Paul Barnhurst

The FP&A Guy

Founder

FP&A Tomorrow

FP&A Tomorrow is a podcast focused on discussing not only what is happening in FP&A but what does the future look like for FP&A. The show is hosted by The FP&A Guy and is the premier podcast FP&A podcast. The show launches in April 2024.

Podcast Host

Financial Modeler's Corner

Hosting a world-class podcast all about Financial Modeling.  The podcast is for anyone who wants to listen to and learn from the best financial modelers in the world.

Future Finance

Future Finance is the podcast show that illuminates the future of finance through the lens of AI, innovation, and technology.  I co-host the show with the amazing Glenn Hopper.

Co-Host

The FP&A Hub

Co-founder of the only dedicated planning and analytics community created by and for planning and analytics professionals.  

Com join us today at https://community.plan-buddies.com/c/about-us

Co-Founder

Born Capital

The tides of change are flowing into the finance function which sends the function into the age of 4.0. We say it is "Enabled by tech - Driven by people". 

At Born Capital, we focus on tech enablement and are looking for early-stage startups in what we call #CFOTech that will enable the finance function to become a profit driver. We have a keen interest in FP&A and Business Finance as this is where we see the biggest improvement potential.

Actually, CFOs themselves know this as 71% of them are not happy with the performance of their FP&A team despite significant investments made in the past decade. We will help the office of the CFO get the right tech and tools to step up to the plate and deliver on the expectations of the CEO and other CXOs.

Feel free to reach out if you would like to know more about how we can help your start-up to the next level...

Advisory Board Member

Operators Guild

The Operators Guild is an independent, invitation-only group, home to the world’s top finance and operations (high growth and technology) leaders.

Scaling a company is hard. We are working together to share best practices, help one another solve similar problems, and invest in the operator community. We meet and connect regularly to support each other as we create the next generation of high-growth companies and company leaders.

Member

FP&A Today

Host FP&A Today, one of the premier podcasts on FP&A.  It is a weekly show where we bring you the latest news and actionable tips about all things FP&A.

DigiCert, Inc.

Director of Finance Sales Operations and Analytics

Solera, Inc.

Director of FP&A - Dealer and Aftermarket Division

Director of FP&A - Dealer Divison

Built Excel data model and developed financial reporting tool that allows easy review of budget and actuals for 30 North American legal entities transactional data, this model has helped reduce accounting errors and improved insight into key business expenses and vendors.
•	Provide support to NA CFO for $500M+ SaaS business to include preparing decks, providing ad-hoc analysis, and attending various leadership meetings.
•	Coordinate consolidation of forecasts and monthly results for 3 North American business units
•	Co-Led team effort to select software financial planning system and led effort to select consulting company to implement TM1 panning tool.
•	Worked closely with accountants to improve balance sheet reconciliation reporting for prepaid and capitalized software projects allowing business to have a clearer picture of actual spend on software & software projects.
•	Supported various accounting improvement initiatives resulting in improved accounting processes, to include reconciling over $4M of unreconciled balance sheets.

FP&A Manager

Founder of The FP&A Guy | Providing training and content that helps FP&A and Finance Professionals be better at their job today and tomorrow.

I am a passionate teacher and creator of FP&A content. I enjoy helping FP&A professionals become more effective creators of value for their businesses. Today, I provide content and training on important subjects, including FP&A, Excel, Power Query, Data Visualization, Storytelling, and more. 

I host three popular podcasts, FP&A Tomorrow, Future Finance, and Financial Modeler’s Corner, which bring you the best and brightest people in finance and FP&A. 

I am a Microsoft MVP and have earned the AFP FP&A Certification and the FMI Advanced Financial Modeler Certification. 

I am a big advocate of FP&A planning tools and share research on FP&A software. I have also published several market guides to help buyers understand the landscape. 

☛ Feel free to contact me – Pbarnhurst@thefpandaguy.com

Can you relate?

Revenue planning can feel like you are attending a fiction convention.  Am I right or am I right?

Below is my visual representation of how revenue planning can turn out if we are not careful. 

We start with prior-year actuals (a number we can all agree upon, hopefully), and from there, we list all the key items that will negatively impact revenue. 

Once that is done, the fun begins, as everyone wants growth, but not everyone is realistic about how to achieve it.  

We see things like:

➡️ Increased sales quota with no new hires or a plan to help sales teams be more productive

➡️ Overall market growth with no evidence to support the assumption

➡️ New product revenue growth when no products are close to being released. 

➡️Marketing efficiency gains with no additional spend or concrete plan to achieve it

and my favorite one

GO FIND - in other words, we have no idea how to do it, but we expect you to find more revenue this year. 

I have learned many of these lessons the hard way and have missed revenue forecasts more than once over my career, and that is why I am excited to be speaking with Darrell Cox of Una Software about Revenue Forecasting. 

The reality is that, as FP&A professionals, we can and must do better with our revenue forecasting. 

I hope you will join me for this exciting discussion, as we will share lessons we have learned from our careers

Topic: Revenue Forecasting: AI, Analytics, and Best Practices to Boost Your Forecast Reliability

📅 Thursday, October 2, 2025​
⏰ 1:00 PM ET

👉 Secure your spot today: https://lnkd.in/g22S69rf

The Finance technology landscape is evolving faster than ever. More FP&A, Excel (Vibe Working), and ERP solutions exist than ever before. 

The rapid growth of AI tools SaaS-based platforms has created an ecosystem that is more complex and dynamic than ever. 

With that in mind I have put together three market maps to help people segment and understand finance tools. 

 𝐅𝐏&𝐀 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 - For FP&A tools the market is segment by small, medium, and large as well as tool functionality from a plug-in to your spreadsheet to full enterprise scalable platforms.  The tools vary from tight integration with excel to spreadsheet replacements including BI planning solutions.  

𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - With the rapid rise of AI the number of spreadsheet solutions striving to support vibe working is crazy.  Microsoft just got into the space with its launch of Excel Agent and these tools have tremendous promise.  My market map is segment by Excel Add-ins, Google Ad-ins, and AI spreadsheets.  The next step is to segment by focus area. Many are finance focused but not all. 

𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐬 - $600M+ and counting invested in the latest round of ERP software.  The market has heated up over recent weeks with several big funding rounds and these tools are excited.  That being said in general these AI native- ERP tools are not ready to meet the needs of large enterprise customers or those with the need for inventory modules. Despite the limitations as they build and scale they are capable of doing a lot. 

In today's world finance leaders are more confused than ever about what is available for the tech stack and how they should think about it.  I am hopeful these market maps will help. 

Let me know what would be helpful to see as a next step with these market maps. 

If you are a vendor and want to be added or believe your position should be changed DM Me.  If you are a company and need help selecting your FP&A tool, feel free to DM me.

Pump the brakes

I keep seeing how AI can build the models for us. 

I am finding that basic models are fine, but real work with complexity has many issues. If you break the prompts down enough, I believe that for many tasks, it can get there, but the idea that we can build our models with just one prompt is dangerous. 

Be careful not to buy the hype. 

Yes, you still need to know how to model, and you still need to know Excel, but can AI make you way more efficient? Yes, I believe it can. 

Is it going to change the way we work? Yes, but remember it is still AI-assisted modeling, not AI-led modeling. 

The future is bright, and I will have more to say about this, but I wish people would dial down the hype so they do not get disillusioned when disappointed. 

Glenn Hopper and I have discussed the disappointment and disillusionment many people experience when projects fail, and the data shows that many AI projects are failing. 

Am I underselling AI, or is the hype setting many people up for failure?

FP&A Guy's Hot Take on AI and Financial Modelling

𝐇𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞: 90% of accounting and finance professionals will get more benefit out of taking a course and practicing modeling than spending hours trying to build a model with Gen AI. 

I have spent several hours this week testing AI in Excel, and it has convinced me more than ever that if you want to use AI to help you build, you need to learn how to model first.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭:

Many people in finance lack the knowledge and/or experience to create a dynamic, well-designed, and purpose-built model.  

For most of my career, the models I built were poorly designed and highly inefficient.  

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈:

1. Gen AI is probabilistic - Gen AI is using probabilities to answer questions, which means that the answer can change the next time you ask for the same problem, meaning you get a totally different formula in Excel. It also means it might be right one time, wrong the next

2.  Hallucinations - Hallucinations are an issue one should be concerned about

3. Validating & auditing the model - If you do not know what you are doing, then you cannot audit or validate the model

4. Complexity - The more complex the model the harder it will be to get AI to provide a usable answer

My recommendation to people who want to use AI for modeling is to use it for some of the following things, rather than actual model builds:

➡️ Challenging your assumptions
➡️ Preparing for scoping meetings with your client
➡️ Help with writing formulas
➡️ Telling it the problems you are having and asking for potential solutions
➡️ Ideas around good structure
➡️ Help with formatting
➡️ Auditing and validating the model
➡️ Building your table of contents for the sheets in your workbook

Currently, please do not use it to build your models, as there is too much variability and issues with checking the models.  

If you are experienced, you can use it to help you build and go beyond what I mentioned above, but do not use it to build the full model. 

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞:

If you are struggling to build models, spend time learning how to build one. 

My recommendation is to start by taking a modeling course and building several models.  If you would like recommendations on courses, please reach out, and I can provide several. 

After taking a course and spending time building models, you will be much better prepared to use AI to help you be more efficient. 

If you struggle to build models, do not think AI is the solution, as you are just asking for problems.  Inexperienced modelers using AI to build models is a recipe for disaster. 

Once you have done that, then see how AI can help you be more efficient and effective.

It is official Excel has always been a database!!!!

Notice what it says on the cover that it is a Complete Spreadsheet with Business Graphics and Database. 

40 years later it is still one of the most used databases ever and some people even use it as a spreadsheet 🤣

No alternative text description for this image

Campfire today announced a Series B raising $65M to go with the $35M Series A ten weeks ago. 

It is exciting to see another tool raise in this space and we are all winners when the competition and development heats up. 

Building an ERP is a long process and requires patience. 

I am excited to watch John Glasgow and the Campfire team grow and scale. I will be joining the team at the end of the month to attend the campfire AI summit and I am excited to have them as a sponsor of the podcast FP&A Unlocked for the next six months. 

Read the PR announcement on the funding raise here:

https://lnkd.in/gMmRtkMG

graphical user interface, text, application

FP&A Unlocked - Where we unlock your path to FP&A Greatness

I am excited to share that today is launch day for FP&A Unlocked.  

We will continue to have great guests and conversations, but we will also be introducing new openings, new questions over time, and an exciting new sponsor to the show.  

I am excited to share that Campfire, a new AI-Native ERP, is sponsoring the show. 

Later today, I will be releasing the first new episode of FP&A Unlocked.  In the meantime checck out the new logo and let me know what you think. 

I want to thank everyone for their feedback throughout the process. You, as loyal listeners, voted for your name and shared thoughts and ideas about what cover art you liked. 

I would love yout input as we move forward on how I can improve the show

➡️ What questions should I ask each guest?
➡️ Who should I have on the show?
➡️ What can I do to make the show better?
➡️ What subjects should I cover moving forward?

Check out the show and subscribe to your channel of choice today:

➡️Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gNhh-NRy

➡️ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gxd_UnKg

➡️ Apple:

Today, DualEntry formally came out of stealth with an exciting announcement. 

They announced a $90M Series A funding round led by  Lightspeed, Khosla Ventures, and GV (Google Ventures). Bringing their total funding to $100M to date.

First, I would like to give a big shout-out to the team for this milestone. 

I have had the opportunity to personally speak with several team members over the past month or so and am excited to interview one of the founders on Future Finance next month. 

A few things I have found to be impressive with the launch announcement

➡️ The fact that they have public companies utilizing the tool
➡️ The promise of a fast onboarding time
➡️ The fact they have processed $100B+ worth of journal entries with AI

This is another exciting entry into the ERP space, and once again, we as customers are the winners.  The reality is AI is changing the game for how people think about ERPs and ERP implementations, and I could not be more excited for the next few years to see how we, the customer, benefit from all this innovation in the space. 

Read the @Dualentry press release here → https://lnkd.in/eiucKv2w

Beard or no Beard

Comment below

I asked AI to show what I would look like without a beard it had been so long I had forgot.

Do you want Excel to Auto-complete your formulas for you?

Microsoft on the web is starting to roll out auto-complete formulas. 

Last week I started writing an Xlookup and it finished it for me. I had only done the lookup value and it guessed the rest right based on my workbook. It was a super simple workbook but I was still intrigued. 

Here are my thoughts. 

The Good

➡️ Makes it much easier for users to use new formulas and shorten the learning curve

➡️ Nice for a formula you might not use very often


The Bad

➡️ Not helpful for people writing complex formulas with several functions but you can turn it off

➡️ It could get the function wrong 

➡️ Worry it could harm learning for some and increase hidden errors if abused

So what do you think yeah or nay?

graphical user interface, application, table, Excel

"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲?"
 
When companies ask Khaled to implement AI solutions, his first question is simple: "What decision would you make differently?"
 
If the answer is "nothing," he walks away.
 
I've known this weeks guest on Future Finance for year Khaled Chowdhury, he is a finance and data analytics professional. Today, he runs Data Crafters, helping finance teams own their data and decision-making.
 
Here's what every FP&A professional needs to understand about the AI revolution happening right now:
 
→ 𝐖𝐡𝐲 95% 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥 (𝐌𝐈𝐓 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲): Companies try to skip straight to prediction without fixing their descriptive and diagnostic foundations. As Khaled put it brilliantly: "If your data model design is bad, Copilot doesn't look at the lipstick - it goes straight to the pig."
 
→ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐱 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧: 100 years ago, factories installed electricity but kept steam engine layouts, killing productivity. Today, companies install AI but keep old processes. You can't electrify a steam engine process and expect transformation.
 
→ 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲: Skip from SQL Server to Fabric? Absolutely. Skip from bad data to AI-driven predictions? That's how you "produce shit at an unimaginable pace" (Khaled's words, not mine ﻿﻿ ).
 
→ 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭: You can pilot Power BI Copilot for ~$300/month. Test it on YOUR models. If you have 20 measures called "sales" and 12 columns called "territory," you'll quickly see why it fails.
 
→ 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 ≠ 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲: The goal isn't making all decisions based on data (which is always backward-looking). The goal is making your gut instinct more informed.
 
Khaled's journey from finance director in 2016 (not even knowing what BI stood for) to data expert is one worth listening to. Listen to the full episode for Khaled's practical "tap and plumbing" framework that delivers value while building infrastructure.
 
Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gDgn4i98

 
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"Can AI build a deferred revenue schedule?" We asked Tracelight this question and several others as we tested the tool.
 
I uploaded 270 customer records with contract amounts, start dates, and end dates. Hit go. Four minutes later, I had a schedule with monthly revenue recognition formulas and validation checks.
 
The formulas were mathematically correct. The totals balanced. But something felt... off.
 
Instead of creating dynamic formulas it hard-coded dates into every single cell. The column headers showed one date while the formulas referenced "2026."
 
This was something Ian Schnoor, CFA, CFM, Giles Male happening a few different times while testing Tracelight for an entire episode of @Financial Modelers Corner.
 
Our feedback:
 
→ The tool nailed simple, well-defined tasks. Price-volume-mix variance analysis? Done perfectly in under a minute. Finding hidden Excel sheets? Flawless.
 
→ Model selection matters: Giles ran the same Excel challenge on Claude Opus (scored 929/1000) and Claude Sonnet (scored under 100). This creates a challenge as not only do we have to get the prompt right, we have to select the best model for the job. In most cases, it would be ideal if the model were selected for us.
 
→ AI is confidently wrong. When Ian's test model had a balance sheet error in the working capital calculation, AI spent minutes analyzing, then declared with exclamation marks that it found the issue... in the fixed assets. Wrong. It then "fixed" a correct formula by breaking it. When it was done the B/S was more out of balance then when we started "fixing" it.
 
→ Best practice - The tool struggled to follow some fundamental modeling principles - hard-coded numbers, misaligned columns, and non-dynamic formulas. Every answer required experienced review. We recognize that with time and better prompts, some of this can be overcome.
 
→ Complex tasks still need human architects. We asked it to build a five-year three-statement model. It created the structure in 6 minutes (impressive!) but the balance sheet didn't balance, the revolver logic was flawed, and it was not presentation-ready.
 
Reality is: I've been in FP&A for years, and I would use an AI agent like Tracelight to help with specific tasks. But only because I have the experience to spot when it's wrong, fix its mistakes, and redesign its outputs to meet best practices.
 
A junior analyst without those skills? They'd be in trouble.
 
As Ian put it during testing: "The best users are going to have to use AI as their partner - someone to bounce ideas around with, someone that can give you ideas, but you can push back and say, that's not right."
 
What's your experience been with AI modeling tools?
 
🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/dijks3zf
 
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🎓 ​ Earn your Advanced Financial Modeler accreditation from the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) at https://lnkd.in/gQV55MxS (Use code Podcast to save 15%)
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"𝘐 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘵?"
 
This week on FP&A Unlocked I sat down with Alex Fabry who shared his insights and learnings going from FP&A Analyst to PE operator.
 
Key Highlights:
 
→ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤:After years of preparing comprehensive decks in FP&A, Alex sat in PE boardrooms and realized 80 pages of a 100-page deck went largely unread. But here's the nuance—those pages still served as a "forcing function." If something was wrong, people noticed. The question we should be asking is: could we achieve the same outcome more efficiently?
 
→ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤: Alex's professor at Kellogg broke down all of corporate finance into three questions:
 
🔵 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧?
🔵 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭?
🔵 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤?
 
Simple, but powerful for guiding FP&A analysis.
 
→ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: By 2016, Alex had automated his entire monthly board deck to a one-click update. This wasn't about being lazy—it created capacity for strategic work that eventually opened doors to BCG and private equity.
 
→ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝: One SVP told his team: "What I want to know is
 
🔵 What happened
🔵 Why it happened
🔵 Will it happen again.
 
That's your whole job." 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳.
 
→ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬: Great FP&A looks different everywhere. Alex worked with a CFO who maintained his own complex model (the team focused on data quality), and a GM who barely looked at numbers (Alex had to be hyperproactive). There's no universal "best practice."
 
His parting advice: Find your edge. Identify where you can provide unique value to business partners. For Alex, it was modeling and automation. For you, it might be something completely different.
 
Full episode is live now—we dive deep into his transition from FP&A to private equity, lessons from managing multi-billion dollar business units, and what he learned watching companies navigate 7x+ leverage ratios 🎧
 
Listen here: https://lnkd.in/dR6_BrtW
 
FP&A Unlocked is sponsored by Campfire. Campfire is the AI-first ERP powering next-gen finance & accounting teams. General ledger, revenue automation, close management, and so much more—all on one unified platform. Learn more today at https://lnkd.in/dKxnyDNV

In this episode of FP&A Unlocked, host Paul Barnhurst is joined by Alex Fabry, the founder of KFA, an advisory firm focused on scaling businesses.. Al

Open article: From FPA Analyst to Private Equity Operator with Alex Fabry: The Day-2 Lunch That Changed 
 by Paul Barnhurst • 3 min read

From FPA Analyst to Private Equity Operator with Alex Fabry: The Day-2 Lunch That Changed

EBITDA is a false figure. It's a fantasy land, used by investment bankers to justify valuations.
 
This week Scott Strachan, CA dropped a lot of wisdom on how to build financial models from his 30-year career in accounting and finance. He also did not shy away from sharing his view on EBITDA and why he is not a fan of the metric.
 
 
Scott's 30 years in finance taught him lessons that every professional should hear:
 
 
 
→ Focus on Business Fundamentals - Models are only as good as the underlying business assumptions. Spend time understanding market dynamics, competitive positioning, and operational realities before building complex financial projections.
 
→ Master Model Checking -  The ability to quickly identify and fix errors in existing models is as valuable as building new ones.
 
→ "30% of New Businesses Fail - They fail because they run out of money, and they didn't model how much they'd need
 
→ Monthly Models- Building monthly models reveal stress points that annual models completely miss
 
→ Balance Sheet - Do not treat the balance sheet as optional - it's your error-checking mechanism
 
→ Separate Purpose-Built from Ongoing Models - One-time decision models (like investment cases) can be simpler, while models that will be updated regularly need more robust structure and documentation for long-term maintenance.
 
→ CFM - The Chartered Financial Modeler from FMI is a great test, but it is just a starting point to a career of learning - Listen to full episode for tips on passing the CFM from Scott
 
→ Business Plan first - Remember that the model serves the business plan, not the other way around.
 
Listen to our full conversation for Scott's take on why Excel won't die, his model checking secrets, and why he's "glad to be at the end of his career" as AI transforms our field.
 
https://lnkd.in/gHFXgKQP
 
 
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🎓 ​ Earn your Advanced Financial Modeler accreditation from the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) at https://lnkd.in/gQV55MxS (Use code Podcast to save 15%)
📰 Join The Modern Finance Playbook Newsletter and receive access to a free FP&A Business Partnering Digital Course Module - https://lnkd.in/g5H4YsvH
📺 Check out the podcast on our YouTube Channel at https://lnkd.in/gxZ45zXN

"𝐖𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐝 $60,000 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 $25,000 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞."
 
This was shared during our discussion on sales commission, which was one of the many topics covered in my interview with Matt Brattin.
 
Matt spent 20 years in the trenches of FP&A and analytics before becoming a CFO, and now he's building tools to solve the problems he lived through. That is why it was awesome to sit down and chat with him. Let me say he did not disappoint.
 
Key quotes:
 
💡𝐎𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐏&𝐀 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞: "A good team spends 20% of their time doing the normal work, letting the machine crank out the things that need to be cranked out, and then 80% of their time really laser focused on being a thought partner with the business."
 
Most teams have this backwards—and that's why they're stuck in spreadsheets instead of sitting at the table.
 
💡 𝐎𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: "Nobody gives a crap about your model. They want the story. Do I believe it? Do I believe you? What is the story telling us?"
 
As Matt puts it, your job is to sell—and the higher you go, the more important the narrative becomes. Technical excellence is just table stakes.
 
💡𝐎𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲: "Sometimes salespeople can take advantage of or exploit the plans, but this goes back to the psychology piece—what are the behaviors we're reinforcing? Of course they're going to do the thing you made them do. The only person to be mad at is the plan designer."
 
🔥 We love to blame salespeople for "gaming the system," but if our incentives create bad behavior, that's on us.
 
💡 𝐎𝐧 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞: "Whatever simple looks like in your head, cut it in half."
Whether it's commission plans, financial models, or reporting processes—start simple and let complexity find you. The business will complicate things naturally; if you start complex, you'll end up with an unmanageable monster.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM OUR CONVERSATION:
 
→ The average commission run takes 89 hours per month of employee time—simplifying this creates massive value
→ Simple commission plans lead to 3% better sales performance
→ When inheriting new responsibilities, use your "newbie window" to ask every question without judgment
→ Authentic leadership beats trying to be someone else—bring your whole self to work → Document everything, especially when no process documentation exists
 
🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gvSMYqRc
 
FP&A Unlocked is sponsored by Campfire. Campfire is the AI-first ERP powering next-gen finance & accounting teams. General ledger, revenue automation, close management, and so much more—all on one unified platform. Learn more https://lnkd.in/g6fGd5Dw


Join The Modern Finance Playbook Newsletter and get a free FP&A Business Partnering Digital Course Module https://lnkd.in/g5H4YsvH
Check out the podcast on our YouTube Channel https://lnkd.in/ejtkdsQd

In this episode of FP&A Unlocked, host Paul Barnhurst talks with Matt Brattin, a former CFO who’s now building solutions to cut down on the complexity

Open article: The Complexity Trap in Finance for FP&A Pros to Escape Using Simpler Tools & Strategy - Matt Brattin by Paul Barnhurst • 3 min read

The Complexity Trap in Finance for FP&A Pros to Escape Using Simpler Tools & Strategy - Matt Brattin

Training is changing

One thing that is becoming more and more clear to me is the need to update all of my trsining training courses to incorporate how to think about and use AI. 

I will be working over the next few months to update all my training where appropriate to incorporate AI. 

With that in mind I would love to know how would you like to see AI incorporated in the training you take?

Acreditations

During an M&A transaction many people working on the deal had an accreditation the lawyers, the accountants, etc. but the person building the model had nothing.

This is changing and it is one reason why I love the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) program and whar Ian Schnoor, CFA, CFM and team have done.  

Having a program to validate your modeling skills through a proctorted test where all you do is build a best-in-class integrated 3-statement model was long overdue.

It's benefit goes far beyond M&A modeling and is something that I regularly encourage FP&A people to do especially when working with smaller companies where you build all 3 statements in FP&A. 

If I see it on a resume it gives me greater confidence that the person can model than a training certificate because I know they passed a rigorous test doing the actual work. It is like when you see someone with a CPA vs an accounting course it is different. 

This is not to say training and certificates are not important they are and many great programs exist and I have several close friends in this space who train. 

This leads to my poll question so vote and comment on what you think about the value of a modeling accreditation.

Do you believe a financial modeling accreditation is necessary for finance professionals?

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

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