Building a business strategy that works is one thing, but building a financial modelling strategy to help businesses make better decisions is an entirely different (but related challenge). It is way more than building a bunch of Excel spreadsheets. At times it is also about dealing with larger data, and people's willingness to learn and adapt. In this article co-authored by Mark Vigors we explore how to build a financial modelling strategy with practical steps that you can take.

In the latest article, co-authored by Craig Hatmaker and me, we delve into the game-changing potential of LAMBDA in Excel modeling. With LAMBDA, Dynamic Arrays (DA) become more accessible, transforming financial modeling with increased efficiency and scalability. Join me in exploring this paradigm shift in Excel, where we empower users to build faster, less error-prone, and more scalable models. Let's embark on this journey together and embrace the evolution of financial modeling with LAMBDA.

I’ve never been more excited to start a new year than this year coming in 2024 and there are several reasons for that, which we are going to cover in this article. But rather than just rely on my thoughts, I thought I’d call upon my helpful co-pilot Bing Chat to assist and challenge me and visa versa on the topic.   For transparency, I have put in italics and have referenced Bing sources. Enjoy, strap in and enjoy the 2024 ride!

AI is now everywhere you turn!

The hype cycle on AI is insane, but this knowledge series will help you stay connected and on top of what this means in accounting and finance today.

In the series, we will aim to provide you, as an accounting and finance professional, with the right balance of insight to focus on the things that matter the most. Don’t panic, learn and improve.

#finance #accounting #ai #data #dataliteracy

Timing is everything and the launch of Microsoft Co-pilot, Season 5 Finale of the Financial Modelling Podcast and the release of this article could not have come at a better time...one could argue this it fate! 😁

Of all the articles in the financial modelling series, the topic of financial modelling standards seems to be the most controversial! 😱

So I opted for an AI co-author (ChatGPT) instead, who wasn’t afraid of getting grilled. 🤖

What is important is adopting something vs nothing. ☝

The latter is still largely the current state of model building in accounting and finance teams. 😥

Most people building models simply don’t follow any consistent best practices and propagate lots of errors! 😜

As a result, #Excel is to blame (not people avoiding best practices)! 😲

Here is a reality check!

Companies sell you software to take you out of #Excel to do what many of the standards advocate! 🤣

Follow some basic principles (like no hardcoding please!) and you will go very far and probably save millions of dollars on software that is rigid! Included in the article are a self-assessment and a few questions you can benchmark yourself against. 👊

Financial modelling still is one of the most highly sought-after skills in todays digital age with a complex business landscape.

Free links and lots more information in this article. 🤑

When you think of financial modelling generally your mind probably doesn’t go anywhere close to social issues like homelessness, chronic illness, crime, and recidivism. 🙈 🙉 🙊

You tend to think that modelling skills are generally only about corporate profits, project feasibilities, performance and cash flow. 🤑

As a result, you would be missing the wonderful opportunity that social impact investing and outcome-based programs can deliver. 😍

Thanks again to my co-authors Russ Wood and Alexander Artajaya, AFM for bringing their knowledge and experience to our latest article. 🙏

Financial models truly can change people’s lives. 🙌

#investing #socialimpact #people #financialmodelling #Excel

Thanks again to Khaled Chowdhury (my co-author) for the massive effort to get this latest article out in the series! 🙏
He also made some awesome gifs and videos to explain it, even more, simpler than I could. 🙌

We are certainly getting them out quickly! 😅

Tools are valueless without people who can leverage them.  😨

If you have yet to encounter Power BI, you should, as it has become a necessary tool and skill set for finance professionals. 😁

Don't get left behind and if you read this article we will make sure you don't! 👍

We have shared many links to other experts and ideas that will get you started and beyond! 🚀

Both Khaled and I will be speaking at the upcoming Global Power BI Summit, so be sure to register if you haven't yet in the link below. 👇

Out with the old, In with the new! ♻

It's finally out! 😁

Thanks, Benjamin Stoter, CA(SA) for collaborating on this latest article on automation in financial modelling. 🙏

This couldn't have come at a better time with all the hype around Chat GPT, AI and other similar related topics.

Some interesting things to consider in this article and also to look out for. 👀 "Bottom line, the person next to you who learns how to embrace and apply these tools is more of a threat to your job than the bot inside the machine.”

The Knowledge App has also been updated with this latest article. This year we aim to complete the remaining articles in the series. Link in the comments below 👇

The more I see polls on people’s views of what accounting and finance professionals need to focus on the more concerned I get. The gap between companies desperately wanting to hire talented accounting and finance professionals and those looking for a job grows ever wider. 

People learning to code yet not focusing on understanding the fundamental basics of accounting and business is a big concern. People build complex data models and advanced calculations but are not able to clearly communicate and visualize the outputs.

I wonder how long it’s going to take to correct this trend and hopefully, this article is a start.

Some CFOs see the opportunity to build a robust, rolling and integrated 3-way model with planning, budgeting, forecasting and variance to actuals as an exciting challenge.

Other CFOs find it frightening and avoid learning new ways to financial modelling.

Which one are you?

With so much change in finance and accounting, it's no wonder many feel anxious and have career uncertainty at the moment.

The next generation has already decided that accounting and finance are being disrupted so badly by automation they don’t even want a career as an accountant anymore at universities. Public practice firms are really struggling to find staff.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” but what exactly does that mean, how much of this is subjective, and how does it relate to data visualization?

As you’re reading this article, think about examples of great dashboards, just okay dashboards, and really terrible dashboards. What’s the difference between these, what makes one great and another terrible? Additionally, how does that impact the story the dashboard is trying to tell?

Have you noticed the rise in the so-called low-code or no-code tools lately?

This sudden focus has become a big topic across a range of different business and technology contexts.

This article will dig into all you need to know about these tools.

Our follow-up article on the Finance Tech Stack part 2 is now out.🙌

Too often I have asked a few of these questions to teams that have already implemented the latest finance tech solutions sold to them and already there are signs of problems a few of these key principles were not considered. 😱

Before you and your team consider any finance technology solution, I highly recommend taking a quick read of this.🧐

You will save yourself a lot of pain (and money) down the track.🤑

Stay safe everyone!😷

It feels like a very long time 😓 since I wrote my last article.

This one has been in the making for some time and the timing could not be better.👍 This will help finance professionals navigate the often complex sea of solutions and technologies to enable better business decision making and insight.🧐 I hope you are all safe and learning new skills. 🤲

Look out for part 2 where I will share my 9 principles of assessing technology for finance teams focused on driving business performance.👊 Enjoy!

#finance #business #learning #innovation #FinancialModelling #Analytics #Excel #PowerBI

Background

This often comes up in debates and discussions around the world for budgeting, planning and forecasting activities.

Preceded by Excel is dead or something crazy like that!

The finance teams forecasting is often undervalued as a result.

Typically in finance we have a particular type of cadence.

This cadence is largely consistent across different organisations no matter what the industry you support. We are likely to have some or all of these:

1. Monthly reporting,

2. Quarterly reporting and forecasting,

3. Half year reporting (if listed),

4. Annual statutory reporting and tax filing (we all have this one),

5. Annual budget process and

6. Longer range strategic planning for 3 to 5 years.

Now that's a pretty full dance card if you ask me.

So how do we keep up with all those requirements whilst making sure that we are not just hitting the deadlines but actually accelerating the value that we add to the business.

Read our latest blog for more insight without the big price tag attached.

Forecasting does not guarantee you will be great at financial modelling. 😱

Just because you can drive a car doesn't mean you can be a Formula 1 race car driver. 🚗

Playing T20 cricket doesn't guarantee you will be a great test cricketer. 😁

The same goes for forecasting and financial modelling. 📊 📈 📉

#FinancialModelling #Finance #FutureofFinance

Is all this tech talk and Finance Transformation getting a bit much? 😵

Where do you start and stop? 🚦

There is so much on offer from RPA to Analytics to Modelling. 📈

Read my co-authored 🙌 article with Anders to learn more and demystify all the jargon and pick some practical solutions you can try. 👍

#finance #futureoffinance #analytics #Excel #cloud #digitization #FinancialModelling

Over the past year I've met many finance professionals as part of our FOFM world tour and future of finance workshops.

Despite all the hype of digital finance transformation and the rise of analytics and advanced AI and ML there is one thing that still concerns me deeply about our ability to adopt change, innovation and better Excel skills.

I'm not even referring to adopting new tools and technologies (many of which will radically change our work today and are here now) but changing how we use our existing tools.