Next-Level Financial Modeling with AI and Automation for CFOs with Chase Wright

In mature businesses with stable headcount and known cost structures, forecast accuracy is critical (missing by 50% would cause job loss), but in startups with volatile growth and multiple unknowns, the standard of accuracy is lower because the baseline is already uncertain

“you have to be directionally correct if you're 50% off all the time especially headcount or things that in a mature business that aren't really changing you're going to lose your job there's there there's a threshold you have to meet but there's still a lot of subjectivity especially I'm sure you've done a lot of startup”

Chase does not use circular references, VBA, or external workbook links in his models because they create maintainability and auditability problems; he prefers horizontal layouts, uses VLOOKUP almost exclusively with INDEX MATCH as a secondary option for time-constrained situations, and follows the FAST standard for model design

“circular or no circular references in models no no circular references VBA or no VBA no VBA...prefer a horizontal or vertical layout to your model I I prefer hor horizontal for sure...External workbook links if you if you can't help it no...do you follow a formal Standards Board like some of those out there smart and fast and some of the others when you're modeling I do yeah I use I use fast for that...favorite lookup function choose vlookup index match X lookup or something else uh V lookup almost exclusively index match if I have time”

The most important lesson Chase learned in his career is active listening: FP&A professionals are naturally high-execution, confident people who tend to state opinions with false certainty, but the longer he's practiced, the more he realizes listening to others' perspectives and business mechanics understanding is more valuable than pushing his own model

“number one lesson the second lesson is list just just actively listening you know I think a lot of times I don't know if every personel like if you kind of have to stereotype you know fpna in general we're very high execute people like we've got to get a lot of stuff done and I generally have very Le teams so I'm always like let's go like this is this is what I think about it and I feel 95% confident that I'm right about this but more times than not and the longer that I do it I've been wrong um so like sitting down and actively listening to what people are actually saying understanding what what that means from a business and mechanics perspective it that's 100% the the older I get the the more and more I listen and the more and more I keep my mouth shut”

Financial models are not the primary decision-making tool; rather, decision-making is driven by the intuition of directly responsible individuals (DRIs) informed by multiple inputs, of which financial models are a heavily weighted but not determinative part

“I would say you know at the end of the day I think it's the intuition from all the inputs that somebody that that what a what we what I would call a directly responsible individual would would make so it's it's intuition at the end of the day but it's you know I would say that Financial models are a very heavily weighted part of that decision-making process”

The key to building a robust financial model is not starting with formulas or elegant mechanics, but first understanding what stakeholders are trying to accomplish and putting yourself in their shoes to articulate that into model structure

“the longer that I do this the more and more I remove myself of the modeling mindset and more like how how can I put myself in the shoes of others to kind of help them get to where they they need to get to...it depends on you know what we're trying to go after”

Having a complete framework of financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) makes it easier for a financial leader to facilitate conversations about business health and strategic decisions, which is the ultimate value of modeling.

“it it helps me articulate that and that you know having that framework together in those sense uh again makes makes the conversation a little bit easier so I can help so I can help everybody else help themselves essentially”

Chase's master's degree in engineering (rather than MBA) was pivotal because it gave him the dual mindset needed to bridge finance and software engineering, enabling him to recognize that VBA models could be replaced with cleaner architectural approaches and later to understand modern data infrastructure integration

“I joined that IT consulting company and at that point you know I I went from fi core Finance to finance slash I'm really interested in figuring out how to do this from a software engineering perspective...had I not had that education at that point the Curiosity that kind of drove me that way you know I wouldn't have been really where I'm at today”

Chase's second key piece of advice is to take a step back from immediate modeling work and think about long-term business objectives first, then design models to articulate and support those objectives, rather than modeling quickly without understanding what the business is trying to accomplish.

“I think the next piece is you know again just taking a step back and trying to put yourself in the position of how is everybody else thinking about this business and what do we want to what what do we want to get out of it so you know rather than going in and trying to model stuff really quickly just what is the long-term thing that we're trying to accomplish and how do we put that into some framework that you know ends up being some type of spreadsheet”

Chase finds the most valuable feature of Equals to be its Slack integration, which allows users to easily communicate specific business viewpoints and narratives to teams without technical expertise, making it intuitive enough for anyone in the organization to understand and use.

“if there's one thing you can't live without that equals has or something you really like that you wish Excel and Google would adopt is there one one thing in particular that stands out out a lot of startups use slack and being able to like communicate a specific Viewpoint or narrative around what you're trying to describe in terms of how the business is operating and just post that to slack so everyone else can see is is really easy to do now could you do it in in Excel and Google Sheets probably but the way that that equals has made it it's I mean anybody anybody could figure it out very quickly it's it's so intuitive and and useful and it gets everybody on the same page of what we're trying to go after I think that's a really powerful thing”

The pain point that motivates financial analysis adoption of tools like Equals stems from being the first finance hire at a startup, understanding the pain of manual data assembly, and seeking a tool that makes financial and operational reporting significantly easier without requiring infrastructure investment.

“it comes from the necessity of being the first Finance hire and knowing knowing that pain and yearning for something more like why isn't there something more out there that just makes my job so much easier”

In the short term, AI will be fantastic as a co-pilot to help with financial modeling and spreadsheet tasks, but it's unlikely to fully replace human modeling and judgment in the near term

“will AI build the models for us in the future uh perhaps I think uh in the short term they will be AI uh will be fantastic for co-pilots makes a lot of sense”

A CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) told Chase that his financial model was 'just a spreadsheet exercise' that didn't reflect how the business actually operates, but Chase's ability to articulate multiple scenarios and use the model as a framework for testing assumptions allowed him to defend the model's value

“I had a uh a former cro tell me Chase all you're doing is just a spreadsheet exercise that's not actually how the the business operates in general and I said you're right about that but have you thought about all these different scenarios and because I had that thought process of critically thinking about it I wouldn't have been I wouldn't have been able to like stand my own ground”

Equals' actual use cases at Unicode include: (1) AR reporting connected to Stripe billing data, (2) automated weekly revenue reports sent to senior staff via Slack showing week-over-week ARR additions and quarterly progress vs. goals, and (3) three-statement financial models pulling GL accounts from QuickBooks

“I'm using all of that for our ER reporting...I'm able to actually curate a spreadsheet that I send to our senior staff...I can tell them week over week like you know here's here's how much err you've added to to the Top Line This Week here's where we're at this quarter and here's the goal...I've got I've got my my three statement financials in there...I'm able to connect that and have a clear understanding of our cogs and Opex”

Chase believes Excel will never die because it is embedded in enterprise infrastructure and human behavior, comparable to Twinkies and cockroaches for their cultural permanence, but that doesn't preclude newer tools like Equals from replacing it in specific use cases like data integration and collaborative reporting

“will excel ever die no it'll it'll be there with twinkies and cockroaches uh at the end of the day”

Finance professionals and FP&A people tend to be very high-execution oriented, which can lead to over-confidence in their analysis because they are accustomed to getting things done quickly with small teams.

“I think a lot of times I don't know if every personel like if you kind of have to stereotype you know fpna in general we're very high execute people like we've got to get a lot of stuff done and we generally have very Le teams so I'm always like let's go like this is this is what I think about it and I feel 95% confident that I'm right about this”

Financial Modeling Institute's Advanced Financial Modeler certification is respected and valuable, and Paul Barnhurst values it highly enough to have completed it and recommends others do the same using the podcast code.

“Financial modelers corner is brought to you by the financial modeling Institute FMI offers the most respected accreditation in financial modeling and that is why I completed the Advanced Financial modeler earlier this year”

At Unicode, the company is pursuing growth-focused strategy by identifying 'big bets' (major strategic initiatives), translating those bets into go-to-market plans, and then creating financial models to validate whether those plans are achievable and worthy of commitment.

“we are trying to figure out like our business is a a fantastic business by by all accounts today but like we we want to continue to grow like growth is sexy and that's what you know BCB companies are you know like to talk about and we want to continue to grow so what we're trying to figure out and articulate is like what are the big bets that we're going to go after this year what do they look like and how do we actually materialize those into gu go to market plans and then basically put some kind of financial analysis behind it that says yeah this this feels right I think we can you know hold ourselves accountable to going after a plan like that”

Power Query and Power Automate in Excel enable Slack integration and other automation, but they require technical knowledge and aren't intuitive, whereas Equals makes the same workflows accessible via a click with no coding required

“could you do it in in Excel and Google Sheets probably but the way that that equals has made it it's so intuitive...I'm sure with power automate or some of other things you could write you could do it with Excel but it's not a click of a button type of thing...startups usually aren't a Microsoft shop it's usually a little uh less expensive to go another route”

Equals' Command+K shortcut (on Mac) enables users to ask natural-language questions of their spreadsheets and data, similar to Spotlight search on macOS, and is being powered by AI to handle requests like 'sum this column' or 'add a border to this range' without manual formula entry

“equals has the shortcut at least on a Mac it's control K and it's kind of like the space bar on a Mac um when basically you can search your entire MacBook uh control K or command k for equals gives you the ability to basically ask a question to their Ai and it's incredibly powerful to the point where like you don't have to do a handful of stuff you just say hey by the way sum up this particular column for me or uh add a border around like this particular range for me”

Chase uses Equals' AI shortcut almost daily, sometimes hourly, and has noticed himself becoming 'lazier' (more efficient) because the tool removes the friction of clicking through menus or remembering formula syntax

“I use it I use it almost daily uh if if not if not every hour uh I I found myself becoming more and more lazy I don't know if that's a good thing for us as a as a we like to call it smart not L yes but they have definitely made it a lot easier to do things”

Equals recently announced a warehouse component, marking a significant feature expansion that enables end-to-end data and analysis workflows without leaving the tool.

“I saw this week they just announced a warehouse component they did very exciting”

Bobby Panerio (Equals co-founder) had the same spreadsheet-to-data problem at Intercom in its early days, indicating this is a recurring pain point across multiple companies, not a one-off GitLab issue

“the second point was Bobby had the same issue at at intercom in the early days of intercom so we kind of like were...he's a co-founder and CEO of equals”