"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 subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fpandhey.substack.com