Rise Above The Numbers FP&HEY

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
Want to help your company move the financial performance needle?
Kick off a finance for non-finance education program.
It helped our business partners connect everyday activities to the financial scoreboard.
Helping us improve company performance using operational finance.
And grow our FP&A reputations. 👊
Tune in to learn how we did it.
Listen on
* Apple
* Spotify
* Substack
Show Notes
* 00:20 - Educate your ENTIRE company in the language of finance
* 01:19 - Help your company make more money = promotion opportunities 🫵
* 02:59 - Help everyone understand the financial scoreboard
* 05:05 - Use SMART goals to connect activities to financial metrics
* 06:01 - Educating the masses will boost your FP&A reputation 💹
* 06:27 - Help your leadership understand the value of finance
* 07:06 - Know your company goals—gives people autonomy
* 08:42 - Whitespace analysis is a great example of operational finance
* 09:45 - Educating your company drives a ton of learning opportunities
* 10:05 - In FP&A, it’s on you to educate the masses in operational finance
Present Financial Info with Confidence
Numbers aren’t that complicated.
So keep it simple.
Start with a high-level metric like revenue:
* Define it
* Tell them why it’s important
* Explain what drives it up and down
From there you connect department activities to the underlying drivers of the metric.
🔥TIP: Here’s more info on how to present financial info.
Whitespace is an Example of Operational Finance
How can you influence financial results in your FP&A job?
Ditch the slides and spreadsheets.
Operational finance is where you take the time to learn your business.
And THEN dive back into Excel to do actionable analysis.
Like white space, which helps your Sales Team drive higher revenue.
🔥TIP: Learn more about whitespace with this case study.
KPIs (and Metrics) Help People Drive Results
What do you do after you create a kick a$$ analysis that drives certain behaviors?
You measure results and report back what you find.
Determine what results matter most by labeling them as a KPI (key performance indicator) or metric.
🔥TIP: Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting KPIs (and metrics).
Conclusion: Build Your FP&A Reputation
Educate your business partners.
Help them drive results.
And measure performance along the way.
You’ll meet a lot of people (which grows your network).
And help your company drive financial performance (which grows your reputation within your company).
Resources
▪️ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpandhey
▪️ Email us your burning FP&A questions at info [at] fpandhey.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
The feelings you have in your FP&A career are shared by many.
How do we know?
We found +25k FP&A professionals asking and answering questions on the FPandA subreddit.
And today we answered 3 questions from this group.
An FP&A Career is a Long, Winding Road
There is no set path to go from ZERO to FP&A hero.
It requires:
* Being humble
* Constantly learning
* Understanding what you want
And knowing a little accounting and Excel doesn’t hurt either 😉
But when all is said and done.
You can do some interesting things in an FP&A career.
🔥TIP: Here’s why FP&A careers are worth a look.
Show Notes
* 00:21 - This is a mailbag episode w/ questions from the FPandA subreddit
* 01:19 - Why aren’t other departments amazing like FP&A❓
* 02:15 - Numbers don’t sell, market, or make products—they support the biz
* 03:10 - EVERYONE relies on FP&A—so help them, that will make you great
* 04:29 - You know you’re good in FP&A when others can speak to numbers
* 06:29 - How in the world do you get from FP&A Manager to Director❓
* 07:11 - Thinking separates Directors from Managers—help w/ strategy
* 09:21 - Managers manage teams, Directors manage multiple teams
* 10:40 - Hire good people and ensure they’re working towards common goals
* 12:54 - Have high agency—take control of your career
* 13:38 - Should you go back to a company you left for more money❓
* 14:13 - Write down why you leave jobs—reference those notes in the future
* 15:34 - Know why you left a job in the first place—did that change?
* 18:00 - Big finish—keep asking questions, people are willing to help
Why is FP&A Better Than Everyone?
It’s true, FP&A runs circles around people when it comes to numbers.
But guess who runs circles around FP&A in everything else?
EVERYONE.
FP&A people are notoriously bad at:
❌ Marketing
❌ Sales
❌ Product
❌ Operations
It doesn’t mean you can’t learn those functions in your FP&A job.
Challenge yourself to help those other functions speak your language.
Help them translate their daily activities into numbers (aka KPIs and metrics).
Which helps them support your company’s goals and ultimate success.
🔥TIP: Here’s how to help your team set KPIs (and metrics).
How to go from FP&A Manager to Director
Full disclaimer: FP&A job titles are VERY confusing.
We’ve seen CFOs operate like analysts.
And Analysts run places like CFOs.
In general, here’s what Directors do that Managers don’t:
✔️ Support strategy
✔️ Lead multiple teams
✔️ Set KPIs and the surrounding metrics to support them
Think LESS doing stuff in spreadsheets.
And MORE directing people to swim in the same direction.
🔥TIP: Here are all the FP&A job levels and how you can reach them.
Your Old Place Wants You Back
You knew your old place couldn’t live without you.
Let’s face it, having your old company asking (ok sometimes begging) you to come back makes you feel good.
But will returning to that job, even if it means more money, make you feel good for a long time?
Depends.
Know a way to help you make this decision?
Write down why you left the job when you left it.
Reference those notes when they come calling for you again.
How did the situation change?
Only you can decide 🫵
But knowledge is power, and writing stuff down helps memorialize worthwhile knowledge.
Conclusion: Others Have Been There
Ask questions to those that have more experience than you.
They’ve likely walked in your footsteps before.
You don’t need to copy what they did.
Just listen, learn what worked (and didn’t) for them, then decide for yourself.
One thing we do know for certain.
People with the knowledge to share usually like sharing it.
So don’t be afraid to ask 👊
Resources
▪️ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpandhey
▪️ Email us your burning FP&A questions at info [at] fpandhey.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
This episode features Annette DeYoung.
She aspired to be a teacher, fell in love with math, and took on a career in Accounting, Finance, FP&A—and eventually Sales? 🤔
She’s been a Cost Accountant, Controller, and Director of Financial Planning, and is currently a Senior Solutions Architect at Datarails.
On top of that, she’s involved in theatre, runs a non-profit called Children’s Theatre Project Youth Theatre Project, plays a bunch of instruments, and has 5 kids.
Want to get something done? Talk to Annette.
🔥TIP: Here’s a guide to all FP&A job levels from Analyst to CFO.
Takeaways from Annette’s Interview
* Seek to work for great leaders, figure out who those great leaders are by asking a bunch of questions when interviewing.
🔥TIP: Here’s a guide to crushing your next FP&A interview.
* Great leaders turn followers into leaders, read Turn the Ship Around, by L. David Marquet.
* If you work from home don’t just roll out of bed and start working, start your day preparing yourself (coffee and contemplation for 1 hour can help).
* Take chances in your career, you may miss out on amazing experiences by taking the safe route.
* When new formulas in Excel come out, learn how they work right away.
🔥TIP: Data tables aren’t new to Excel, but learn how to use them to stay ahead.
* Less is more when presenting, word walls will bore and confuse your audience.
* If you’re mad you’re had, speak to facts, not to your emotional opinion, to drive business change.
🔥TIP: Negative feedback isn’t fun to receive, here’s an approach that helped us.
Show Notes
* 01:30 - If you want something done, find the busiest person you know
* 02:20 - A career in Accounting and Finance has led to — Sales? 🤔
* 05:20 - Tell your audience what they need to know—in a way they understand
* 06:24 - I had ZERO idea I would be an accountant—aspired to be a teacher
* 07:05 - 3 vs 5 kids doesn’t matter—you’re outnumbered and play zone defense
* 08:25 - My love for Finance and Accounting started in Intro to Accounting class
* 10:00 - Understand your data—key to getting good at FP&A 🔑
* 11:05 - Saved a large navy ship manufacturing +$50m—kind of a big deal
* 15:55 - Find data, clean it, and use it to move people in the same direction
* 16:46 - If you’re not replaceable, you’re not promotable—KISS 👄
* 20:09 - Your job will get boring—unless you continuously improve
* 24:39 - Working with new people every day can be FUN
* 25:53 - Your time is precious—learn to say NO to save some
* 27:55 - Do you want it RIGHT NOW or do you want it RIGHT?
* 30:50 - Ask your future boss “Will you micro-manage me?”
* 33:10 - Lightning round full of FP&A wisdom—listen up⚡
* 41:40 - Look for Annette on LinkedIn, webinars, and Super Bowl Commercials 🏈
* 42:25 - We spend a lot of time working—do what you can to find a job you enjoy
Conclusion
Annette is a great example of someone who constantly learns.
It doesn’t matter if it’s time management, software tools, or leadership.
She’s obsessed with always improving, saving time, and focusing on things that matter the most.
It helps her enjoy her career.
You can find Annette on LinkedIn.
And in Super Bowl commercials.
THANK YOU Annette for sharing your career story with us.
Resources
▪️ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpandhey
▪️ Email us your burning FP&A questions at info [at] fpandhey.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
Want an FP&A job that goes beyond traditional month-end reporting?
Try working on your company’s Deal Desk Team.
Or stand one up if your company doesn’t have one yet.
Tune in and learn how we’ve stood up multiple Deal Desks.
And helped boost our company performance and career prospects in the process.
Show Notes
* 00:35 - We’ve stood up Deal Desks at multiple companies.
* 01:50 - Deal Desk is great for companies with daily deal-making.
* 03:15 - Deal Desk = Financial Rigor = Future Financial Transparency.
* 03:55 - Try negotiating with your cable company—practice makes perfect.
* 05:01 - Tracking daily deal-making is beneficial for your CRO and CFO.
* 05:55 - Be a connector between your CFO and CRO.
* 06:52 - Ask why A LOT—helps you understand your pricing strategy.
* 08:31 - Automation is powerful—saves time and drives faster deal-making.
* 09:51 - Understand your Marketing and Sales funnel—helps with analysis.
* 11:51 - Big finish—Deal Desk drives financial rigor for your CFO and CRO.
* 12:46 - After the pod—get your analytical reps by working on a Deal Desk
🔥TIP: Here’s a framework to get to FP&A Manager and beyond, Deal Desk can help.
Why Your CFO and CRO Care About Deal Desk
Guess what your CFO and CRO have in common?
It’s not just the first and last letter in their acronym.
They want your company to hit its revenue targets.
Which is a key KPI at many companies.
Help them achieve this common goal.
By inserting yourself in the middle of the deal-making process.
🔥TIP: Here’s how KPIs and metrics work.
FP&A and Deal Making Can Mix Well
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is counterintuitive and impossible.
At least that’s how it looks on paper.
Your Deal Desk has 3 goals:
* Instill financial rigor by analyzing deals
* Reduce selling friction by removing internal conversations
* Speed up deal-making by assessing list prices and approval thresholds
How can you do all 3 at the same time?
By building a kick a$$ Deal Desk Team.
🔥TIP: Make sure your Deal Desk Team understands pricing strategy.
How to Create a Best-in-class Deal Desk Team
Do these things to help your Deal Desk thrive.
Assess new deal revenue
Surprised by your month and quarter-end revenue?
You can help remove some of that surprise element.
By analyzing new deal revenue expectations.
And do so for every single deal daily so no surprises exist at the end of the quarter.
🔥TIP: Here’s how to do QTD sales analysis.
Understand new deal profitability
Saying NO to deals can be very easy.
But it’s time-consuming and creates back-and-forth friction between Sales and FP&A Teams.
What if you didn’t have to say NO as much?
Build in deal profitability analysis into your deal approval price thresholds.
It will inform Sales of the DO NOT CROSS selling price line.
And when they do cross that line, they’ll be ready to explain why.
🔥TIP: Customer segmentation can help assess profitability.
Global Teams = Follow the Sun Coverage
Sales Teams are constantly working to close deals 24/7 around the globe.
That means your Deal Desk Team needs a good deal approval coverage plan.
If possible have multiple Deal Desk Team members work in different time zones.
Having a person in Asia, Europe, and the Americas can help keep your team working 9-5 with fast response times.
Conclusion: Deal Desks Are Super Powerful
Creating and working in a Deal Desk may not be an FP&A career path you thought was possible.
But take it from us, many companies can benefit from it.
And many careers were accelerated because of the value it brings to Sales Teams, CROs, and CFOs.
Resources
▪️ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpandhey
▪️ Email us your burning FP&A questions at info [at] fpandhey.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com


This is a public episode. If you would lik

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
Want to see a real-life, public example of FP&A driving financial results?
We break down Mimecast’s public earnings release.
Drew helped create some of these metrics during Mimecast’s IPO process.
Case Study: Mimecast
Think about the software you use and pay for right now.
That software is provided by SaaS (software as a service) companies.
And you are contributing to those software companies’ metrics by using and paying for their services.
Mimecast is a SaaS company too, they provide cyber security solutions.
Let’s dive into Mimecast’s public earnings release, which is full of SaaS metrics you can apply to other SaaS companies.
🔥Follow along with us by pulling up Mimecasts external report here.
Show Notes
* 00:35 - Case study time—Mimecast.
* 01:30 - It’s all about KPIs and metrics.
* 01:59 - Constant currency strips out one-time items and fx.
* 02:41 - AOV (average order value) tells your upsell story.
* 03:45 - Average product counts indicate customers are willing to buy more stuff.
* 04:27 - White space can help operationalize upsell using product counts.
* 05:45 - Customer segmentation is a great way to analyze your customers.
* 06:34 - Creating metrics starts with a manual spreadsheet, then automation.
* 07:30 - Lemonade stands can teach us a lot in FP&A 🍋
* 09:30 - Net revenue retention rate (NRR) combines customer retention and upsell.
* 11:30 - Look at your own spending habits to assess your NRR with companies.
* 13:59 - Big finish—you can create KPIs and metrics in FP&A that drive results.
It’s All About KPIs (and Metrics)
Financial and non-financial data is best served when connected to your company’s goals.
How do you do this?
Creating KPIs (and metrics).
🔥TIP: Here’s your essential guide to creating KPIs and metrics.
In FP&A you can help your company create them.
Which influences what you report:
* Internally to guide your business partners to achieve their department goals
* Externally to tell your company’s performance story to investors
Find what other companies report on in your industry as a starting point.
Examples of SaaS KPIs (and Metrics)
Mimecast disclosed several financial and non-financial metrics to tell its external performance story.
Here are 3 that you can apply to companies you work for:
1. Constant Currency Revenue Growth Rate
Your company’s revenue performance has a bunch of drivers.
Stripping away one-time events and foreign exchange (aka fx) helps to clean up the story you tell.
You can do this in 3 steps:
* Step 1: restate your current period revenue results using your base period’s fx rates
* Step 2: remove any portion of revenue related to M&A activity that don’t exist in both the base and current period
* Step 3: remove any portion of revenue related to one-time events that don’t exist in the base and current period
NOTE: companies will have different approaches to constant currency reporting, the above is one example.
2. Average Product Counts
Your customers buy stuff that your company sells.
The more stuff your customers buy from your company is usually a sign they like buying from you.
It’s a matter of using product counts as your numerator.
And customer counts as your denominator.
🔥TIP: Here’s how to calculate product counts at your company.
3. Net Retention Rate (NRR)
SaaS companies are all about ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).
NRR can help you assess the health of your ARR.
That’s a lot of acronyms.
Do this by breaking apart your month-over-month results into:
* Churn - customers that leave you
* Downsell - customers that spend less with you
* Upsell - customers that spend more with you
* New - customers that are brand new buyers
🔥TIP: Here’s more info on how to calculate customer churn.
🔥TIP: Try segmenting your customers to learn more about them.
Conclusion: You Can Shape Your Company’s Story
In FP&A you can create KPIs (and metrics) at your company.
Don’t stop there.
Hel

"Rise Above The Numbers" by FP&HEY
Want to move up the FP&A ranks faster?
Deliver a little extra financial analysis.
It helped us meet more people, learn new things, and get promoted faster.
Tune in to hear what extra financial analysis we did.
And stay tuned after our off-the-charts closing music for an after-the-pod conversation about pivot tables and marketing yourself.
Show Notes
* 00:20 - Don’t knock doing a little extra—it can lead to a lot of upside
* 01:35 - Being genuinely curious leads to learning
* 01:55 - Analyzing failed payments w/ segmentation = cash flow opportunity
* 03:02 - Leadership wants analysis—then an action plan to improve results
* 03:30 - SURPRISE—quick wins can come from extra analysis
* 03:51 - Doing VMaP analysis can give revenue performance clarity
* 06:11 - Use analytical frameworks that work everywhere—rinse and repeat
* 06:46 - Continuous learning and networking—all from being curious
* 08:08 - Pivot tables and SQL—tools that help you do extra analysis
* 09:20 - Be a marketer—do good work for people, they will be your best promoter
Why Doing Extra Financial Analysis Helps Your Career
15 years ago we built a website for a friend’s business.
We had ZERO experience building websites.
Why did we do it?
We were curious how the process worked and we wanted to help our friend.
The results?
✔️A website was built that generated sales
✔️We acquired skills to build a website (which helped build FP&HEY) 🙏
✔️Our friend is forever our reference for future job opportunities
You don’t need to build a website to spring your FP&A career.
Instead do extra financial analysis.
You’ll acquire new skills, grow your network, and maybe help your company improve results.
You just have to be a little curious.
How Analyzing Failed Payments Helped Cashflow
Cash is kind of a big deal.
Yarty helped a small company generate more of it.
By analyzing failed payments and segmenting customers to understand the drivers.
And at the request of his executives, he collected the money by:
💪Creating an action plan to collect failed payments
💪Selecting a software vendor to help automate failed payment collection
💪Reporting progress
Sometimes FP&A jobs can take on operational tasks.
Which helps you learn a bunch of skills you didn’t think you’d learn.
How VMaP Drove Revenue Performance Clarity
Without revenue, your business doesn’t survive.
So when revenue starts dropping below expectations, you better figure out why.
Which Drew did—by accident.
He used volume, mix, and price analysis to assess shipping and product revenue performance.
🔥TIP: Here’s your essential guide to doing VMaP analysis.
Because he was curious—no one asked him to do it.
The result?
A way better understanding of revenue performance that executives took notice of.
Which resulted in a CFO-sponsored project to do more VMaP analysis.
And some awesome trips to Canada and Spain.
Use Simple Tools to Do Financial Analysis
You don’t need much to whip up a garage project-style financial analysis.
Start with a spreadsheet (Excel is amazing).
Ask your boss for data (SQL can help, so can ChatGPT).
And leverage pivot tables, data tables, and maybe some PowerQuery.
Not sure how to use these tools?
Read up to learn and watch your productivity skyrocket.
🔥TIP: Here’s how to speed up your learning using ChatGPT.
Conclusion: A Little Extra Can Go a Long Way In Your Career
You are capable of doing amazing things (not just FP&A).
And figuring out what you are capable of can happen as fast as you want it to.
By putting yourself out there.
Resources
▪️ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fpandhey
▪️ Email us your burning FP&A questions at info [at] fpandhey.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subs