Nicolas Boucher

Top 22 Excel Formulas

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10x your productivity with these 22 Excel must-known formulas:

1. SUM
Adds all numbers in a range

=SUM(A1:A9)
Add values from cell A1 to A9

2. AVERAGE
Calculates the average of numbers in a range

=AVERAGE(B1:B9)
Average of B1 to B9

3. ROUND
Rounds a number to a specified number of digits

=ROUND(C1;2)
Round C1 to 2 decimal places

4. MIN
Identifies the lowest number in a range

=MIN(D1:D9)
Find the minimum in D1 to D9

5. MAX
Finds the highest number in a range

=MAX(D1:D9)
Get the maximum value in D1 to D9

6. COUNT
Counts the number of cells that contain numbers

=COUNT(F1:F9)
Count numeric cells in F1 to F9
*It only counts the numerical inputs

7. INDEX
Returns a value in table based on row & column number

=INDEX(K1:L10,2,3)
For the value in the 2nd row & 3rd column from the range K1:K10

8. MATCH
Searches for a value and returns its relative position

=MATCH(L1,M1:M9,0)
To find L1's position from the range M1:M9

9. VLOOKUP
Searches for a value in the first column of a range

=VLOOKUP (G1,H1:H10,2,FALSE)
To find G1 in H1:H10

10. HLOOKUP
Searches for a value in the top row of a table

*Number of rows that contains the data you want to retrieve

=HLOOKUP(I1,J1:S2,2,FALSE)
To find I1 in the top row J1:S2

11. XLOOKUP
Finds a value in one range & returns a result from another

=XLOOKUP(A7,A2:A4,B2:C4)
To find A7 in A2:A4 & return the corresponding value from B2:C4 if a match is found

12. COUNTIF/COUNTIFS
Counts cells that meet a condition

=COUNTIF (N1:N9;“>5“)
To count cells greater than 5

13. COUNTA
Counts non-empty cells

=COUNTA(O1:O9)
To count all non-empty cells in a range

14. SUMIF / SUMIFS
Counts non-empty cells

=SUMIF(P1:P9,“>5“)
Add cells that meet a condition

15. IF / NESTED IFS
Performs conditional tests

=IF(R1>5;“Yes“;“No“)

16. AVERAGEIF / AVERAGEIFS
Calculates the average for cells that meet criteria
=AVERAGEIF(Q1:Q9;“>5“)
Average of values over 5

17. Logical Operators (AND, OR)
Combines multiple conditions
=AND(S1>5;S2<2)
Both conditions are true => Output is true

=OR(S1>5;S2<2)
Just 1 condition is true => Output is true

18. CONCATENATE
Joins two or more text strings

=CONCATENATE(T1,“ “,T2)
Combine first name and last name in one cell

19. LEFT/RIGHT
Extracts characters from the start/end of a text string
=LEFT(U1;5)
Excel

=RIGHT(U1;5)
Class

20. MID
Extracts characters from the middle of a text string
=MID(V1;7;7)
7 characters starting from the 7th => Mastery

21. TEXT
Converts a value to text in a specific number format
=TEXT(V1;”MMM-YY“)
7/02/2024 => Feb-24

22. IFERRROR
Returns a custom result if a formula errors out

=IFERROR(W1,“0“)
Give 0 as output, instead of “# div“ error

100 Excel Tips

The best Shortcuts, Formulas, Formatting & Advanced Tips

Bookmark this, you'll save 1,000 of hours!

If you think you know well Excel, I bet you will still learn something new in the Advanced table (items 76 to 100).

👉 Follow, Like and Comment to get the High Resolution PDF
Then download it here: https://lnkd.in/ewSkr3xN

What do we cover?

A list of tips that all professionals need.

Here is a preview:

⌨️ Shortcuts

1. How to hide a column?
Ctrl + 0

2. How to hide a row?
Ctrl + 9

3. How to autosum adjacent cells?
Alt + =

4. How to start a new line in cell?
Alt + Enter

5. How to insert a new worksheet?
Shift + F11

(get the answers 6-25 in the Cheat Sheet below)


🔢 Formulas

26. How to sum a range of cells?
=SUM(range)

27. How to find an average of numbers?
=AVERAGE(range)

28. How to find the maximum value in a range?
=MAX(range)

29. How to find the minimum value in a range?
=MIN(range)

30. How to link cells from different sheets?
='SheetName'!CellReference

(get the answers 31-50 in the Cheat Sheet below)


📊 Formatting

51. How to change cell color?
Home > Fill Color

52. How to apply bold text?
Home > Bold or Ctrl+B

53. How to insert a border around cells?
Home > Borders > All Borders

54. How to format a number as currency?
Home > Number Format > Currency

55. How to align text to the center of a cell?
Home > Alignment > Center

(get the answers 56-75 in the Cheat Sheet below)


⚡️ Advanced

76. How to remove duplicate rows?
Data > Remove Duplicates

77. How to create a data validation list?
Data > Data Validation > List

78. How to find outliers in a list?
Calculate the Z score of each cell =Z.TEST(array, x, [sigma])

79. How to look up data using INDEX and MATCH?
=INDEX(return_range, MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_range, 0))

80. How to create a named range?
Formulas > Name Manager > New Name

(get the answers 81-100 in the Cheat Sheet below)


👉 What else would you add?
👉 Did you learn something?

P.S.: like and comment to help spread this cheat sheet.
And follow me to get my next Cheat Sheets.

CAPEX VS OPEX


Do you have a hard time defining what is Capex or Opex?

This mini guide is for you (also do share it around, it will probably help somebody else).


🏭 CAPEX

Capex stands for capital expenditure and refers to costs associated with acquiring, maintaining or improving fixed assets such as property, plant and equipment.

These expenses can be depreciated over time.

➕Pros:
Capex investments provide long-term benefits in terms of increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.

They also help build a company’s asset base which can provide additional income in the future.

➖Cons:
Capex investments involve substantial upfront costs which can strain an organization’s finances if not managed properly.

In addition, there is no guarantee that the investment will yield the desired results in terms of increased profits or competitive advantage.

Examples of Capex:

Capex includes purchasing a new factory building, renovating an existing one or buying machinery.


🔩OPEX

Opex stands for operational expenditure and refers to the day-to-day costs of running a business such as salaries, taxes, rent, utilities etc.

These are often referred to as 'current' expenses since they are incurred on an ongoing basis.

➕Pros:
Opex costs can be managed more easily than capex investments since they do not involve large upfront costs and there is no need for long-term commitments.

They also provide the flexibility to adjust spending levels in response to changing market conditions or customer needs.

➖Cons:
Opex costs tend to increase over time due to inflation and other factors which can strain an organization’s finances if not managed properly.

In addition, opex expenditures may lack the long-term benefits that come with capex investments in terms of increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.

Examples of Opex:

Opex includes paying salaries, rent and utilities bills, purchasing office supplies and equipment, advertising and marketing expenses, IT costs, legal fees etc.


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EBITDA explained to Kids

Explanations for kids... and adults!

💰 What is EBITDA?

EBITDA stands for:
Earnings
Before
Interest
Taxes
Depreciation
Amortization

It's a financial metric that shows how much money a company makes before taking into account certain expenses.


❗️ Why is EBITDA important for Businesses?

EBITDA is important because it gives businesses an idea of how much money they're generating from their operations.

This is useful for investors and lenders who want to know how profitable a company is.

It’s like a scorecard to know how much money a company is making.


💸 How is EBITDA calculated?

To calculate EBITDA, you need to start with a company's revenue and subtract its cost of goods sold.

Then, you subtract its operating expenses (like salaries and rent).

This gives you the company's EBITDA.


👧🏼 Example:

Let's say you and your friends sell lemonade from a stand.

You make $20 selling lemonade, but you spent $5 on lemons, sugar, and cups.

You also spent $5 on flyers to advertise your lemonade stand.

To calculate your EBITDA, you would start with the $20 you made selling lemonade, and subtract the $5 you spent on lemons, sugar, and cups.

This leaves you with $15. Then, you would subtract the $5 you spent on advertising.

This leaves you with an EBITDA of $10.


🔼 EBITDA vs Net Income

Imagine that on top of your expenses of your lemonade stand you have to pay taxes (for example to be allowed to sell on the street).

Imagine as well that you need to put money aside to invest in a new machine or a new stand because your machine is getting old.
This is called depreciation.

In EBITDA, you don’t take consideration these expenses.

But the net income is what remains as profit after all these expenses are taken in account.


👉 Do you have other examples?

Share this example around with kids… and adults!

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Accounting Explained To Kids

A free ebook for kids... and adults

Easy to read with great illustrations and examples that kids can understand

1. What is Accounting
When a company makes money, it has to keep track of where that money came from and where it goes.
This is called Accounting.

2. Accrual Accounting
A method of accounting that records transactions when they happen, not when the money is received or paid.

3. Cash Basis Accounting
A method of accounting that records transactions when the money is received or paid, not when they happen.

4. Income
Money you earn from doing work or selling something.

5. Expenses
Money you spend on things you need to run your business.

6. Profit
The money you have left over after you subtract your expenses from your income.

7. Loss
When your expenses are more than your income.

8. Assets
Things you own that have value.

9. Liabilities
Money you owe to others.

10. Equity
The difference between your assets and liabilities.

11. Revenue
The total amount of money coming into your business.

12. Accounts payable
Money you owe to others for goods or services you've received but haven't paid for yet.

13. Accounts receivable
Money others owe you for goods or services you've provided but haven't been paid for yet.

14. Debits and Credits
These marks are called debits and credits, and they help the company make sure it has the right amount of money and things.

15. Income Statement
A financial statement that shows your revenue, expenses, and net income over a period of time.

16. Statement of Cash Flows
A financial statement that shows your revenue, expenses, and net income over a period of time.

17. General Ledger
When the company buys or sells something, or pays or gets paid, it has to make two marks in its special book called the general ledger.

18. Balance Sheet
It shows how much a company has, how much it owes and how much is left for the owner of the company.

19. Charts of Accounts
The company also has a list of all the things it can put in its special book, and each thing has its own special number.
This is called the chart of accounts.

20. Cost Of Goods Sold
The cost of the materials used to make what you're selling.

21. Operating Expenses
The costs of running your business, not including cost of goods sold.

22. Gross Profit
The amount of money you have left over after subtracting cost of goods sold from revenue.

23. Net Income
The amount of money you have left over after subtracting operating expenses from gross profit.

24. Depreciation
The decrease in value of an asset over time.

25. Tax:
Tax is money you pay to help the government do things like build roads, schools, and keep people safe.

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100 Finance Answers

Learn Accounting / Excel / KPIs / Cash

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What do we cover?

A list of answers that all Finance Professionals need.

If you want more explanations, feel free to ask in the comment section.

Here is a preview:

💹 Accounting
1. How is the accrual principle applied?
→ Records revenues & expenses when earned/incurred

2. How does the consistency principle work?
→ Use same methods every accounting period

3. How is the matching principle used?
→ Match expenses with revenues of same period

4. How does the cost principle function?
→ Record assets at cost paid, not current value

5. How is the monetary unit assumption applied?
→ Record only quantifiable transactions

(get the answers 6-25 in the Cheat Sheet below)


📊 Excel

26. How to calculate NPV in Excel?
→ Use =NPV(rate, value1, [value2], ...)

27. How to compute IRR in Excel?
→ Use =IRR(values, [guess])

28. How to find present value in Excel?
→ Use =PV(rate, nper, pmt, [fv], [type])

29. How to calculate a bond's yield in Excel?
→ Use =YIELD(settlement, maturity, rate, pr, redemption, frequency)

30. How to use PMT function in Excel?
→ Use =PMT(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type]) for loan payments

(get the answers 31-50 in the Cheat Sheet below)


🔑 KPIs

51. How to measure profitability?
→ Use net profit margin: Net Profit / Revenue

52. ​How to gauge liquidity?
→ Calculate current ratio: Current Assets / Current Liabilities​

53. How to assess debt burden?
→ Compute debt-to-equity ratio: Total Debt / Total Equity​

54. How to track asset efficiency?
→ Calculate asset turnover: Sales / Total Assets​

55. How to evaluate investment returns?
→ Use return on investment (ROI)

Formulas 51-54 corrected (and updated correctly in PDF)

(get the answers 56-75 in the Cheat Sheet below)


💵 Cash

76. How to forecast cash flow?
→ Use historical data and project future receipts/payments

77. How to improve cash position?
→ Speed up receivables, slow down payables

78. How to calculate cash conversion cycle?
→ DSO + DIO - DPO

79. How to manage short-term cash surplus?
→ Invest in short-term liquid securities

80. How to measure liquidity?
→ Use quick ratio: Liquid Assets​ / Current Liabilities (corrected and is updated in PDF)

(get the answers 81-100 in the Cheat Sheet below)


👉 What else would you add?
👉 Let me know if you want more explanations.

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FP&A vs CONTROLLER

Ever wonder what are the differences between the two jobs?

Here is an infographic I made to explain you the different roles.

📊 FP&A:

Focused on analysing and forecasting.

The role is more focused on the future of the financials.

Here are the main activities of an FP&A analyst:
-Budgeting & Forecasting
-Financial analysis
-Scenario modeling
-Management reporting
-Insights from financial and non financial data
-Business partnering
-Finance Storytelling


🧮 CONTROLLER

In English speaking countries, a Controller is in charge of Accounting and Financial Reporting.

It’s like a senior manager accountant.

The role is more focused on the past and current financials.

Here are the main activities of a Controller:
-Transactional finance
-Oversees accounting
-Standard financial reporting
-Cost controlling
-Internal controls
-Processes and tools.


🇪🇺 DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS IN EUROPE
In continental Europe, the definition is different.

Controlling (Analysis, Budgeting) is differentiated from Finance (Accounting).

Hence, you might find controlling roles in Germany or France which are actually the same roles than a FP&A role in USA.


👉 What are other differences between the two roles?

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• 10 Headcount KPIs
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• 10 Balance Sheet KPIs
• 10 Tax KPIs
• 10 Inventory KPIs

👉 What are the most valuable KPIs in this list?
👉 Which one do you think are not useful?

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If you think you know well Excel, I bet you will still learn something new in the Advanced table (items 51 to 75).

What do we cover?

A list of essential Excel shortcuts for professionals.

Here is a preview:

🟠 Basic

1. How to copy text?
Ctrl + C

2. How to cut text?
Ctrl + X

3. How to paste?
Ctrl + V

4. How to undo?
Ctrl + Z

5. How to redo?
Shift + F11

(get the answers 6-25 in the Cheat Sheet below)

⚪ Intermediate

26. How to autosum?
Alt + =

27. How to fill down?
Ctrl + D

28. How to fill right?
Ctrl + R

29. How to do flash fill?
Ctrl + E

30. How to insert hyperlink?
Ctrl + K

(get the answers 31-50 in the Cheat Sheet below)

⚫ Advanced

51. How to show / hide ribbon?
Ctrl + F1

52. How to create custom view?
Alt + W + C

53. How to paste special (values only)?
Ctrl + Alt + V > V

54. How to change font format?
Ctrl + Shift + F

55. How to goal seek?
Alt + A + W + G

(get the answers 56-75 in the Cheat Sheet below)

🔵 Underrated

76. How to move to the next open workbook window?
Ctrl + F6

77. How to move to the previous open workbook window?
Ctrl + Shift + F6

78. How to insert current date and time?
Ctrl + Shift + :

79. How to paste values & formatting only?
Ctrl + Alt + V > T

80. How to apply or remove cell wrap?
Alt + H + W

(get the answers 81-100 in the Cheat Sheet below)

Top 10 CASH KPIs


1/ Cash Burn Rate

Description: Net Cash spent by a company in a specific time frame (usually monthly or normalized to a year)

Formula: Cash Spent (monthly average) - Cash Received (monthly average)


2/ Average Days Delinquent (ADD)

Description: Measures effectiveness of collection efforts. Often used at client level to compare with the others

Formula: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) - Best Possible Days Sales Outstanding (BPDSO)


3/ Operating Cash Flow (OCF)

Description: Money generated by daily operations

Formula: Net Income + Non-Cash Expenses – Increase in Working Capital


4/ Free Cash Flow (FCF)

Description: Expands on the OCF concept by also excluding interest payments and including asset purchases

Formula: OCF - Interest Payments + Asset Purchase


5/ Overdues Ratio

Description: Measures your effectiveness of collecting cash and the quality of your receivables

Formula: Overdues / Total Receivables


6/ Days of Inventory Outstanding (DIO)

Description: Average number of days that a company holds inventory for before turning it into sales

Formula: Average Inventory / Yearly Cost Of Goods Solds (COGS) x 365 days


7/ Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

Description: Average number of days that it takes a company to collect payment for a sale

Formula: Average Account Receivables / Annual Sales x 365 days


8/ Days Payables Outstanding (DPO)

Description: Average number of days that it takes a company to pay its suppliers

Formula: Average Account Payables / Yearly Cost Of Goods Solds (COGS) x 365 days


9/ Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)

Description: Days to convert inventory into cash flows from sales

Formula: DIO+DSO−DPO


10/ Cash Reserves in Days

Description: Measures of how long your organisation could survive if cash dried up tomorrow.

Formula:
Cash Reserves / Average Daily Expenses


👉 Which other KPIs should be considered?

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Start learning ChatGPT today and use it for your finance job.
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(link on my LinkedIn profile)

🚀 Wanna move to FP&A?
Steal everything I learned to become a high performing finance professional.
(link on my LinkedIn profile)

📚 Get my guide “50 interviews questions and answers for Finance jobs“ (link on my LinkedIn profile)

Top 10 Finance Certifications

Young finance professionals always ask me about certifications.

- - - - -
📝 Get my free career accelerator program here: https://lnkd.in/ekJzCMGW
- - - - -

Here are the 10 most important certifications.

1/ CPA

Full description: Certified Public Accountant

Issued by: Local Boards of Accountancy

Skills demonstrated: expertise in accounting, tax preparation, and financial planning

2/ CMA

Full description: Certified Management Accountant

Issued by: Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)

Skills demonstrated: management accounting, planning, analysis, control, and decision support

3/ CFA

Full description: Chartered Financial Analyst

Issued by: Chartered Financial Analyst Institute

Skills demonstrated: investment analysis, valuation and portfolio management

4/ FMVA

Full description: Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst

Issued by: Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)

Skills demonstrated: financial modeling, valuation, and analysis

5/ FRM

Full description: Financial Risk Manager

Issued by: Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

Skills demonstrated: proficiency in identifying, assessing, and managing financial risk

6/ FPAC

Full description: Certified Corporate FP&A Professional

Issued by: Association for Financial Professionals (AFP)

Skills demonstrated: financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and decision support

7/ CA

Full description: Chartered Accountant

Issued by: Local Institutes of Chartered Accountants

Skills demonstrated: financial accounting, taxation, and auditing

8/ ACCA

Full description: Chartered Certified Accountant

Issued by: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Skills demonstrated: financial management, taxation, and audit

9/ CIA

Full description: Certified Internal Auditor

Issued by: Insitute of Internal Auditors (IIA)

Skills demonstrated: internal auditing, risk management, and control

10/ CTP

Full description: Certified Treasury Professional

Issued by: Association for Finance Professionals (AFP)

Skills demonstrated: managing corporate treasury operations, cash and risk management

👉 Did I miss any certification?
👉 Which one do you think is the most important

Share this list around. I hope it will help other finance pros!

💬 Personal note:

I am not a big believer in judging somebody based on their certification.
I am also not affiliated to any of the association listed here.

I would rather recommend my course because it's more practical, cheaper and you complete it faster than these certifications.

Saying that, being for example a CPA or a CFA is still valued by a lot of organisations and professionals.

Also my course only covers what you need if you want to start in FP&A.
It does not cover treasury, valuation, internal audit or accounting.

Top 21 Excel Formulas
👉 Download the High Resolution PDF: https://lnkd.in/euz2N8jE

10x your productivity with these 21 Excel must known formulas:

1. SUM
Adds all numbers in a range

Example: =SUM(A1:A9)
Add values from cell A1 to A9

2. AVERAGE
Calculates the average of numbers in a range

Example : =AVERAGE(B1:B9)
Average of B1 to B9

3. ROUND
Rounds a number to a specified number of digits

Example: =ROUND(C1;2)
Round C1 to 2 decimal place s

4. MIN
Identifies the lowest number in a range

Example: =MIN(D1:D9)
Find the minimum in D1 to D9

5. MAX
Finds the highest number in a range

Example: =MAX(D1:D9)
Get the maximum value in D1 to D9

6. COUNT
Counts the number of cells that contain numbers

Example: =COUNT(F1:F9)
Count numeric cells in F1 to F9
*It only counts the numerical inputs

7. INDEX
Returns a value in table based on row & column number

Example: =INDEX(K1:L10,2,3)
For the value in the 2nd row & 3rd column from the range K1:K10

8. MATCH
Searches for a value and returns its relative position

Example: =MATCH(L1,M1:M9,0)
To find L1's position from the range M1:M9

9. VLOOKUP
Searches for a value in the first column of a range

Example: =VLOOKUP (G1,H1:H10,2,FALSE)
To find G1 in H1:H10

10. HLOOKUP
Searches for a value in the top row of a table

*Number of rows that contains the data you want to retrieve

Example: =HLOOKUP(I1,J1:S2,2,FALSE)
To find I1 in the top row J1:S2

11. COUNTIF/COUNTIFS
Counts cells that meet a condition

Example: =COUNTIF (N1:N9;“>5“)
To count cells greater than 5

12. COUNTA
Counts non-empty cells

Example: =COUNTA(O1:O9)
To count all non-empty cells in a range

13. SUMIF / SUMIFS
Counts non-empty cells

Example: =SUMIF(P1:P9,“>5“)
Add cells that meet a condition

14. IF / NESTED IFS
Performs conditional tests

Example: =IF(R1>5;“Yes“;“No“)
For simple conditions

Note:

IF: 1 variable
IFS: multiple variables

=IF(test, true, false)

=IF(test1, true, IF(test2, true, false)) Nested IF

=IFS(test1, true, test2, true, test3, true)

15. AVERAGEIF / AVERAGEIFS
Calculates the average for cells that meet criteria

=AVERAGEIF(Q1:Q9;“>5“)
Average of values over 5

16. Logical Operators (AND, OR)
Combines multiple conditions

Examples:

=AND(S1>5;S2<2)
Both conditions are true => Output is true

=OR(S1>5;S2<2)
Just 1 condition is true => Output is true

17. CONCATENATE
Joins two or more text strings

Example: =CONCATENATE(T1,“ “,T2)
Combine first name and last name in one cell

18. LEFT/RIGTH
Extracts characters from the start/end of a text string

Examples:

=LEFT(U1;5)
Excel

=RIGHT(U1;5)
Class

19. MID
Extracts characters from the middle of a text string

Example: =MID(V1;7;7)
7 characters starting from the 7th => Mastery

20. TEXT
Converts a value to text in a specific number format

Ex: =TEXT(V1;”MMM-YY“)
7/02/2024 => Feb-24

21. IFERRROR
Returns a custom result if a formula errors out

Ex: =IFERROR(W1,“0“)
Give 0 as output, instead of “# div“ error


👉 How many did you know?

Finance Cheat Sheet

A full Finance Book in one page

🙏 Help me spread this free Cheat Sheet: like, share and comment!

Here is what is inside:

• 90 KPIs
-Accounting KPIs
-Cash KPIs
-Balance Sheet KPIs
-SaaS KPIs
-Capex KPIs
-CEO KPIs
-Headcount KPIs
-Manufacturing KPIs
-Inventory KPIs

• Finance Organisation Chart

• FP&A Methods & Skills

• Financial terms explained to non finance people

• How to reduce costs

• Cash conversion cycle

• Budget process

• PVM Analysis

• Valuation techniques


My goal with this cheat sheet is to spread the finance knowledge.

Now i have a favor to ask you.

Help me spread this Cheat Sheet.

How ?

By liking or commenting you will help other people see this post.

Spreading this message means that more people can learn and use this Cheat Sheet.

Tell me what is your favorite part!

The 10 best Headcount KPIs you need to learn:

1/ Headcount

Description: Number of active people working for a company at a certain time

Formula: Number of active employees full time & part time + leasing employees


2/ Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

Description: 1 FTE equivalent of a standard working hours contract. Example: a part time at 50% = 0,5 FTE

Formula: Number of hours in the employee contract / Standard working hours


3/ Turnover rate
(also called attrition or churn)

Description: Calculates the % of people leaving the company compared to the total number of employees

Formula: Number of departure over a period / Average total headcount


4/ Natural attrition

Description: Number of employees planned to leave the company based on the actual contractual situation

Formula: Planned retirement + Planned end of limited contract


5/ Capacity

Description: Calcualtes the number of hours available from direct workforce

Formula: Number of FTEs over a period x working hours available for one FTE


6/ Capacity increase flexibility

Description: Calculates how much capacity can be increase without having to recruit new employees

Formula: Flexible time account not used + Overtime + Temporary change of hours available in part-time contracts


7/ Capacity decrease flexibility

Description: Calculates how much capacity can be decrease without having to discontinue employment contracts

Formula: Flexible time account + Temporary change of hours available in part-time contracts + Temporary workers time


8/ Noria effect

Description: Effect of changes in compensation due to hiring and departures

Formula: (New hires salary costs - Leavers salary costs) / Previous salary costs


9/ Absenteeism

Description: Calculates the % of time not worked due to illness

Formula: Illness days / Total working days


10/ Time to fill

Description: Measures how long it takes to fill in an open position

Formula: Average number of days between job opening and contract signed by candidate


👉 Which other KPIs should be considered?

🙏🏻 Follow me if you don’t want to miss my next posts on finance topics.

Steal my Audit Checklist

I have prepared an Excel Checklist to help you in your audit preparation

Use this checklist to get ready for your next audit

If you are a CFO, a controller, an accountant or a Finance manager, this list is for you.

Download it for free here: https://lnkd.in/eZ3MRVGZ

What is inside the Excel file.
19 tabs comprising of the following checklists:
1. Overview Checklist (in the picture below)
2. Financial Statements Preparation
3. Account Reconciliation and Analysis
4. Documentation and Record Keeping
5. Internal Controls and Compliance
6. Risk Management
7. Tax Review and Planning
8. Inventory Management
9. Fixed Assets and Capital Expenditures
10. Investments and Other Financial Assets
11. Employee Benefits and Pensions
12. ESG Compliance
13. Technology and Data
14. Review of New Accounting Policies
15. Related Party Transactions
16. Subsequent Events and Contingencies
17. Sustainability and Continuity Planning
18. Communication with Auditors
19. Final Review and Reporting

👉 If you need any other template, let me know in the comments

How to create your Powerpoint with AI? (Free Course)
👉 Free tutorial here: https://lnkd.in/eqkjnTiT

I am giving away my tutorial on how to leverage AI to make your slides

I have one ask if you want to thank me for putting this work for free:
👉 Like, follow & comment with the name of your country!

You will save hours of work by using my method
And the best?
You don't have to install any new tool!

This tutorial is for you if:
• You want to save time creating your presentations
• You want to master creating presentations with AI
• You want to learn how to use ChatGPT with PowerPoint

In my free course of 30 minutes you will be able to learn:
1) How to use ChatGPT for creating the content of your presentations
2) How to combine ChatGPT and PowerPoint to create the slides
3) How to make your slides look super professional in just 2 minutes using the Designer and SmartArt function the right way
4) How to use the best Financial Storytelling techniques in your presentation
5) How to adapt your content to your audience

I have one ask if you want to thank me for putting this work for free:
👉 Like, follow & comment with the name of your country!

Top 100 Finance Tips

Learn Accounting / Excel / KPIs / Cash

Bookmark this, you'll save 1,000 of hours!

👉 Follow, Like and Comment to get the High Resolution PDF
Then download it here: https://lnkd.in/eAVzrrxb

What do we cover?

A list of tips that all Finance Pros need.

I am curious to know which one is your favoritee

Here is a preview:

💹 Accounting
1. How is the accrual principle applied?
→ Records revenues & expenses when earned/incurred

2. How does the consistency principle work?
→ Use same methods every accounting period

3. How is the matching principle used?
→ Match expenses with revenues of same period

4. How does the cost principle function?
→ Record assets at cost paid, not current value

5. How is the monetary unit assumption applied?
→ Record only quantifiable transactions

(get the answers 6-25 in the Cheat Sheet below)


📊 Excel

26. How to calculate NPV in Excel?
→ Use =NPV(rate, value1, [value2], ...)

27. How to compute IRR in Excel?
→ Use =IRR(values, [guess])

28. How to find present value in Excel?
→ Use =PV(rate, nper, pmt, [fv], [type])

29. How to calculate a bond's yield in Excel?
→ Use =YIELD(settlement, maturity, rate, pr, redemption, frequency)

30. How to use PMT function in Excel?
→ Use =PMT(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type]) for loan payments

(get the answers 31-50 in the Cheat Sheet below)


🔑 KPIs

51. How to measure profitability?
→ Use net profit margin: Net Profit / Revenue

52. ​How to gauge liquidity?
→ Calculate current ratio: Current Assets / Current Liabilities​

53. How to assess debt burden?
→ Compute debt-to-equity ratio: Total Debt / Total Equity​

54. How to track asset efficiency?
→ Calculate asset turnover: Sales / Total Assets​

55. How to evaluate investment returns?
→ Use return on investment (ROI)

Formulas 51-54 corrected (and updated correctly in PDF)

(get the answers 56-75 in the Cheat Sheet below)


💵 Cash

76. How to forecast cash flow?
→ Use historical data and project future receipts/payments

77. How to improve cash position?
→ Speed up receivables, slow down payables

78. How to calculate cash conversion cycle?
→ DSO + DIO - DPO

79. How to manage short-term cash surplus?
→ Invest in short-term liquid securities

80. How to measure liquidity?
→ Use quick ratio: Liquid Assets​ / Current Liabilities (corrected and is updated in PDF)

(get the answers 81-100 in the Cheat Sheet below)


👉 What else would you add?
👉 Let me know if you want more explanations.

10 Manufacturing KPIs you need to learn:

1/ Production activity (or volume)

Description: Calculates the value of the production output in monetary value

Formula: Sum of monetary value of all finished goods produced within a defined period


2/ Cycle Time

Description: Average amount of time to make one product, including process, inspection, move and queue time

Formula: Process time + Inspection time + Move time + Queue time


3/ Takt time

Description: Rate at which you need to complete a product to meet customer demand

Formula: Production available time / Customer demand


4/ Inventory Turnover

Description: Amount of time that passes from the day an item is purchased by a company until it is sold

Formula: Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory (over period of time)


5/ Return on Assets (ROA)

Description: Measures how effectively a company is using its resources (machine and inventory) to make a profit

Formula: Net Income / Average Total Assets


6/ First Pass Yield

Description: Measure of quality and performance and is at the heart of production efficiency and profitability

Formula: Number of good products finished / Number of production orders started


7/ Yield Factor

Description: Calculates the number of items to start to have a good finished product

Formula: Number of productioin orders started / Number of good products finished


8/ Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Description: Compares the performance of a machine to its relative capacity

Formula: Good Count × Ideal Cycle Time / Planned Production Time


9/ On-time delivery

Description: Measures if an organization is meeting its goals in regards to promised delivery times

Formula: On time units / Total units


10/ Avoided costs

Description: How much money you saved by using preventive maintenance

Formula: Assumed Repair Cost + Production Losses – Preventative Maintenance Cost


👉 Which other KPIs should be considered?

🙏🏻 Follow me if you don’t want to miss my next posts on finance topics.

Learn these 13 accounting principles


If you work in Finance, you MUST know these principles.

Why are they important?
-They drive the IFRS, US GAAP and any other local GAAP
-If a transaction does not comply with one of these rules, it's probably a mistake that needs to be corrected
-Your control environment must be set up to respect these principles
-You need to be able to explain them to the non finance people

With the time and experience, these principles became like intuitions.
Every time somebody proposes something not complying with these rules, I know there is a red flag.

Here are the 13 principles:
-Accrual principle
-Conservatism principle
-Consistency principle
-Cost principle
-Economic entity principle
-Full disclosure principle
-Going concern principle
-Matching principle
-Materiality principle
-Monetary unit principle
-Reliability principle
-Revenue recognition principle
-Time period principle

It's a lot!

Don't worry, I can never remember all of them by heart as well.

This is why I have compiled these principles in one document.

Enjoy and take advantage of my work to save you some time.

Some suggestions on how to use this document to make yourself more valuable:
1/ Download the document from here on LinkedIn
2/ Share it with your finance colleagues as a reminder
3/ Share it with your non finance colleagues and propose to explain them what it means for them
4/ Check that you have controls ensuring the correct application of each of the principles
5/ If you are in FP&A, discuss these principles with your accounting department to understand how they are applied

👉 Which principle is the most important?


-----------------------------------------

🤖 Don’t let robots take over your job.
Instead, leverage AI to boost your career and become irreplaceable.
How? Start learning ChatGPT for Finance & Accounting in just 2 hours.
https://lnkd.in/edZNmmMs

✉️ Get my free Finance Cheat Sheet
https://lnkd.in/e9eMfVF3

Know these 100 Answers and you will be on top of your peers!

👉 FREE High resolution PDF: https://lnkd.in/eynP8stt

Bookmark this, you'll save 1,000 of hours!

What do we cover?

A list of answers that all Finance Professionals need.

If you want more explanations, feel free to ask in the comment section.

Here is a preview:

💹 Accounting
1. How is the accrual principle applied?
→ Records revenues & expenses when earned/incurred

2. How does the consistency principle work?
→ Use same methods every accounting period

3. How is the matching principle used?
→ Match expenses with revenues of same period

4. How does the cost principle function?
→ Record assets at cost paid, not current value

5. How is the monetary unit assumption applied?
→ Record only quantifiable transactions

(Get the answers 6-25 in the cheatsheet below)


📊 Excel

26. How to calculate NPV in Excel?
→ Use =NPV(rate, value1, [value2], ...)

27. How to compute IRR in Excel?
→ Use =IRR(values, [guess])

28. How to find present value in Excel?
→ Use =PV(rate, nper, pmt, [fv], [type])

29. How to calculate a bond's yield in Excel?
→ Use =YIELD(settlement, maturity, rate, pr, redemption, frequency)

30. How to use PMT function in Excel?
→ Use =PMT(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type]) for loan payments

(Get the answers 31-50 in the cheatsheet below)


🔑 KPIs

51. How to measure profitability?
→ Use net profit margin: Net Profit / Revenue

52. ​How to gauge liquidity?
→ Calculate current ratio: Current Assets / Current Liabilities​

53. How to assess debt burden?
→ Compute debt-to-equity ratio: Total Debt / Total Equity​

54. How to track asset efficiency?
→ Calculate asset turnover: Sales / Total Assets​

55. How to evaluate investment returns?
→ Use return on investment (ROI)

Formulas 51-54 corrected (and updated correctly in PDF)

(Get the answers 56-75 in the cheatsheet below)


💵 Cash

76. How to forecast cash flow?
→ Use historical data and project future receipts/payments

77. How to improve cash position?
→ Speed up receivables, slow down payables

78. How to calculate cash conversion cycle?
→ DSO + DIO - DPO

79. How to manage short-term cash surplus?
→ Invest in short-term liquid securities

80. How to measure liquidity?
→ Use quick ratio: Liquid Assets​ / Current Liabilities (corrected and is updated in PDF)

(Get the answers 81-100 in the cheatsheet below)


👉 Let me know if you want more explanations.

👉 Follow, Like and Comment to get the High Resolution PDF
Then download it here: https://lnkd.in/eynP8stt

You want to know how to use VLOOKUP in Excel ?

I have you covered!

Andrew Moss made a great tutorial article which explains step by step how to use VLOOKUP.

With Andrew, we decided that this article could be useful to be shared with the finance community and this is why I am sharing it with you right now.

Here is what is included in the article:
· The Basics
∘ Standard VLOOKUP
∘ Only the First Match Is Returned
∘ Column Positions Matter
∘ Right to Left Lookup (1)
∘ Right to Left Lookup (2)
· Approximate Match
· Errors
· Wildcards
· Case Sensitivity
∘ Case-Insensitive Lookup
∘ Case-Sensitive Lookup

I highly recommend to follow Andrew as he has many other great posts and articles on Excel!

👉 Follow me if you want to get more practical advices on finance topics.

📚 For finance professionals wanting to transition into a new role, I have a course to help you grow your skills in analysis, budgeting, reporting, business partnering and storytelling (see link in comments for more information).

#finance #excel #accountingandaccountants #cfo
#nicolasboucher

Your first 100 days roadmap


Starting a new job in Finance?

Here is your roadmap for your first 100 days.

I have spend more than 14 years working in Finance.
I have coached and trained more than 400 finance professionals.

Based on my experience this what I would recommend:

Day 1 - 10:

1. Familiarize yourself with the company culture, policies, and procedures.

2. Meet with your supervisor and colleagues to establish a good working relationship with them.

3. Learn about the company's financial systems and processes.

4. Read up on the industry and the company's financial performance.

5. Start building your network within the company and in the industry.

6. Set your goals and learning program with your boss.

7. Find a “godfather”: a peer who can help you and show you how things work.


Day 11-30:

1. Start participating in financial meetings and contribute where possible.

2. Take notes during these meetings and review them regularly to understand the company's financial goals and objectives.

3. Work on small tasks assigned by your boss and seek feedback on your performance.

3. Start thinking about how you can add value to the company and identify areas where improvements can be made, including potential automation opportunities.

4. Start documenting the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the financial processes you are working with.


Day 31-60:

1. Start taking on more responsibilities and working on projects that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the company's financial operations.

2. Collaborate with your colleagues on financial initiatives and seek their advice and guidance.

3. Offer solutions to problems and be proactive in finding ways to improve processes, including through automation.

4. Attend welcome training sessions.

5. Continue documenting the SOPs for the financial processes you are working with.

6. Start building your personal brand within the company.


Day 61-100:

1. Begin presenting your ideas and solutions to senior management, including proposals for process improvements through automation.

2. Continuously seek feedback on your performance and take the necessary steps to improve.

3. Take on more responsibilities in a specific area of the team’s tasks.

4. Learn about the company's budgeting process and start getting involved in it.

5. Develop a sound understanding of the tools in place and the different stakeholders in charge of specific subjects.

6. Start developing your long-term career plan and set goals for yourself.


👉Did I miss anything?

-----------------------------------------

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https://lnkd.in/dMJTKcMW

🤖 Don’t let robots take over your job.
Instead, leverage AI to boost your career and become irreplaceable.
How? Start learning ChatGPT for Finance now.
https://lnkd.in/e8RGdYsK

✉️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter.
Get free finance insights directly in your inbox.
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Save this post to learn all AI & Data terms

Everything you need to know in one page!

🙏 Is this post helpful and you learned something?
Show your appreciation by liking, commenting or reposting!

1. GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer)
• Definition: General-purpose language models
• Finance Use: Automated Content Generation, Customer Support Chatbots

2. NLP (Natural Language Processing)
• Definition: Enables computers to understand human language
• Finance Use: Chatbots, Fraud Detection

3. API (Application Programming Interface)
• Definition: Rules enabling software interaction
• Finance Use: Data exchange, Real-time market data, Payment Processing

4. RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
• Definition: AI automating rule-based tasks
• Finance Use: Data Entry, Invoice Processing, Account Reconciliation

5. OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
• Definition: Extracts text from images or scanned docs
• Finance Use: Automated document processing, expense management

6. ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition)
• Definition: Converts spoken language to text
• Finance Use: Transcription, Customer Service Call Analysis

7. CL (Clustering)
• Definition: Groups similar data points
• Finance Use: Market Segmentation, Fraud Detection

8. TTS (Text-to-Speech)
• Definition: Converts written text to spoken word
• Finance Use: Audio Financial Reports, Customer Notifications

9. LLM (Large Language Model)
• Definition: AI trained on vast text data
• Finance Use: Sentiment Analysis, Document Summarization

10. DL (Deep Learning)
• Definition: Specialized ML using deep neural networks
• Finance Use: Analyze market data, predict patterns

11. ML (Machine Learning)
• Definition: Enables learning from data
• Finance Use: Credit Scoring, Algorithm Trading

12. RNN (Recurrent Neural Network)
• Definition: Processes sequential data
• Finance Use: Time-Series Analysis, Stock Price Prediction

13. SVM (Support Vector Machines)
• Definition: Used for classification & regression analysis
• Finance Use: Credit Risk Assessment, Portfolio Optimization

14. KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors)
• Definition: Classifies data based on neighbors
• Finance Use: Customer Segmentation, Anomaly Detection

15. TKN (Tokenization)
• Definition: Replaces data with unique symbols
• Finance Use: Information Extraction, Sentiment Analysis

16. PCA (Principal Component Analysis)
• Definition: Reduces data dimensionality
• Finance Use: Risk Management, Feature Extraction

18. GAN (Generative Adversarial Network)
• Definition: Neural networks creating realistic data
• Finance Use: Synthetic Data Generation, Anomaly Detection

19. Naive Bayes
• Definition: Classification with predictor independence
• Finance Use: Risk Management, Customer Segmentation

20. KM (K-Means)
• Definition: Organizes data into k-clusters
• Finance Use: Market Segmentation, Fraud Detection

50 Finance KPIs

The most extensive list of Finance KPIs.

Download link (before leave a like 😉)
https://lnkd.in/eMp335QN

What is inside?

➡ 10 Accounting KPIs
Accounts Receivable Turnover
Accounts Payable Turnover
Working Capital Ratio
Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Gross Profit Margin
Net Profit Margin
Return on Assets (ROA)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Inventory Turnover
Fixed Asset Turnover

➡ 10 Cash KPIs
Cash Burn Rate
Average Days Delinquent (ADD)
Operating Cash Flow (OCF)
Free Cash Flow (FCF)
Overdues Ratio
Days of Inventory Outstanding (DIO)
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Days Payables Outstanding (DPO)
Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)
Cash Reserves in Days

➡ 10 SaaS KPIs
Customer Churn Rate
New Buyer Growth Rate
Lifetime Value
Customer Acquisition Costs
Net Burn rate
Runway
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
SaaS Quick Ratio
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
Total Addressable Market (TAM)

➡ 10 Inventory KPIs
Average Inventory
Days on Hand
Stock to Sales Ratio
Cost of Carry
Backorder Rate
Sell-through Rate
Scrap rate
Time to receive
Inventory shrinkage
Dead Stock

➡ 10 Investors KPIs
Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Earnings per Share (EPS)
Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
Dividend Yield
Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Current Ratio
Quick Ratio
Gross Margin Ratio
Net Promoter Score (NPS)

***

This document serves as a catalog of KPIs from which you can pick.

My recommendation: study these KPIs and select two or three which are relevant to your business.

👉 Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite KPI?

🙏 Please help this post getting spread around.
Every like or comment you give is a way to help other people seeing this KPIs catalog.

Excel vs PowerBI

FREE Top 100 Excel tips here: https://lnkd.in/eBeQYN-3

Which one should you use?

🟢 Excel

Pros:
-Familiar interface — most people know Excel, so you can start fast and get results quickly
-Supports functions & formulas for financial analysis
-Can create charts, graphs, & pivot tables for data visualization
-Can handle moderate-sized data sets
-Can be used by individuals but also corporations

Cons:
-Limited capacity for interactive dashboards & real-time data analysis
-Requires manual updating of data main drawback for me in my opinion, unless you use PowerQuery to connect data
-Errors can occur if data or formulas aren’t correct
-Hard to maintain a single source of truth principle
-Limited capability for complex data modeling & analysis

5 use cases where Excel is better to use than PowerBI:
1. Quick calculations are needed e.g. adding up numbers
2. Small data sets are analyzed e.g. monthly reports
3. Ad-hoc analyses are required e.g. investigating discrepancies
4. Simple data visualization is required e.g. bar charts
5. For solo/small team use e.g. budget for a team of 3 people


🟡 Power BI

Pros:
-Advanced data modeling & transformation capabilities for large & complex data sets
-Interactive dashboards & real-time data analysis features
-Can connect to various data sources, including cloud-based services & internet data for me it's one of the main advantage for online business
-Can handle large & diverse data sets
-Offers natural language querying & predictive analytics features

Cons:
-Requires advanced training to use effectively
-Can be costly for smaller businesses if you need to pay for hosting data in the cloud & have people specialized in PowerBI
-Limited capability for financial analysis & calculation functions main drawback in my opinion as calculating measure requires using coding in DAX
-Requires a stable & reliable internet connection: Power BI is a cloud-based software, so a stable internet connection is required. This can be a challenge for users who may have limited or unreliable internet connectivity, especially in remote or rural areas

5 use cases where you should use PowerBI instead of Excel:
1. Large/complex data sets are analyzed e.g. market research data
2. Real-time data analysis is required e.g. stock market data
3. Collaborative data analysis is required e.g. team budgeting
4. Advanced data visualizations are required e.g. heat maps
5. Predictive analytics is required e.g. forecasting financial outcomes

👉 Which one do you think is the best?

Learn these 13 accounting principles.

If you work in Finance, you MUST know these principles.

Why are they important?
-They drive the IFRS, US GAAP and any other local GAAP
-If a transaction does not comply with one of these rules, it's probably a mistake that needs to be corrected
-Your control environment must be set up to respect these principles
-You need to be able to explain them to the non finance people

With the time and experience, these principles became like intuitions.
Every time somebody proposes something not complying with these rules, I know there is a red flag.

Here are the 13 principles:
-Accrual principle
-Conservatism principle
-Consistency principle
-Cost principle
-Economic entity principle
-Full disclosure principle
-Going concern principle
-Matching principle
-Materiality principle
-Monetary unit principle
-Reliability principle
-Revenue recognition principle
-Time period principle

It's a lot!

Don't worry, I can never remember all of them by heart as well.

This is why I have compiled these principles in one document.

Enjoy and take advantage of my work to save you some time.

Some suggestions on how to use this document to make yourself more valuable:
1/ Download the document from here on LinkedIn
2/ Share it with your finance colleagues as a reminder
3/ Share it with your non finance colleagues and propose to explain them what it means for them
4/ Check that you have controls ensuring the correct application of each of the principles
5/ If you are in FP&A, discuss these principles with your accounting department to understand how they are applied

👉 Which principle is the most important?

-----------------------------------------

📚 Do you want to increase your chance of succeeding your next interview?
Get my guide “50 interviews questions and answers for Finance jobs“ (link on my LinkedIn profile)

🚀 Wanna move to FP&A? Get my course (link on my LinkedIn profile / PPP Discount available now)

✉️ Subscribe to my newsletter (link on my LinkedIn profile) if you want to receive more long form articles about finance practical tips

10 skills to speed up your career

A guide for finance professionals.

Everyday Finance people ask me:

“How can I accelerate my career in Finance?“
“What should I do to be promoted?“
“Which skills should I learn to get a job in Finance?“

In this post I am answering these questions.

My 14+ year experience helped me identify what you need to learn to be more valuable and have a better career in finance.

In the swipe document, you will find the 10 most important skills (in my opinion).

For each of them I explain why you should learn it but most importantly, what to learn.

Here are the main 10 skills you need to learn to accelerate your career in Finance:

Technical Skills
1/ Financial Analysis
2/ Budgeting & Forecasting
3/ Cost Accounting
4/ Accounting Principles

Soft Skills
5/ Finance Business Partnering
6/ Storytelling
7/ Business Acumen

Tools
8/ Power BI
9/ Power Query
10/ Quickbooks


How can you learn them ?

I am giving you my 10-step plan I use to learn a new skill.

First, pick up one of the skills listed.

Then for the next 2 weeks, do this:

1/ Each day, pick one topic from the “What to learn“ page

2/ Google it

3/ Look for articles and blog posts on this topic

4/ Look for the expert on the topic and follow them on LinkedIn

5/ Find a YouTube video or podcast on this topic (the best is to find one with an expert you identified

6/ Document everything you learn and the links of the articles, podcasts and YouTube videos you found in a document

7/ Explain what you have learned to a colleague or a friend. Teaching to somebody else is the best way to learn

8/ Share your document with your best links with somebody else or even here on LinkedIn!

9/ Apply what you learned in your work environment

10/ From trying to apply what you learned, you will identify some holes in your knowledge.
Repeat step 2 to 9 to solve these weaknesses

Do that every month and in 3 months you will have more impact at work.

And if you have more impact, it will help your career goals!


👉 Which skill would you add?

---------------------------------------

📚 Get my guide “50 interviews questions and answers for Finance jobs“ (Link on my profile)

🚀 Wanna move to FP&A? Get my course (special offer for this weekend with the code LINKEDIN30 : you get 30% off plus a free coaching session)

✉️ Subscribe to my newsletter (link on my LinkedIn profile) if you want to receive more long form article about finance practical tips.

AI vs Excel

Is AI going to replace Excel?

This is the question I get in all my courses and keynotes about AI for Finance

First:
AI and Excel are two different types of technologies
AI is really good at processing large data and simulates human intelligence
While Excel is excellent (pun intended) at doing spreadsheet activities

Second:
In our world we don't need a mega brain for all activities.
To do 2+2=4, you don't need a calculator, you use your brain or your fingers.

For AI and Excel, this is the same.
For a lot of activities, Excel is better, more reliable, easier to audit, faster and more energy efficient.

But the best is when you combine both!


Here is when to use AI, when to use Excel and when to combine both!

🧠 When to use AI:

• Natural Language Processing
NLP can automatically extract relevant information from large volumes of text

• Big Data Processing
Handling and analyzing large datasets beyond Excel's capacity

• Complex Decision Making
AI can process vast amounts of data to support complex decisions

• Pattern Recognition
Identifying trends and anomalies in data more efficiently

• Predictive Analytics
Use machine learning models to predict outcomes

• Optical Character Recognition
OCR automates invoices & documents processing


📊 When to use Excel:

• Data Manipulation
Ideal for data entry, sorting, and simple calculations

• Reporting
Creating straightforward reports and charts

• Formulas and Functions
Extensive library of native formulas for data analysis

• Macro and VBA
Automation within the scope of spreadsheets

• Budgeting and Forecasting
Setting up and adjusting budgets with direct input for SMEs

• User Control
Direct manipulation and immediate error correction.


🤝 When to combine both:

• Automation
Get AI to code an automation via VBA or Python and use Excel either as data input or data output

• Scenario Analysis
Create reports in Excel using insights generated from AI analysis

• Enhanced Reporting
Create reports in Excel using insights generated from AI analysis thanks to

• Budgeting with Predictive Insights
Use AI to predict future trends and Excel to manage and adjust budget allocations accordingly


👉 Do you agree with this analysis?

Save this document ! You will thank me later.

I created a 160 pages document summarising all the content I shared with you the last 12 months.

I have spent the last month sharing a lot of valuable information with you.

But LinkedIn can be sometimes overwhelming.

This is why I decided to summarize all my content in a document to share with the community.

If you learned something from this document, here is what you can do to thank me:

1. Follow me (to make sure you see my next posts)
2. Tag somebody who need to see this document
3. Go on my profile and turn on the bell 🔔 to make sure you see my next posts.

I also have a course for Finance Professionals wanting to transition to a new role.
With my course, you can learn financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, business partnering and storytelling.
(Link on my profile page).

#cfo #finance #accountingandaccountants #fpanda #excel #nicolasboucher

Cash: how to optimize it?

The response: CCC (read further to understand)

🤫 Before I start, just for you, here are 100 other tips for Finance.
They are summarized in one free PDF for you to download:
https://lnkd.in/eAVzrrxb
Believe me, this will help you and your team!

What is Cash Conversion Cycle?

Cash Conversion Cycle or CCC, calculates the number of days required for a firm to convert its investments in inventory and other assets into cash from sales.


Why choose the Cash Conversion Cycle?

- It traces the lifecycle of cash used for business activities, providing insights into operational efficiency.

- It enhances cash flow by improving at least one of the three components: DIO, DSO, or DPO.

- It helps identify inefficiencies in inventory management, receivables collection, and payables processing.


How is Cash Conversion Cycle calculated?

Formula: CCC = DIO + DSO - DPO
Where:
- DIO: Days of inventory outstanding
- DSO: Days sales outstanding
- DPO: Days payables outstanding


5 Ways to optimize the Cash Conversion Cycle

1. Implement JIT Inventory - Reduce excess stock, improve turnover
2. Use Electronic Invoicing - Expedite collections, offer early payment discounts
3. Negotiate Longer Payment Terms - Extend payables without penalties
4. Use Advanced Forecasting Tools - Predict demand accurately, align inventory levels
5. Implement a strong Cash Culture in your company - Involve all departments in optimizing cash.

10 Finance Teams Metrics & KPIs

If you have a finance team, this is for you:

Why should you benchmark your team?

1. Identify performance gaps:
Compare financial performance with competitors to find areas for improvement

2. Set realistic targets:
Analyze industry peers to set achievable revenue and profit goals

3.Improve financial processes:
Identify and update inefficient financial processes

4.Foster continuous improvement:
Cultivate a culture of progress and growth by setting benchmarks and tracking progress

But which benchmarks can you use?

Here are the top 10 benchmarks for finance team performance:


1. Accounting Payable Efficiency:

• Benchmark: Number of Invoices Processed per Employee

• Rationale: Measures the efficiency of the Accounts Payable team in handling invoices and vendor payments.


2. Accounts Receivable Turnover:

• Benchmark: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

• Rationale: Evaluates the effectiveness of collecting revenue after a sale.
A lower DSO is generally more favorable.


3. Working Capital Management:

• Benchmark: Working Capital Ratio

• Rationale: Assesses the company's ability to cover short-term obligations. A higher ratio is typically preferred.


4. Financial Reporting Timeliness:

• Benchmark: Time to Close Books

• Rationale: Gauges the speed at which the finance team completes the financial closing process to provide accurate and timely reports.


5. Budget Variance Analysis:

• Benchmark: Percentage of Budget Deviation

• Rationale: Measures the variance between actual and budgeted figures to improve cost control and forecasting accuracy.


6. Return on Investment (ROI) Assessment:

• Benchmark: ROI for Strategic Investments

• Rationale: Compares ROI of strategic investments against industry standards to evaluate capital allocation effectiveness.


7. Expense Management:

• Benchmark: Operating Expense Ratio

• Rationale: Evaluates cost management efficiency by comparing operating expenses to revenue.


8. Financial Process Automation:

• Benchmark: Percentage of Automated Processes

• Rationale: Tracks the adoption of automated financial processes to improve efficiency and reduce errors.


9. Debt Management:

•Benchmark: Debt-to-Equity Ratio

•Rationale: Assesses the balance between debt and equity financing, indicating the company's financial risk level.


10. Forecast Accuracy:

• Benchmark: Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE)

• Rationale: Measures the accuracy of financial forecasts. A lower MAPE indicates better prediction accuracy.


👉 Which other benchmark do you use ?


🤖 Don’t let robots take over your job.
Instead, leverage AI to boost your career and become irreplaceable.
How? Start learning ChatGPT for Finance today.
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📊 Master Powerpoint to be more productive and impress your boss.
Get the only Powerpoint guide for Finance Professionals.
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CEO vs CFO

Do you agree?

Finance Career Paths


1. Accounting

🎓 Education:
-Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field
-Certifications: CPA, CMA

🧑‍💻 Junior role
-Financial statement preparation
-Basic bookkeeping tasks
-Form preparation assistance

🧑‍🏫 Senior Job - Senior Accountant:
-Review junior accountants' work
-Ensure accounting standards compliance
-Advanced accounting tasks

👔 Management Position - Accounting Manager:
-Supervise accounting department
-Develop accounting policies
-Manage financial internal controls

2. Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

🎓 Education
-Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration
-Certifications: FPAC or Online Courses (check my course on my LinkedIn profile)

🧑‍💻 Junior Job - Junior FP&A Analyst:
-Analyze financial data
-Create financial models
-Prepare financial performance reports

🧑‍🏫 Senior Job - Senior FP&A Analyst:
-Manages a budget area
-Run performance initiatives with other departments
-Present financial analyses to management

👔 Management Position - Finance Manager:
-Manage financial planning function
-Oversee budgeting
-Lead performance strategic initiative across the firm

3. Tax

🎓 Education
-Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field
-Certifications: CPA, CTA

🧑‍💻 Junior Job - Tax Associate:
-Prepare and file tax returns
-Conduct tax research
-Identify tax-saving strategies

👨‍🏫 Senior Job - Tax Senior:
-Oversee tax associates' work
-Provide tax planning services
-Handle complex tax issues

👔 Management Position - Tax Manager:
-Supervise tax department
-Develop tax policies and strategies
-Collaborate on tax-related matters


👉 What is your current career path? What did I miss?


I am thinking of launching a 30 days email course called Finance Career Accelerator.

If you are interested to receive it, let me know in the comment section.
Also tell me what you would like me to cover.

-----------------------------------------

Join the free 30-day email course to accelerate your career:
https://lnkd.in/ekJzCMGW

Here is what you can expect:
- Description finance roles
- Technical & soft skills
- Job search strategies
- Certifications
- Interview tips
- and much more!

Enroll for free and let me help you ;)

A good Finance Professional takes care of the cash of his company.

Here are 9 levers you can use to make an impact on cash 👇👇👇

1️⃣ Sales:
-Improve payment terms with clients (negotiate down payments and short payment terms)
-Accelerate the lead time to close deals

2️⃣ Procurement:
-Avoid down payment
-Push the payment terms as far as possible

3️⃣ Project:
-Compute cash balance of each project
-Plan your cash in and cash out and monitor it

4️⃣ Collection of overdues:
-Automate the dunning process
-Escalate significant issues to management & key account manager

5️⃣ Inventory:
-Monitor level of inventory against forecasted sales
-Reduce lead time,
-Optimise stock buffer,
-Reduce delays

6️⃣ Finance:
-Automate reporting
-Improve understanding of cash flow statements
-Bring transparency to management
-Escalate collection issues
-Use factoring to accelerate cash payment from receivables

7️⃣ Sales administration:
-Optimise the process between a cash milestone achievement and the issuance of the debit note to your client

8️⃣ Management:
-Translate cash objectives in team & individual objectives
-Put cash on the management reviews agenda
-Follow up cash as KPI
-Delay investments

9️⃣ Culture:
-Communicate, explain, repeat: it’s a culture shift


→ Feel free to share this infographic with your colleagues and your network.

#finance #cash #cfo #accountingandaccountants #treasury #nicolasboucher

4 Types of Data Analysis


1/ Descriptive Analysis

In this analysis you measure what happened.

Example of descriptive analysis:
-Actual financial statements
-KPIs
-Headcount reporting


2/ Diagnostic Analysis

Here the goal is to understand what happened.

This is where you drilled down, filter and use 80/20 analysis to understand the cause of what happened.

For example, performing a Price Volume Mix analysis on revenue is also a diagnostic analysis.


3/ Predictive Analysis

This is looking into the future to predict what will probably happen.

This is when you forecast your cash flow for the next month or your production output based on a statistical model and adapted after manual review based on the latest business events.


4/ Prescriptive Analysis

Here you analyse which factor to use to reach an output in a particular scenario.

This is the hardest analysis to implement and therefore the one which is the least used.

It focuses on finding actionable insights based on the combination of diagnostic and predictive analysis.

An example would be a model suggesting the most cost and time efficient levers to activate in a website to convert more sales in order to increase the revenue of the week on a specific product.


👉 What type of analysis do you already use in your organization?

The 3 main Budgeting methods


If you are working in Finance, you need to know how to use these 3 methods.

1) Activity Based method

Top-down approach where you derive the activities needed (input) to achieve your targets (output).

For example, to grow by 10%, you need to acquire 100 new customers. With a customer acquisition cost of 5,000$, you need to plan 500,000$ as customer acquisition budget.

+ Advantage: ideal for sales planning and
- Drawback: only possible where you have historical data you can use to back up your assumptions.


2) Zero Based Budget (ZBB)

Every expense needs to be justified.
Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of the previous one.

+ Advantage: ideal for cost reduction
- Drawback:  time consuming method


3) Incremental approach

Take last year figures and add or subtract a percentage to calculate your budget.

+Advantage: simple & quick
-Drawback: perpetuates inefficiencies/ one-offs & creates budgetary slack


👉 Which method would you add?

-----------------------------------------

🚀 Want to move how to manage a budget? Get my course “Become a high performing finance professionals“ and learn financial analysis and budgeting to boost your career in Finance
(link on my LinkedIn profile)

🤖 Don’t let robots take over your job.
Instead, leverage AI to boost your career and become irreplaceable.
How? Start learning ChatGPT for Finance.
(link on my LinkedIn profile)

📚 Get my guide “50 interviews questions and answers for Finance jobs“ (link on my LinkedIn profile)

Most people will say that this is useless

But for me, having a catalog of KPIs help me identify my blindspot

Do you agree?

If you want to steal my high resolution PDF, go here: https://lnkd.in/e4xcA8Vd

We need to make sure we are working with the right KPIs, the right formulas

That’s why I built The KPI Catalog:
a curated list of the 100 most valuable KPIs across every key area of finance

Inside you will get all the KPIs formulas and definitions

Here's what's included:

• 10 Accounting KPIs
• 10 Cash KPIs
• 10 CEO KPIs
• 10 SaaS KPIs
• 10 Investors KPIs
• 10 Headcount KPIs
• 10 CAPEX KPIs
• 10 Balance Sheet KPIs
• 10 Tax KPIs
• 10 Inventory KPIs

This catalog gives you the most actionable metrics in one high-resolution PDF.

👉 What are the most valuable KPIs in this list?

👉 Which one do you think are not useful?

Built a 5-year model in 5 minutes
Then a live slide deck in 5 more

We used to burn days creating sheets and slides

Now I was able to get a financial model + a dynamic slide deck in just 10 minutes!

Here’s why that changes the game for us in finance:

I gave AI one P&L, defined 3 scenarios, and insisted on formulas + an assumptions sheet.
• Base: sales +3%/yr, margin steady, costs +2%.
• US expansion: more aggressive top-line with explicit levers.
• Pessimistic: sales −2%, margin −1pp, costs −1%.

AI linked everything end-to-end.

Each scenario pulls from the same assumptions, so there’s no copy-paste drift.

If I tweak a driver, the model updates instantly and the math stays consistent.


Then I asked for a dynamic slide deck.

The deck reads from the same model, so I can present revenue, gross margin, and EBIT across scenarios and change assumptions live in the meeting.

“ What if US grows faster in 2030? ” → one number changes, the charts is changed dynamically and now I can show the result straight away (no need to wait another week for the next meeting)

I am not sure that you realize this: I go from raw P&L to a working model + interactive deck in just 30 minutes!

But I'm not believing AI blindly, governance still matters:

For me, I treat AI like a sharp junior.

I review logic, stress test edge cases, and check formulas exactly as I would with a human analyst.

And yes, I use a corporate/enterprise environment so confidential data stays protected (ChatGPT Business License). Don't do this with confidential data if you don't have a license where your data is secure.

----

Ready to become an AI CFO?

Join the AI Finance Club—live masterclasses, tools reviews, templates, and a community of CFOs & finance leaders who ship results and save 10h per month (and become the AI leader of their company)

👉 https://lnkd.in/eMQK4Jau

7 books to help you as a CFO

+ 48 Laws of power applied to finance: https://lnkd.in/exeXveeY

Many people see The 48 Laws of Power as a book about manipulation

But in finance, it reads differently
It’s a lesson in strategy — understanding influence, timing, and perception

Because power in finance isn’t about control
It’s about clarity and impact when decisions matter most

-

Reading books is still essential for every finance professional

(Post inspired by Ben Meer’s MBA in 6 months post)

Here is my selection of the top finance books:

1. Accounting for Non-Accountants by Wayne Label

Lessons:

- How to prepare and use financial statements
- How to control cash flows
- How to manage budgets
- How to use accounting ratios

2. The CFO Lens by Ravikumar Ramanan

Lessons:

- Taking finance to the next level of business support and performance
- The dynamics of managing finance in the digital economy
- Soft skills

3. Budgeting Basics and Beyond by Jae K. Shim, Joel G. Siegel, Allison I. Shim

Lessons:

- Strategic Planning & Budgeting
- Break-Even and Contribution Margin Analysis
- Forecasting and Planning

4. The Audacious Finance Partner by Andrew Codd

Lessons:

- Finance Business Partnering Skills
- Business Transformation
- Leadership Skills

5. Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes

Lessons:

- Transform your insights and data visualizations into appealing data stories
- Fundamental elements of a data story and key audience drivers
- Seven essential principles of better visual storytelling into your work

6. Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga

Lessons:

- Basic financial calculations
- Introduction to Monte Carlo methods
- Excel functions

7. Future Ready by Steve Morlidge & Steve Player

Lessons:

- Principles of a good forecast
- Mastering the process of forecasting
- Implementation of management techniques

👉 Explore The 48 Laws of Power — Applied to Finance: https://lnkd.in/exeXveeY

🔁 Repost to help your finance peers sharpen both their skills and their strategic mindset

Yes AI can help you forecast better

I'll show you how in my next masterclass: https://lnkd.in/e_-qHRYP

In this masterclass is sponsored by Maxio, I will show you:
1) Build a sales / revenue forecast for different products with dynamic assumptions
2) Scenario model with AI, plus how to create a dynamic slide deck to present
3) Build a headcount plan with Excel Agent Mode

Make sure to join this free masterclass!

----

This cheatsheet shows how to improve your budgeting and forecasting
— but next week, we’ll take it further

How to do it in 30 minutes with AI


Here’s what’s inside the post:
1. Annual vs Rolling Forecasts — When to choose stability over flexibility

2. 10 Scenario Analysis Frameworks — From “What-if” models to Monte Carlo simulations

3. Budgeting Checklist — The operational discipline behind credible forecasts

4. 6 Forecasting Best Practices — Data integrity, collaboration, and feedback loops that actually close

Now imagine automating these steps
That’s exactly what I will demonstrate live

I am partnering with Maxio to show and teach finance teams how they can leverage AI for financial modeling

AI in Finance Webinar
How to create a financial forecast in 30 mins using AI
Thursday, Nov 6 🕛 12 PM ET

Takeaway: AI isn’t replacing finance judgment; it’s giving you time back to use it

👉 Register for free: https://lnkd.in/e_-qHRYP

👉 Which forecasting best practice from the carousel will you try first?

🔁 Repost to share this free webinar with your finance network

You probably use ChatGPT only at 5% of its potential

With this PDF, 10X the way you use it: https://lnkd.in/eDXxprsu


I've spend 3,000 hours on ChatGPT and you can steal my top 100 tips toy use ChatGPT faster and better

These 100 essential tips I've prepared will help improve your workflow, save time, and enhance your results.

Here’s a breakdown of the key areas inside:

FRAMEWORKS – Structure your prompts better for better results
Use these proven methods to ask better questions and get clearer responses:
• CSI + FBI (Context, Specific, Instruction + Format, Blueprint, Identity) - Best for overall precision
• STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) – Perfect for case studies & storytelling
• 5W+H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How) – Helps with research & planning

SHORTCUTS – Work faster with these key commands
Boost your efficiency with these ChatGPT shortcuts:
• Open a new chat → Windows: Ctrl + Shift + O | Mac: Cmd + Shift + O
• Copy last response → Windows: Ctrl + Shift + C | Mac: Cmd + Shift + C
• Undo action → Windows: Ctrl + Z | Mac: Cmd + Z

DATA – Use ChatGPT for powerful data analysis
Enhance Excel & data analytics with AI-powered features:
• Convert text to a table – “Turn this info into a table format”
• Summarize data – “Summarize this dataset into key insights”
• Create pivot tables – “How would you structure this as a Pivot Table?”

ADVANCED – Unlock AI’s full potential
Level up your ChatGPT usage with advanced techniques:
• Train ChatGPT with specific prompts – “Use this reference doc to answer questions”
• Automate sentiment analysis – “Analyze this text for tone and emotion”
• Generate presentations – “Create a PowerPoint outline on AI trends”

Do you already use some of the tips provided?

Did I miss something?

Share it to your friends so we help more people use ChatGPT efficiently

👉 Download the Top 100 ChatGPT Tips infographic here: https://lnkd.in/eDXxprsu

Here is how I create presentations with Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini

Full tutorial inside!

👉 You can also learn how to make AI actionable: https://lnkd.in/eWmCHvJi

Maxio, sponsor of this newsletter, is helping finance pros use AI, not just to analyse what’s happened
but to tell them how to produce better (more accurate) results.

AI turned my 2-hour Excel nightmare into a 5-minute task

Want to learn how?

Join me on Thursday, where I will teach you how to create a financial forecast in 30 mins

Register now for free: https://lnkd.in/edDstBDi

I’ll walk you through exactly how I turned a consolidation mess of 12 Excel tabs, 12 different formats, into a clean dashboard-ready file.

This live session is sponsored by Maxio.