Datarails

FP&A and finance on TikTok? Surely not. But Datarails has been there for a while. So, it turns out, are a lot of CFOs and finance professions. And we have made it to the final 10 in the Greatest Performance category in the TikTok Ad Awards by TikTok for Business We are so proud of our team 🙌🏼🥂 Big event: November 11th (wish us luck)!!

I was told 3 months...

The Power of Strategic Business Planning as a strategic compass. Insights from Swissport CFO 📊 Bruno Oliveira, MBA FMVA® Strategic business planning directionally put us where we need to be in the budget processes. It involves our most important KPIs. Where should we go with the commercial growth? Where should we go with margin profitability improvement? This saves us a lot of time. And this approach prevents the common pitfall of zero-based budgeting. Zero basis budget is good in some aspects. But it’s bad in others ways as people have a lot of dreams. When we receive templates or information, we need to be the bad ones and, and cutting almost the, the most part of it. Instead, when you have a business plan "we already show people where we need to go because we decided together."

We're proud to spotlight Ting Song, CPA nomination for Controller of the Year in our 2024 Office of the CFO Awards. Ting serves as an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Chase. Her impact: 🔹 Modernized manual processes through strategic tech implementation 🔹 Drove significant cost reduction 🔹 Led platform growth and efficiency improvements Seth Bermel, VP Operations for Eagle Alternatives at J.P. Morgan Chase, says: "Ting consistently delivers outstanding results and skillfully handles complex challenges, always with a keen eye for detail in our financial reporting.  As a director at First Republic Investment Management and now an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan, her strong leadership fosters a culture of excellence." Ting's commitment extends beyond her role at J.P. Morgan - she actively shapes the future of accounting through her work with CalCPA's Commission of Belonging Committee, mentoring the next generation of finance leaders. Congratulations, Ting!

Mwahahaha

B2B Case Study meets Fright Night 🎃 "Don’t Stay Late" ↳ How Datarails transformed Alasko’s budget process: From Weeks to One day Starring Tereza S., Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Alasko ↳  This Halloween:🎃 🎃 Automation Is Your  Only  Salvation #FPAndScream 

1. Truly frightening finance memes 2. FP&A Today interview with King of Business Partnering Christian Frantz Hansen 3. Level up your FP&A Career - exciting webinar! Catch our weekly (super fast) digest

Defending a Financial Model That Isn't Yours! It happens regularly. We  often find ourselves in situations where we need to explain or defend financial models we didn't create. This sparked a lively discussion on FP&A Reddit! 1. Either ensure it’s accurate or rebuild it yourself. There is no cheat mode here. "Irrespective of authorship, your job is to own it end-to-end. It’s yours.” This comment emphasizes the importance of taking full responsibility for the models we work with. 2. "You own the output of your analysis/rec, not the inner workings of how you get there." - A reminder that our primary focus should be on the results and their implications. 3. "Build a new one" Many professionals advocated rebuilding the model to gain a deep understanding of its mechanics. “That was the exact position I found myself in when I joined my current company. I rolled up my sleeves and crawled through the model piece by piece until I understood enough such that I could intelligently advocate for getting rid of it. I identified 2-3 places where I knew the model was providing bad data, and a couple more when it just wasn't working optimally, and wrote a budget for what it would cost to replace. Pitched it to the CFO, got him to agree. "It was a hard sell, but I basically told him I couldn't do my job with the current model, and he had to choose between it or me.” 4. "Before re-creating a model, I first try to work backwards from the final output." - A practical approach to understanding complex models without immediately starting from scratch. 5. "You test the model, figure out the assumptions, and rebuild it if needed." - Highlighting the importance of validation and improvement. The key takeaway? Ownership and understanding are crucial. Whether you inherit a model or build one from scratch, your role is to ensure its accuracy, efficiency, and relevance to the business. This may involve rebuilding, refining, or simply gaining a deep understanding of the existing model. As one commenter wisely put it: "If you're not making models from scratch, you're not truly modeling." However, remember that improving upon existing work is also a valuable skill: "One of the things that separate those who rise to the top vs. everyone else is the ability to take what someone else has done and improve it, not ditch it and start again." It’s called Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. What’s your approach to inheriting a model? #FPandA #FinancialModeling #ProfessionalDevelopment #DataAnalysis

1. Top Senior Data Scientist on AI and Future proofing FP&A 2. Profiles of game-changers in finance 3. Meme of the Week Catch our weekly (super fast) digest

It's all yours... Collaboration with Vikash Paul