I help finance professionals and teams master FP&A skills so they can make better decisions, create more impact, and advance their careers.

I’ve trained the finance teams at Google, Merck, Lowe’s, Discover, Liberty Bank, and many others—both in person and online. 

As the Director of Wharton’s FP&A Program, I bring a blend of academic rigor and real-world experience to every session. 

Over 100,000 finance professionals follow my insights on LinkedIn, and 30,000+ subscribe to my weekly newsletter.

Before founding Inside FP&A, I spent a decade in finance leadership roles at Procter & Gamble and Unilever, earned my MBA from NYU Stern, and helped take Squarespace public as an FP&A leader.

Ways you can learn with me:

🎓 Wharton FP&A Certificate – 8-week cohort-based online program, globally recognized credential. 

💻 FP&A Bootcamp – 2-week live online workshops to quickly level up practical skills. 

📚 Inside FP&A Academy – 4-week on-demand program covering technical + interpersonal FP&A skills.

🏢 Custom In-Person Training – Tailored workshops for finance teams of 5+ employees.

📢 Marketing Collaborations – Partner with me to reach finance leaders via sponsored webinars, videos, newsletters, and LinkedIn posts—ideal for companies in the CFO tech stack.

If you want to build stronger FP&A capabilities—individually or across your team—visit InsideFPA.com to learn more or contact me directly at christian.w@insidefpa.com.

Nobody tells you the truth about FP&A before you take the job.

After 15+ years at P&G, Unilever, and Squarespace, I've lived both sides. Here's the honest breakdown:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱:

• You get a bird's-eye view of the entire business. Strategy, operations, execution - it all flows through your desk.

• It's the rare role that blends analytical depth with human connection. One hour you're deep in a model. The next you're advising a VP.

• Process improvement hits different here. You're not just doing the work - you're reshaping how the work gets done.

• Few things beat the rush of spotting a $2M opportunity in the data and watching leadership act on it.

• C-Suite access starts early. Even as a junior analyst, you're often presenting to people who run the company.

• You become everyone's translator. Marketing, Sales, Ops - they all need someone who can connect their world to the P&L. That's you.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗱:

• Deliver 50 flawless reports? Crickets. Miss one cell reference? Your inbox explodes.

• Everyone else gets weeks to prepare. Finance gets 48 hours to finalize the Board deck. Sometimes less.

• You're often the one saying "no" - to headcount, to projects, to budgets people fought hard for.

• The VP of Sales wants to ship more units. You want better margins. That conflict is baked into the job.

• In companies without a true business partnering culture, earning a seat at the strategy table takes years of proving yourself.

Here's what I've learned: The frustrations don't vanish with seniority. But the rewards compound.

Know what you're walking into - and build the skills to thrive anyway.

Which side of FP&A hits harder for you? Drop it below 👇

-Christian Wattig

P.S. Want my complete Financial Modeling Template with 46 best practices built in? 

It's the same framework I teach at Wharton. Free for my subscribers: https://lnkd.in/eBAmSF_6

Christian Wattig

If you are new to FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) or need to learn it for your new leadership role, you probably realize there isn’t a lot of help out there.

And you likely also know that many FP&A core competencies are difficult to learn from reading books or watching videos, like financial storytelling or effective business partnering. 

I have been working in FP&A leadership roles for the last 14 years; in multinational companies Unilever and Procter & Gamble and fast-growing tech companies Squarespace and Datarails. 

I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work and want to help others by passing it on. 

Teaching, coaching, and mentoring my direct reports are what I enjoyed most about my FP&A roles.

So I decided to offer it to a broader audience over the internet.

I offer help in four ways:

1️⃣  Free Newsletter

You can get actionable insights and advice on various FP&A topics by subscribing to my free newsletter “FP&A Tuesday”.

👉🏻  Join 25,000+ Finance and Accounting professionals and subscribe to “FP&A Tuesday” here:

www.fpaprep.com/fpa-tuesday


2️⃣ Self-paced learning

 "The Art & Science of Forecasting" dives into forecasting methods, techniques, and best practices that I've used in leading FP&A teams. 

Read more about the forecasting course here:

https://forecastingmastery.com

3️⃣ For individuals and small teams

Join my live online course FP&A Bootcamp. Over the course of six live sessions via Zoom, you'll learn best practices covering: 

➢ Financial Storytelling
➢ Business Partnering
➢ Budget Management
➢ Planning & Forecasting
➢ Financial Modeling

👉🏻 Learn more about the course here:

www.fpaprep.com/course

4️⃣ For larger teams (10+)

You can hire me as a corporate trainer for tailored in-person or virtual FP&A workshops. Learn more about corporate training here:

https://www.fpaprep.com/training


Lastly, if you want to partner with me to get your message in front of my audience, take a look at my offering for advertisers:

https://www.passionfroot.me/fpa-tuesday

Director, Wharton FP&A Program | Founder, Inside FP&A | On-site FP&A training at your offices (US & CA) and self-paced online learning

After 11 years in FP&A at P&G, Unilever, and Squarespace, I've seen brilliant analysts fail because they mastered Excel but couldn't influence decisions.

And I've seen average analysts become CFOs because they understood this:

FP&A success isn't about one skill. It's about six interconnected pillars.

The 6 Pillars Every FP&A Professional Must Master:

1️⃣ Annual Budgeting - Where strategy meets reality
2️⃣ Forecasting - Predicting the future (with receipts)
3️⃣ Financial Analysis - Finding the story in the numbers
4️⃣ Financial Modeling - Building bulletproof models
5️⃣ Business Partnering - Being the financial quarterback
6️⃣ Financial Storytelling - Making CFOs lean forward

Here's the truth:

Most FP&A professionals are strong in 2-3 pillars.

The ones who make Director? They've mastered all six.

I've trained teams at Google, Merck, and Lowe's on this exact framework.

The transformation happens when they stop thinking in silos and start connecting these pillars.

Example: Your forecast (Pillar 2) is only as good as your ability to explain it (Pillar 6) and defend your assumptions (Pillar 4) while partnering with ops (Pillar 5).

Everything connects.

Swipe through the carousel to see what mastery looks like in each pillar →

Which pillar is your strongest?

Drop it in the comments - I read every single one 👇

📌 𝗣.𝗦. I’m teaching my 𝟲-𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗙𝗣&𝗔 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 live - how to turn analysis + forecasting into decision-ready insights. Fri 1–2:30pm ET. 

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 (𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲, 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀): https://luma.com/insidefpa

The 6 Pillars of FP&A (1)

I almost submitted a forecast that was off by $12 million.

I had just been promoted to lead a 5-person FP&A team at a large consumer goods company. Our job: partner with 8 marketing teams to create the monthly expense forecast.

The budget we managed? Close to $1 billion.

Each marketing team managed several brands across multiple countries. The complexity was tremendous. But I thought: if my predecessor handled this in Excel, so could I.

That was a mistake that almost cost me my job.

A few weeks in, I was doing a final sanity check before submitting the consolidated forecast to our CFO. Scrolling through the massive file, I almost missed it.

But there was a number that didn't feel right.

Fellow finance leaders know what I mean. That gut punch when something is off, but you can't pinpoint what yet.

I dug in. The TV advertising number for Q3 on one of our largest brands was completely wrong. Turns out, a marketing manager had added a column to their template where they shouldn't have. Our Excel formula wasn't pulling the right data.

If I hadn't caught this, our forecast would have been off by more than $12 million. It would have destroyed the credibility our CFO had painstakingly built over years.

That's when I realized: we had outgrown Excel.

💡 Here are the 5 signs your FP&A process has too - so you don't risk making the same mistake I did:

1️⃣ The "Version Control" Nightmare - Multiple people editing the same file, conflicted copies everywhere

2️⃣ The "Formula Archaeology" Problem - Only one person understands the model, and they're about to leave

3️⃣ Data Integrity Fatigue - 80% of time gathering data, 20% analyzing it

4️⃣ Scalability Stalls - Files take 30 seconds to calculate, pushing 50MB+

5️⃣ No Self-Service for Business Partners - Department heads email you for every report

Check out my infographic for the full breakdown of each sign and the risks they create.

After that near-miss, I convinced leadership to implement a proper FP&A tool. The difference was immediate: automatic consolidation, version control built-in, and no more formula breaks from template changes.

That experience is exactly why I recommend Abacum to finance leaders hitting these same walls.

Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/ec-CfZiD

How many of these signs does your team experience? Drop a number below 👇

Abacum

9 PM. Monthly close. You're about to send the board deck.

You just added a new product line.

And your entire Excel model breaks.

We've all been there. The formulas that worked last month suddenly don't. You're dragging cells, praying you didn't break a SUM range, hunting for broken links.

You're not doing finance work anymore. You're a data janitor.

Meanwhile, someone using metric-based modeling in Abacum added a new product line AND a new entity. Their model didn't break. They're already heading to bed.

The difference comes down to where the logic lives:

📌 In Excel, logic lives in individual cells. Add a row? Hope nothing breaks. Add a month? Drag formulas and cross your fingers.

📌 In Abacum, you write the logic once for the metric. When the business expands, the formulas cascade automatically because it's a multidimensional cube that holds actuals, forecasts, and budgets in one place.

One approach has you spending 90% of your time cleaning data and fixing broken links.

The other has you designing business logic because the data pipeline is automated.

The irony? We got into FP&A to be strategic partners. Not to troubleshoot VLOOKUP errors at 9 PM.

If your model breaks every time the business changes, it's not a model problem.

It's an architecture problem.

Learn more about Abacum here: https://lnkd.in/dXHwfGu6

-Christian Wattig

Brand partnership • Director, Wharton FP&A Program | Founder, Inside FP&A | On-site FP&A training at your offices (US & CA) and self-paced online learning

Most finance pros rely on just 1-2 forecasting methods.

That's a problem.

Because if you're only using percentage adjustments or last year's actuals, your forecasts are disconnected from what's actually happening in the business.

After training 1000s of finance professionals, I've found that mastering multiple forecasting techniques is what separates trusted advisors from number reporters.

Here are the 7 methods every FP&A professional should know:

1️⃣ 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 - Simple, quick. But no forced analysis means forecasts can drift from reality. Use it only for non-strategic line-items.

2️⃣ 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼-𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Start fresh and evaluate ROI on every expense. Time-intensive but powerful for finding the 20% that drives 80% of outcomes.

3️⃣ 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - Leverages qualitative context data can't capture. But watch for biases and groupthink.

4️⃣ 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿-𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Ties strategic drivers to financial outcomes. Excellent for scenario planning. This is a must-try for all FP&A teams.

5️⃣ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 - Review historical actuals to identify trends and one-offs. Gets faster the more you do it.

6️⃣ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Regression, moving averages, ARIMA. Highly accurate with good data, but sensitive to data quality.

7️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Identifies patterns humans miss. Increasingly important as data volume grows.

Each method has its place. The best forecasters know when to use which.
 
I break down exactly how and when to apply each one in my YouTube video.

Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/eKEdj7Ji

-Christian Wattig
Director, Wharton FP&A Program
Corporate Trainer, Inside FP&A

My team at Unilever was paying a $6,640 monthly "Excel Tax."

We spent 83.5 hours per month just managing the marketing forecast in Excel.

With a modern FP&A tool, that dropped to 𝟱 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀.

Here is the breakdown of the manual madness I inherited as the lead of Marketing Finance & Analytics:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗿𝗮 (𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹):

• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵
  My 5 analysts spent 30+ hours just clarifying changes and fixing broken formulas in brand templates. 
  
• 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹
  80% of teams submitted a "Version 2." That pushed us to 32.5 hours just to 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 the numbers. 
  
• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
  20 hours spent manually updating charts to make sure everything "ticked and tied." 
  
• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿" 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲
  15 hours spent pulling custom data cuts for leadership requests. 
  
• 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸
  When leadership requested a change, we started the whole cycle over. Another 16 hours.
  
𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 83.5 hours. 

At an average analyst cost of $80/hour, we were burning $𝟲,𝟲𝟰𝟬 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 on manual labor.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗘𝗿𝗮 (Abacum):

• 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 0 hours. It’s cloud-based and instantaneous.
  
• 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 1 hour. The graphs and dashboards update themselves.
  
• 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲: 0 hours. Leaders can pull their own data cuts in the tool.
  
• 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: 4 hours. My team finally had time to actually 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 strategy with brand teams instead of just chasing cells.
  
𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹: 𝟱 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀.

We didn't just save $𝟲,𝟮𝟰𝟬 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵. We saved my team from burnout.

We stopped being data consolidators and started being strategic advisors. We finally had the time to identify the risks and opportunities that actually move the needle for a brand like Unilever.

If your team is still drowning in "Version 2.final.v3" spreadsheets, it’s time to look at Abacum.

It pays for itself almost instantly.

𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://lnkd.in/epsSf9-5

"These numbers are wrong."

I was mid-sentence, presenting our funnel analysis to the leadership team at a tech company where I led an FP&A team. The head of product interrupted me.

The entire meeting went off the rails.

The problem wasn't bad data. It was different definitions.

My team counted website visitors one way. The product team counted them another way. Both approaches were valid. We just weren't on the same page.

That experience taught me something critical: if you can't agree on what you're measuring, you can't make good decisions.

We fixed it by creating one source of truth for all metrics. We clearly defined what each number meant. We made sure everyone pulled from the same well.

This is exactly why understanding KPIs matters so much in FP&A.

Most finance pros get overwhelmed by the sheer number of financial ratios out there. But it gets much easier when you realize there are just 5 categories:

📌 Liquidity Ratios – Can you pay your bills next month?
📌 Leverage Ratios – How much debt are you carrying?
📌 Efficiency Ratios – Are you getting the most from what you have?
📌 Profitability Ratios – Are you actually making money?
📌 Market Value Ratios – What does the market think you're worth?

I made a video breaking down the 10 most important KPIs every FP&A professional should know – and how to use them to become a strategic advisor to your business.

👉 Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/enjTNfG6

What's the one metric that causes the most confusion at your company? Drop it below 👇

-Christian Wattig

PowerPoint is dead in the future of FP&A.

“I love to put together a 50-page slide deck every month.”

“Yeah, and I can’t wait to read each and every one of them.”

Said no one ever.

Yet, preparing comprehensive decks to report company performance is still the norm at most firms.

But, there’s an alternative:

One-Pagers.

Procter & Gamble and Amazon fully embrace them.

When I was at P&G, the GM I worked with refused to look at any deck or document unless it fits on one page.

Similarly, a friend told me that when he started a new job at Amazon, he was confused about why no one would say anything at the beginning of a big meeting.

People would just sit there with their heads down.

That’s because they all read the One Pager at the beginning of each decision meeting.

Here are the pros of One Pagers:

📌 Summarizing evolves thinking

Creating slides is easy. You can slap some graphs with a few comments on the page and move on to the next one. But if you are severely limited in space, you are forced to think more deeply about the actual message you are trying to bring across. Often, that process may lead you to question prior conclusions and arrive at a better recommendation.

📌 More efficient use of meeting time

One-Pagers are more condensed than decks and they can easily be read in advance of a meeting.

📌 Easier reference post-launch

Comparing results to forecasts is easier if the premises are all neatly on one page.

📌 Less time-consuming to prepare

Not having to deal with the tedious formatting of slides can reduce preparation time. And, since the structure is pre-determined, writing One-Pagers gets significantly faster with practice.

But of course, there are also disadvantages:

📌 Space constraints can be limiting

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”, said Mark Twain. Bringing your case across in a concise way isn’t easy.

📌 Harder to control the message

The format of One-Pagers means that we have to say what we want straight up, without much opportunity to warm someone up to our idea.

📌 Harder to show the thought process

Slides show with visualizations that we looked at the issue from different angles and “did our homework”. While that’s not impossible to do with a One-Pager, it may be more difficult.

In sum, One-Pagers have a lot of potential - if we are willing to put effort into mastering them.

What is your experience with One-Pagers?

Do you use them at your company?

Do you prefer them over traditional slide decks?

Please share in the comments below. 👇

—-
Speaking of efficiency: If you want to streamline your financial modeling the same way One-Pagers streamline reporting, 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗺𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲. 

It's free for a limited time: https://lnkd.in/eBAmSF_6

In an AI-enabled finance team, the best entry-level hires won’t be the fastest model builders.

They’ll be the fastest learners. ​

AI changes the leverage point of junior talent: Less time spent producing outputs. More time spent framing problems, validating assumptions, and communicating insights. ​

Which means the signals you should screen for are changing, too:

• Comfort with ambiguity
• Strong judgment and curiosity
• Ability to explain “why,” not just “what”
• System thinking (process + data + stakeholder context)
  
If you’re updating your hiring scorecards or training plans for 2026, this webinar will help: ​

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗲𝗿𝗮 (𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟮𝟮, 𝟮–𝟯 𝗽𝗺 𝗘𝗧) (sponsored by Ramp) ​

We’ll cover:

• What replaces the old “analyst training ground”
• The skill mix that matters most over the next 3–5 years
• How to identify candidates who will thrive with AI ​
  
​𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁:
https://lnkd.in/edEX_6bm​
​
𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦? 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨.

The biggest hiring mistake finance teams will make in 2026: hiring for the job AI is about to eliminate.

Many teams are still screening for speed on repetitive tasks. But those tasks are exactly what AI will continue to absorb.

So the hiring bar needs to shift: From “Can they execute?” to “Can they think, communicate, and improve the system?”

And training needs to shift too: If juniors don’t get the same volume of manual reps, you need a new development path - by design, not by accident.

In my upcoming webinar (sponsored by Ramp), we’ll go deep on what that looks like in practice: 

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗲𝗿𝗮 (𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟮𝟮, 𝟮–𝟯 𝗽𝗺 𝗘𝗧)

We’ll cover:

• How entry-level finance roles are changing
• Which skills are becoming non-negotiable
• Practical ways to identify high-upside candidates
  
Register here: https://lnkd.in/edEX_6bm

-Christian Wattig

P.S. Can’t attend live? Register to get the recording.

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