoach, the New Orleans Jazz Fest, hangout Fest, electric Forest, and Firefly. In this blockbuster episode, we want to teach you how FP&A feels (apologies to Swifties): Michael Stotland VP of FP&A at AEG reveals in conversation with host Glenn Hopper: How growing up in Los Angeles the entertainment industry the entertainment industry was a natural choice, and starting my career at MGM Spreading my wings at 20th Century Fox  Building up the FP&A function at MarVista (a TV and movie production company showcasing nearly 2,500 hours of content) and the story behind a facing a “fantastic year” during COVID FP&A leadership at AEG  helping live entertainment “ return from the abyss”  “Seeing the financials bounce” back as pent up demand was realized  Pulling external data into daily FP&A work  Heatmaps on beer costs and price of living as part of FP&A planning  Managing 3 areas of FP&A at AEG:  General, systems and business strategy units The FP&A dimension of Taylor Swift Eras Tour  Using local macroeconomics to impact business decision-making – from the UK to Singapore and the US How Television revenues and licensing of big movies saves movie studios  FP&A swiftness when Kanye West bowed out at the last minute at Coachella  Using AI to look at past events and ticket sales and performance on a contribution margin basis  Looking to optimize how we do FP&A and ambitions to become CFO Links between FP&A and my triathlon career  Connect with Michael Stotland Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis at AEG Presents: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikestotland/ Further Reading: Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Is the Highest-Grossing of All Time and First-Ever to Hit $1 Billion Investopedia: Swiftonomics: The Economic Influence of Taylor Swift Datarails Blog: How FP&A makes Huge Hollywood Hits

Antonio Reza is the Head of Finance for Google Cloud Consulting in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In this episode he reveals the FP&A life and lessons he has learned over the past 14 years working in finance and strategy at Google, Microsoft, and GE. He brings experiences across 10 different countries leading teams across the globe spanning different industries (he also speaks four languages). In this episode he reveals: How Getting into GE’s finance and FP&A training was life-changing Why so many tech people like himself are inspired to get into finance  Country specific differences in finance that he has learnt over his career  Google in the midst of AI revolution and how we used AI at Microsoft for our commercial forecasting  How AI in finance is still about automation – with insights the next frontier for FP&A How FP&A at Google and Microsoft FP&A teams are set up  Why “Walking  the Shop” remains core to his career in finance How the biggest companies in the world manage real-time data Despite the technological avalanche storytelling and persuasion is fundamental at the top tech companies Why FP&A needs to focus on snapshots vs “real-time” dashboards  FP&A Need to Ask Why x5 Times: The Secret of great storytelling  Why I am focused on grasping and applying the economic picture in my work  My biggest challenges in moving from individual contributor to manager early in my career  How a  “failure” led to my team and I staying in the office for 56 hours trying to close an audit – and the people skills I learnt along the way  Why Despite working at Google, Excel still bosses Google Sheets for finance teams Using your 20s to hustle and have a successful career  Follow Antonio at X (Formerly Twitter) 48k Followers https://twitter.com/theantonioreza LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/theantonioreza/ Subscribe to Antoniio’s Newsletter Money & Robots https://www.theantonioreza.com/ Further Reading WSJ: Google Finance Head: Anything That Can Be Automated, We Strive to Automate The Pyramid Principle:Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It; Chris Voss The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma; Michael Bhaskar and Mustafa Suleyman

Greg Lopez has served as the CFO and VP of operations at companies including Futurism, a digital media company, Wirecutter (acquired by the New York Times) and Gawker Media (acquired by Univision). Now Greg is a consultant at high-growth companies working with clients ranging from a “family owned business doing $20 million”,  “SaaS businesses doing $10 million a year” to private equity-backed business doing $500 million a year.” In this episode he provides his formula for success in FP&A and finance: How a career in finance suited my character traits and passions Learning the full aspects of finance, FP&A and business partnering Building to a commercial mindset as CFO Acting as an investigative journalist for the business   Why finance needs to lead in defining metrics in a startup Moving from a bigger company to a startup - what you need to know  Increasing the feedback loop in finance teams  Expectations of CFO in a startup  Favorite KPIs - from contribution margin and profit to Sales cycle velocity Variables and determining drivers for the business  One of the biggest finance challenges - developing talent and cyber attacks  Lightning round: pickup basketball and lessons for finance Best Excel feature: introducing Scenario planning and modeling using Watch Window  Contact Greg @glopeztweets on X glopez@eventusag.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-lopez-4b248b88/ Show Notes: Recommended reading: How A Hulk Hogan Lawsuit Launched A Career in M&A | Greg Lopez https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-a-hulk-hogan-lawsuit-launched-a-career-in-m-a-greg-lopez/id1642784919?i=1000606411968 Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean: Berman, Karen, Knight, Joe, Case, John: 9781422144114: Amazon.com: Books Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Critical Functions and Teams (Techstars): Blumberg, Matt, Birkeland, Peter M., Dorsey, Scott: 9781119772576: Amazon.com: Books The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools: Silbiger, Steven A: 9780062199577: Amazon.com: Books Amazon.com: Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Managem

Getting FP&A teams to harness their data to reach their goals is the holy grail. Nathan Bell, Managing Partner, VAi Consulting, is among the most in-demand experts. Bell has unique experience– having started in computer science, before leading finance teams at Native American Bank, Digital Media Trends and Gartner– where he advised hundreds of FP&A teams facing chaotic data situations). In this masterclass, he shares a practical framework looking at the expectations, fear and hype surrounding data, analytics and AI for FP&A teams. In this episode: From a computer degree to leading finance teams How Nathan discovered the power of telling stories as Chief Credit Officer at Native American Bank  Overcoming the challenge of presenting to non- financially literate CEOs The challenge when finance is “last in line”  When companies don’t have good data and what FP&A teams can do  “Federated data governance” and avoiding turf battles why setting up self-service data as CFO came back to bite me  Using a “metrics cascade” clarifying  data and metrics Critical thinking as the new superpower for finance teams in the AI age  Key to setting  up pilot AI programs  Dinner time when your wife is also a CFO Key quotes: Remember PPDAC. Problem Plan, Data, Conclusion. Your Plan, what Data you need to capture against that plan, analysis, and Conclusion. “If you can master that in that order, I think from a skillset, you’re, you’re ready” – Nathan Bell. Critical Thinking as the new Superpower for FP&A “Critical thinking is gonna be more powerful than ever. I don’t think there’ll ever be a situation where we’re going to let AI make the decision without going through a human to look at the data. We need to ask what do we do? What’s the action? What’s the decision?” Connect with Nathan Bell on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-bell-1038662/ https://vai-consulting.com/

Tory Bauman, Vice President, FP&A at Zayo Group joins new host Glenn Hopper. In this fascinating episode they go deep on FP&A metrics and processes at one of the most exciting companies in telecoms. Tory leads an  FP&A team underpinning business decisions at Zayo whose network stretches over 16.8 million fiber miles and spans 141,000 route miles. With telecoms long at the forefront of technology, Tory explains her cutting edge philosophy around FP&A realizing “ leadership’s strategy and their goals” “closing gaps” and making necessary “pivots”. In this episode Tory reveals: Her move from accountant to finance and why she made the switch How FP&A at Zayo is set up and the main metrics tracked including the importance of being good stewards of billions of dollars in capital investments Measures for forecasting churn  Alignment as crucial to business partnering  Early warning signs and predictive analytics  FP&A and cost per event on telecoms network  Using external data and macro side on the pricing decisions  How Zayo is profiting by providing connectivity and bandwidth in the AI revolution  How I am trying to develop my experience in capital markets and mentorship  Why I am not shy about letting people know I want to be a CFO Her golf career and the impact it has made on her finance goals  Connect with Tory on LinkedIn

It’s the end of an era. This is Paul Barnhurst’s last episode as FP&A Today host. And in this episode he introduces new FP&A Today host: Glenn Hopper.  Glenn Hopper is a Chief Financial Officer with two decades of experience leading finance operations for private equity-backed companies. Glenn  is an author and journalist, US Navy Veteran, #1 AI Finance leader, and a passionate advocate for FP&A.  In this episode: Glenn’s whirlwind career since he last appeared on the show Training FP&A on AI  Why getting started on AI in finance is a painful audit Why the first stages of AI implementation in finance have nothing to do with AI  Launching the definitive LinkedIn course for generative AI and finance  Why it is vital for finance professionals to understand the base of AI  Glenn’s favorite episode of FP&A Today Why I decided to become the new host of FP&A Today  Why there’s no need to hide my Southern accent on the show  Turning the tables on Paul Paul’s final message  Follow Glenn Hopper at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiii/ Follow Paul Barnhurst at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguy/

Rosemary Linden more than earned her stripes in FP&A over twenty years.  Her roles included VP FP&A at Alliant Insurance Services. Director of Global FP&A at WD-40 Company and at Solera. But after two decades in corporate finance she moved to being a fractional CFO serving small businesses (typical annual revenue of around $10million) managing an assortment of responsibilities.  This episode is for anyone in finance who may be looking to escape the corporate grind and set up as a Fractional CFO. But Linden warns it is not for everyone. “One of the first things I’d say to think about is, do you really want to be a fractional CFO? Because that’s different from being a full-time CFO at one particular company and comes with its own challenges.” In this episode: Moving from corporate finance after 20 years to dealing with “astute” small business owners as a fractional CFO in San Diego  Why FP&A is an ideal training ground to become a CFO Secrets for telling a good story  Getting to what you want the people in a room to “walk away knowing” Cash flows at small companies, opportunities and challenges  Dealing with seasonal variances at small businesses  Advice for starting your own business as a fractional CFO Moving to a more analytical mindset  Difference between, strategic planning and financial planning (Case Study San Diego Civic Youth Ballet) My most dangerous deep sea dive, being team Excel and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Follow Rosemary Linden on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemarylinden/

Most CFOs don’t build  models where 1% of their company’s net sales (not profits) are given away instantly “right from the top” to help alleviate poverty. But then Cotopaxi is not like most companies. In this episode Cotopaxi CFO, Gary Bowen, explains the pivotal role played by finance and FP&A in “doing capitalism better” while also seeking to become a billion-dollar brand - alongside other outdoor names such as Patagonia, North Face and Columbia. This includes an ambitious new strategy explained by Bowen to move beyond digital sales and into retail–and FP&A’s central role in making this happen. In this episode Gary Bown CFO of Cotopaxi reveals: Starting as operations in customer service and lessons for finance  How I began as a CFO When good finance talent leaves  Doing fractional CFO services and when businesses need to bring in a CFO Being a "Let’s Go" CFO (vs Department of No) 1% of Net Sales (not profits) given away, and working that into the model  Cotopaxi digital retail metrics explained vs retail metrics Moving to opening up retail stores and a four wall profitability model  How to balance investors with giving back principles  Getting Cotopaxi to a billion dollar company  Flipping the script from private label to branding at Ogio (and learning the power of branding) Flying airplanes, Iron Man competition, and George Washington Follow Gary Bowen on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-bowen-769a7/

Kat Orekhova is Co-Founder & CEO of Vareto, a planning and analytics platform for enterprise teams. In her own words Kat has an “unusual backstory” leaving the world of math academia to build Facebook’s first-ever data science team within FP&A. At the social media giant she was Responsible for financial reporting, forecasting, and planning activities for Facebook’s core business. This was followed by stints as Head of Product at IronClad, a $3billion legaltech company, Sequoia Capital Scout, General Partner at Darkmode Ventures and co-founder & CEO of Vareto. In this episode Kat reveals: The challenges of long range planning as Facebook scaled massively and trying to predict growth across countries from the US to India with more than 100 people contributing to the planing process)  Being at the beginning of data Science at Facebook The move  from data science and product into finance When should companies start looking at FP&A Being a Sequoia scout and what it entails and what she looks for in investment opportunities How (now) Meta CFO Susan Li “an absolutely outstanding” mentor insisted on a  finance team with data science skills led by Orekhova The right blend between data science and FP&A who are “Living in Different Tools” Her take on the amount of data science that FP&A teams need to boost their career The impact of AI in finance Follow Kat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katorekhova/

Tolga Hocanin, CFO & Vice President, Finance & IT at Lindt & Sprüngli (Canada) gives a masterclass in CPG FP&A from his experience at PepsiCo and chocolatier, Lindt. In this episode: Lessons from 20 years of budgeting and how my first budget was a nightmare Why budgeting is not just a math exercise The main metrics you need to know in CPG Why mix management is crucial The 30-60-90 day plan to succeed in finance in CPG Running both IT and finance as CFO and why this makes sense Building a strong culture in a finance team  Starting with why in finance  A $1.5M reporting error and how I responded to it  Building cross-functional relationships with business partners Follow and connect with Tolga Hocanin on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tolga-hocanin-cpa-cma-2958008/

Talking about the connectedness of FP&A and Rev Ops working together are all-star revenue leaders: Jeff Ignacio, Head of Go-to market Growth and operations at Regrow Ag, Arvind Chahal VP, finance and ops at autotrader Canada, and Drew Noel, VP Revenue, SCS Cloud. First, what is rev Ops? “Rev Ops is the discipline of aligning go-to market strategy and execution through four key pillars: process enablement, advisory and systems excellence” (Webster dictionary definition submitted by Paul Igancio). In this episode: How revenue operations and finance operations need to be working together effectively? The challenges and worst stories when rev ops and Finance fail to click. The worst “bad behavior” in a go-to-market org  Data and cultural issues with finance and Rev Ops Moving career from FP&A to RevOps How to ensure we are defining and reporting metrics in the same way The importance of a “data dictionary” How AI will impact the operations function Favorite Excel function or feature Our guests: Jeff Ignacio, Head of Go-to market Growth and operations at Regrow Ag Arvind Chahal VP, finance and ops at autotrader Canada Drew Noel, VP Revenue, SCS Cloud

Andrew Lynch,  Head of FP&A at UK card discount scheme for public service employees, Blue LIght Card, is known to his nearly 11,000 Twitter followers as The SMB Finance Guy. The FP&A leader also runs the highly popular Net Income newsletter regularly posts small business opportunities, scaling companies, systems, strategy, “with a few shitposts thrown in for good measure” (His writing has also been picked up by Business Insider). In this episode Andrew reveals: The power of mentors in transforming his finance career from a “struggle to find someone who would take me” to high-profile roles at Anabas, Capital One, and Blue LIght Card. Starting a new budget from scratch and building an FP&A team at Blue Light Card Negotiation and sandbagging with sales and how FP&A can deal with the challenges How FP&A best practice saw Andrew deliver one SMB £10 million a year in revenue and from £8k in profit to £23 million Being Fired by Four times Bestselling New York Times author Tucker Max the day before Xmas Eve Skill stacking – getting to be the top 25% in the world at four or five different related things – rather than trying to be the best Being one of the few FP&A leaders on the comedy circuit Subscribe to Net Income at https://www.netincome.co/ Follow Andrew at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewglynch/

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/