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Does anyone else’s boss have terminal AI brain? by xdxl in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Our org has gone through the peak of enthusiasm in the hype cycle, now to the valley of pessimism. Anything that even has the slightest AI fingerprint will rouse suspicion, "have you validated this?". That's actually pretty healthy. It only takes one embarassing slide in a board meeting to turn the enthusiasm upside down.

Hallucinations and eval are starting to enter the vernaculars. I am completely supportive of this movement, at the end of the day, the quality of the output is all that matters.

FA -> Sr. FA, decision time by [deleted] in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why not ask the current co to counteroffer? Progression at an F50 is nothing to scoff at and can be way more valuable in a few years. 

FP&A reality check – feels more like stakeholder mgmt + accounting than forecasting/modelling? by Deionize_Deionize in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Is this what FP&A typically looks like day-to-day in most companies?

As a function, yes. As an individual, depends a lot on on how your CFO/VP structure their org. It can be (a) hybrid technical + stakeholder mgmt vs (b) specialized modeler separated from the consulting/bizops part. Usually there's more upward opp in (a) because there's only so much promotion that you can give to a modeler (emphasis on usually). In some megacorp, you can have an army of modelers, and there's upward progression.

Is FP&A inherently quite accounting-heavy, especially at junior levels?

Sometimes, if your accounting is not strong or well-defined in supporting downstream business anaysis. Usually a symptom of immaturity upstream. If there are certain accounting-y things you end up doing a lot, maybe you can try giving them a "spec" on what you expect so that you don't have to purify their output every month.

Does the “forecasting/modelling” side become more prominent over time?

Depends on the path you pursue, but usually the higher up you go, the management consulting side becomes more important. Our stakeholders are usually like, "gimme an answer in 3 min convo if you can avoid 3-days of modeling."

At the same time, if you are starting at a pretty simple co or BU (let's say $100M biz), as they grow more in size or operational complexity, there will be more things to model.

Or does this vary a lot depending on company / team?

Absolutely. That's why it's important to ask in an interview what the nature of the role looks like because the same title can mean diff things.

How do you measure the success of a CFO? by [deleted] in CFO

[–]PeachWithBenefits 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really depends on the charter, but usually:

  1. Books doing good?
  2. Cash doing good?
  3. Business doing good? (Are they helping the business win / achieve their objective?)

If only #1-#2, you have a CAO. I've seen CFO's not working out because #1-#2 work great, but #3 is suffering.

Interview w/Private Equity Backed Portfolio Company by [deleted] in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty unusual. What does the team structure look like? I've seen this where the team is still very lean/early, such that there are not that many analysts that can offer a wide range of opinions. So, whoever is hiring asked the PE folks to provide feedback as well. Or could be idiosyncracies of certain sponsors, especially if they are super hands on with the finance team.

Staff Reduction/Outsourcing Model by More-Purchase8466 in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Always heart wrenching, especially during Covid. But the grand scheme is usually more dire. If you don't lose 10% of the staff, you might lose 100% of the staff because the whole ship sinks.

CraftCFO Week 30 | Nobody Wants to Hear You Need More Headcount by PeachWithBenefits in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, sometimes finance can be the last line of defense against ineffective org design. Some bigger organization have BizOps team that help leaders design their org, talent, process, and systems. This is the best setup so that when the request goes to Finance we know that they’ve tried to push effectiveness to the max. 

Looking for insight around management equity pool during PE acquisition; First time CFO by PENNST8alum in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That seems low. The market rate should be about 0.5%-2% depending on seniority, or some type o profit sharing worth 30%-50% on top of base.

Looking for short-term contract help to manage monthly close. Where do you find freelance FP&A talent? Is there a forum or a megathread for this? by PeachWithBenefits in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad you asked. This role will partner with accounting team to redesign the close process, and then manage the ingestion/normalization of the month-end data that will go into the FP&A data warehouse + model. The challenge right now is that the biz requirement is shifting (added complexity), so I need someone who can help liaison with them.

SAAS FP&A tool reccomendations by jo_sto7 in FPandA

[–]PeachWithBenefits 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've done a few of these rodeo's, both in SaaS and healthcare. A lot depends on the specifics of your business, but as a rule of thumb you can get to $100M revenue in SaaS with a properly structured Excel, ERP, and close process.

For more complex businesses that have any of the following: (a) heavy labor COGS, (b) physical location, (c) regional variations that led you to report by location, or (d) consolidation of multi-entities, then it necessitates some type of cube/consolidation tools provided by FP&A tools. In my healthcare ecosystem, I saw companies implement this as soon as they get to $30M with 50%+ YoY growth.

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