Sheena Yiu, MBA, CTP

The AI tools available for FP&A work have taken a massive leap in the last 60 days. I utilize all the major frontier labs, but recently I've been using Claude (Anthropic) heavily across finance workflows. Its ability to build excel models, PowerPoint presentations and the plugin ecosystem is what really sets it apart: → Excel Plugin – formula help, error checking, changing direct cell references into dynamic index/match formulas (1 prompt to make the whole workbook dynamic) → PowerPoint Plugin – draft presentations from raw data and notes. Quick edits to align formatting and “beautify” the entire deck. → Chrome Plugin – pull and analyze info directly from web-based tools → Co-Work – a newer desktop tool that lets Claude work on files in the background like a virtual analyst → Projects – upload many source files that it can reference for number tie outs, sources of information, etc. I still use the chrome portal for projects and larger tasks as it has long term memory and is more token efficient. Practical examples from our FP&A team: - Uploading raw transactions and auto-matching for reconciliation - Dropping in a financial model and having it flag formula/logic errors - Feeding it historical audited financials to extract specific transaction details (M&A, milestone earn outs, etc) - Building v1 of complex financial models as a starting structure - developing complex excel formulas, macros, etc. to One-Click update recurring reports Make sure you are on a business teams or enterprise license so they don’t share or train on your data. If you're in finance and haven't explored what these tools can do lately, it's worth a fresh look. The gap between where this was 6 months ago and today is significant.

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CFOs aren’t short on strategy. They’re short on trusted data. In conversations with finance leaders over the past few months, one pattern keeps showing up. Teams have strong FP&A talent, solid ERPs, and no shortage of dashboards. Yet the same metrics still change from report to report. Forecasts quietly break each month. Board decks require last-minute reconciliation. The problem usually isn’t planning. It’s the data layer underneath it. When financial and operational data isn’t standardized and refresh-safe, every downstream effort struggles. FP&A spends time reconciling instead of analyzing. Reporting becomes harder to defend. AI initiatives stall before they start. At Brillifi, we focus on that layer first. We help finance teams build a clean, durable data backbone so every number means the same thing across ERPs, billing systems, spreadsheets, and models. When that foundation is in place, something shifts. Forecasts hold. Reporting stabilizes. Finance teams get time back to focus on insight, not cleanup. The future of finance isn’t just better tools or smarter models. It’s building the data once and using it everywhere. #CFO #FPandA #FinanceData

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Last week, I had the opportunity to speak about the impact of Anthropic's Claude CoWork feature for Finance leaders in the Elevation Capital portfolio companies. The Zoom session had 100 registrations, 85%+ attendence and almost 95% sit-through rate where attendees sat through the whole session and asked questions. The demand for AI in Finance is very very high! VC investors are incredibly conservative about what they show their portfolio and what they don't, for good reason, they have millions of dollars on the line riding on the success of these start-ups. In this context, I want to take a moment to appreciate the forward thinking nature of Elevation's team to have folks like Vartika Bansal, Harsh Agrawal and Pankaj Ghai do sessions like these for their portfolio. It will help make both Elevation and the portfolio companies AI-native. In this post Vartika Bansal summarises the key take-aways from the session. But if you are a Finance leader still looking at YouTube, LinkedIn and other places and thinking, I will use AI when I have the time, it might be too late. The time to start is now, install it, pay for it and get to work. It is now or never, if you have questions or get stuck feel free to DM me!

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I met a fractional CTO last week 🤝 It might sound like an unusual meeting for a senior finance recruiter… but hear me out. This fractional CTO works closely with Fintech CFOs 💡 to solve one of the biggest (and most frustrating) problems in fast-growing Fintechs....messy data flow 💻 A lot of CFOs tell me the same thing: ❌ They don’t trust the numbers. ❌ They don’t trust the data. Why? Because the business has scaled quickly with multiple systems, some built in-house, others bought off the shelf. ⚙️ Nothing talks to each other. 📊 The data flow is chaotic. 🧑‍💻 Everything has to be manually extracted from one system to another. ⏳ It’s prone to errors, time-consuming, and painful. And most importantly it impacts decision-making 🚫 But fixing it can feel daunting without the right technical expertise. That’s where this fractional CTO comes in. He understands systems, data flow, and how to partner with finance leaders to build something that actually works ✅ Sound familiar? 👉 How are you currently tackling the “data trust” issue in your finance function?

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Wearing my technical accounting nerd hat today 😊 Occasionally, I see accountants book expense accruals/liabilities when I don’t believe they should be booking them, so here is my interpretation of the rules: Example: It’s Q4 2025. You’ve just signed your tax engagement letter for the 2025 tax year and your tax advisor has quoted you a fee for their work. No work will be performed by your tax advisor until Q1 2026. You are closing the books for 2025 and you book an accrual for the service fee in Q4 (to “match" the expense to the period it benefits). Seems logical and the correct thing to do, right? Well, here is the catch - Under US GAAP accrual basis accounting, expenses for services are recognized when they are incurred, which is when the services have been rendered or performed by the provider. FASB’s Concepts Statement 6 (CON 6) states that "liabilities are probable future sacrifices of economic benefits arising from present obligations of a particular entity to transfer assets or provide services to other entities in the future as a result of past transactions or events". In this example, since the past event (performing the services) has not occurred as of December 31, 2025, there is no expense to be booked and no liability to be recognized as of the balance sheet date. Perhaps a footnote disclosure for the commitment to pay if they do the work but not a booked liability. The obligation to pay for the services will be created in 2026 when the work is performed and that’s when the expense will be recognized. I know I have many seasoned CPAs and auditors in my network so do let me know please if you have a different view on this.

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If you’re a CFO or Controller interviewing with a PE-backed company, here is some advice for you. PE firms aren’t looking for someone to “keep things running.” They’re hiring finance leaders who can bring clarity fast, tighten the close, forecast with confidence, and manage cash like it actually matters, because it does. You’re expected to know the numbers cold and explain what’s driving them without hiding behind accounting language. Experience with process building, ability to report to both the local leadership as well as the PE Sponsor and balance the different needs is important to show ability to handle. Most are growing through M&A so highlighting integrations as well as opening balance sheet experience will be important. Bottom line is it's all about process building, team building & growth in a fast-paced environment. On top of understanding the rigorous reporting requirements. At Synergy Search, most of our work is with PE-backed companies. We see exactly why strong candidates get passed on. Technical skills are assumed. What separates the ones who get hired is their ability to build structure, partner with operators, lead through change, and perform when expectations are high and timelines are tight. If you’re walking into a PE-backed interview and want to sanity-check your story before you’re in the room, reach out. These interviews are different, and the bar is higher.

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***Are Sacramento companies paying enough to attract top Controllers in 2025?*** This is one question I keep hearing from hiring managers — and for good reasons The Sacramento finance market has quietly become one of the most competitive in California. Between mid-market growth, hybrid work, and Bay Area professionals moving inland, compensation expectations have shifted. Here’s what we’re seeing right now ⬇️ Controller — Sacramento 2025 Snapshot: Base salary: ~$140,000 to $160,000 Total compensation: ~$175,000–$185,000 with bonus potential But here’s the kicker — many local firms are still offering in the $110K–$125K range. That might’ve worked a few years ago, but not anymore. Top candidates are fielding multiple offers, often from companies offering flexible schedules, bonus structures, or hybrid options. What’s driving the premium? - Broader responsibilities — Controllers now oversee automation, ERP upgrades, and data analytics. - Scarcity of CPA + systems-savvy leaders in the local market. - Bay Area salary influence creeping east. So, if you’re hiring for a Controller in 2025, the question isn’t just “Can we afford them?” It’s “Can we afford to lose them to someone else who will?” Is everyone seeing what I am seeing?

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BLUF: If your finance upskilling plan is a list of software, you don’t have a strategy => you have a shopping cart! Automation won’t replace finance. Boring work will. The cutting edge isn’t knowing a specific tool. The cutting edge is building teams that can learn any tool, design the right stack, and turn messy data into one page + one chart the business can clearly and quickly act on. That’s how finance earns the seat as the Architect of Strategy, not the guardian of the monthly close or the financial statements. What are the skills I'm developing on my team now? Adaptability, decision economics, and storytelling. What am I measuring? Return on outcomes, not just return on investment. Agree? Disagree? What’s the most durable finance skill you’re betting on for 2026 and how are you measuring its impact?

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If you are a finance/accounting pro affected by today's RIF at Block, I'd love to chat. The same conditions allowing big companies to downsize are also allowing smaller companies to go longer without hiring internal finance teams. That's where I come in. I can't offer big company perks, but I can offer flexibility, cutting edge work, and a pretty chill boss.

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If You Want the Board Referral, Show Up for Strategic Finance Here's what I'm noticing: Boards are looking for CFO advisors and interim leaders. But many candidates show up to the conversation without having done the homework. They ask for the referral before they've shown up. What "Showing Up" Looks Like Before you position yourself for a board role or fractional CFO engagement: Show up by understanding their actual problem. Don't assume it's "we need better reporting." Ask: 1. What's your biggest financial risk right now? 2. Where's your margin vulnerability? 3. How are reforms affecting your planning? 4. What's your CFO struggling with? Show up by having a framework ready. When they describe the problem, don't just nod. Sketch out how you'd approach it: 1. "Here's how I'd diagnose your margin issue" 2. "Here's what scenario modelling would reveal" 3. "Here's the early warning system I'd build" Show up by doing something before asking for the referral. Share a relevant insight. Send an article on their specific challenge. Make an introduction that helps them. Then, from a place of having demonstrated value, you can discuss working together. Why This Matters The finance leaders getting referred to boards aren't always the smartest technically. They're the ones who've done the groundwork. They've shown they understand the sector. They've demonstrated they can translate complexity. They've proven they'll show up and add value before the engagement even starts. The Real Question Most people ask, "How do I get board referrals?" The real question is, "How do I add value before anyone thinks to refer me?" When you answer that second question, referrals follow naturally. Are you positioning yourself for board opportunities, or are you actually showing up and adding value first?

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Solid reasoning for hiring a VP Finance / FD, not a CFO if you are a Series A or B startup founder or investor...👇 At Series A or B, your biggest finance challenges are typically: ✅Building forecasting discipline. ✅Extending runway. ✅Tightening cash management. ✅Installing reporting infrastructure. ✅Preparing for the next raise. ✅Nailing automation and AI. ✅Getting data clean to support decision making. You don’t usually need a “capital markets” CFO yet. You need someone who can build the engine. 🏗️ A strong VP Finance / FD will: ✅Implement controls and systems. ✅Professionalise FP&A. ✅Manage investor reporting. ✅Support the CEO through fundraising. ✅Get into the weeds and fix what’s messy. ✅Drive decision-support. Hiring a big-brand CFO too early often creates misalignment: 👉Overqualified for the stage. 👉Too strategic, not operational enough. 👉Expensive relative to runway. 👉Potential frustration on both sides. That said, there are exceptions... You may need a CFO at Series A or B if: ✅You’re raising £50m+ rounds. ✅You’re operating in a capital-intensive model. ✅You have complex multi-entity / international structures. ✅You’re preparing for a rapid Series C or IPO trajectory. ✅The board requires public-company professionalism. The real question isn’t title...It’s: What problem are you actually solving for in the next 12-18 months? 😉 In early-stage companies, sequencing finance leadership correctly can save millions in dilution and years of organisational pain. Get the level right and the title becomes secondary. Curious how others have approached this at Series A or B? 🤔

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CFOs and finance/accounting leaders, I talked recently about retention as a key financial lever. I see this play out every day in conversations with candidates. Many take my call because they see zero upside in their current role. The ones who give me the brush off? Their companies give them opportunities to move up or build their skill set, so they stay engaged. I saw this play out with a Senior Financial Analyst I placed. She joined the company to support FP&A across a growing, multi-location, multi-entity platform. Strong data and analytical skills. Strong business curiosity. Someone who wanted to grow. Over time, she did exactly that. Today she’s a Director of FP&A, helping lead financial planning and analysis for a complex organization. The scope is bigger. The problems are harder. The visibility is higher. And that’s exactly the kind of challenge that keeps high performers engaged. But there’s an important nuance here. Not every individual contributor or manager wants to move up the ladder. Growth and challenge can come in different forms. And that’s okay. Some professionals love becoming deep experts in their role. Others want the leadership path. Neither is better. But the distinction matters enormously when hiring. When a company hires someone who wants to grow into leadership but offers no real path, turnover often follows. When someone who prefers growth in their skill set rather than title is pushed toward management, frustration follows. Retention improves dramatically when the role, the team’s needs, and the individual’s motivations are aligned from the beginning. Because mismatches don’t just create frustration. They create costly turnover.

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This one's for the fund accounting teams. Every quarter, PCAP drafts land in your inbox. Sometimes 100 pages. Sometimes 10,000. And that’s just one fund. Across dozens (or hundreds) of funds, that’s millions of data points. One wrong number, and you’re fielding calls for weeks. So what happens? Excel on one screen. PDF on the other. Manual copying. Cross-referencing. Page by page. Some teams try DataSnipper. Others build Python scripts. But those approaches assume layouts stay the same. They don’t. Line items move. Formats change. Tables expand. Every tweak breaks the logic. Manual fixes creep back in. The question we hear every quarter: “Can we just get all of this accurately into one Excel sheet?” That’s exactly what Template Spreading by ProSights does – and it’s only one of many use cases. It transforms unstructured documents – like PCAP drafts – into structured spreadsheets, with every number traced back to its exact location in the source file. No rigid templates. No layout lock-ins. Our AI adapts as formats change. Teams are turning days of review into hours – and catching discrepancies they used to miss. Heading into reporting season? Book time to get onboarded immediately (link in comment).

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“One learning I’ve had from scaling finance systems is this: automation without accountability doesn't work. You need clear ownership + clean data. Curious to hear from others managing multi-location finance ops — how do you handle this?”

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Last month, one of my consulting clients missed their payment deadline. My stomach dropped a bit, but I didn't just sit there hoping they'd remember or panic. Here's what I did instead: 1. Sent an email the day it was due (cc'd my contact + their accounting team) 2. Dropped a quick Slack to my main contact 3. Made it the first agenda item in our next meeting 4. Followed up daily until it was resolved and paid I know following up about money feels awkward. But you worked for that payment. You earned it. Asking for what you're owed isn't pushy or rude. It's professional and your job. The reality? Even well-intentioned clients sometimes miss deadlines. But, we as freelancers and consultants still need to be pro-active and reactive when we need to. A few more tools for your toolkit to prevent & follow-up on missed payments: 1. Automate reminders: Set up invoice reminders before payments are due (tools like Harlow make this easy) 2. Document everything in a contract upfront: Clear payment terms prevent confusion later 3. Build your confidence: If asking for money feels uncomfortable, let's work on building that confidence, together. 4. Get backup when needed: Services like DUPAY can handle legal follow-up if necessary.

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Early-Stage Finance Isn’t a Scaled-Down Version I had a dream last night. I was asked to rebuild a cash flow model from scratch. New direction. New assumptions. No timings. No meaningful detail. I had thirty minutes to do it, then present it to the board and stand behind the numbers. I refused... It was only a dream, but the pressure felt familiar. In early-stage biotech, expectations often move faster than information. That is the reality. Early-stage finance is not a smaller version of big-company finance. The focus is fundamentally different. Textbook knowledge is useful, but experience is what does the real work. You build the structure while managing the spend. Cash flow forecasts aren’t just for long term planning, you’re living them, day-to-day. When cash has a deadline, accuracy matters. There’s little room for error. Assumptions carry immediate and amplified weight. They shape priorities, hiring, spending decisions. You don’t always have full clarity. There are grey areas. Even your variables have variables. Still, you need to build something that helps steer decisions. Controls, processes, policies, reporting frameworks, don’t arrive fully formed. You build them. Piece by piece. You need to know what’s needed now, and what can wait. In this environment, presentation matters as much as precision. Attention to detail is non-negotiable. Early-stage finance isn’t rough around the edges. It needs to be sharp, agile, and informative. And when the questions come, Finance has to be ready. The hardest moments aren’t just about the numbers. They test more than technical skill; they test your presence. There is nowhere to hide, often no time to prepare. Even if you know the work thoroughly, you can still feel you didn’t show up as well as you could. These moments teach you quickly. Early-stage finance sharpens more than your modelling. The lessons hit hard, and hindsight is a valuable teacher. Early-stage finance isn’t smaller and it’s not easier. It’s more demanding. More exposed. Early-stage finance has its own discipline. #FP&A #Startups #CashFlowMatters #Biotech #StartupFinance #RealTalkFinance 

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PE-backed CFOs mistakenly treat nailing their yearly budget as their north star. But for sponsors, the real priority is equity value: spending the (right kind of) money to make more money at eventual exit. ​ See how CFOs can take advantage of tariff-related deal delays and elongated hold periods to drive equity value for exit down the road: https://lnkd.in/eZFw_uPP

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