#175 Scaling FP&A 2 Choosing the right FP&A tools with Paul Barnhurst and Catherine Marks

In the second of a 3 part series on scaling your FP&A capability, Paul Barnhurst, the FP&A Guy, and Catherine Marks, head of FP&A and team training at GrowCFO, join Kevin Appleby to discuss FP&A tools. They discuss scaling finance operations with a focus on infrastructure and choosing the right FP&A tools for growing organizations. Paul is a Finance Professional with 12+ years of finance and FP&A experience, including business unit CFO roles. He earned a business bachelor’s degree from BYU and an MBA and Master of Science in Information Management from Arizona State University. He is known for his deep understanding of the FP&A software planning space and has recently published an FP&A software market guide. Paul runs his own business providing training services, is a content creator, and hosts two popular finance podcasts FP&A Today and Financial Modeler’s Corner. He provides consulting services for small and mid-sized companies. Paul provided insights on getting infrastructure right and selecting the right planning tools, including Future-proofing FP&A systems with agility, flexibility, and consideration of future needs and strategies. The importance of data organization and having an end-user champion was emphasized. Thoroughly selecting the right business planning tool by considering factors like market size, industry, systems integration needs, and process complexity. Excel limitations and risks were discussed. Implementing performance management systems through a focus on pre-work like defining KPIs and metrics, and experimenting with machine learning/AI capabilities. Keeping processes efficient through a growth mindset, documentation, and continuous innovation as organizations scale. Successfully transferring planning processes to new tools by focusing on design improvements rather than just porting spreadsheets over. Practical advice is to start small, do homework on requirements and avoid being swayed by new tool features without clear needs. https://youtu.be/IFMQB81jk2A Links Catherine Marks on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn The FP&A Guy A guide to 3rd Generation FP&A tools Episode 174 Scaling FP&A 1 Building Your FP&A Team Episode 176 Scaling FP&A 3 Navigating an Acquisition with the Virgin Media O2 FP&A Team GrowCFO FP&A Competency Framework GrowCFO FP&A Bootcamp Timestamps Scaling finance and operations with a focus on infrastructure. (0:12) FP&A tools and strategies for growth-stage organizations. (1:21) Future-proofing FP&A systems with agility and flexibility. (6:30) Selecting the right business planning tool for growing companies. (7:43) Selecting and implementing a performance management system. (15:48) AI adoption, process efficiency, and growth mindset in business. (23:12) Implementing new financial planning tools and processes. (26:54) Financial planning and acquisition strategies. (33:40) Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast, you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google Podcasts, Spotify and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way, you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. Join GrowCFO as a free member today and participate in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members can also access our extensive training centre and CFO Digital Toolkit. You can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes here.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net