Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

I used to lose an entire day just updating last month's numbers.

Not because the model was complicated. Because I hadn't built it to survive the roll forward.

Most models break the same way every month. A new account shows up that your formulas don't recognize. Someone inserts a row and half your references shift. The dashboard pulls from the wrong period and nobody catches it until the board meeting.

After rebuilding the same things over and over, I started doing a few things differently.

→ Keep your raw data on its own tab. Never mix imports with formulas.

When you paste new data into a tab full of calculations, you're asking for trouble. I keep one tab that's only for QBO exports. Everything else references that tab. When I update the data, the model updates itself.

→ Use named ranges instead of cell references.

Formulas that point to B14:B87 break the moment someone adds a row. Named ranges don't care where the data moves. Define them once and your formulas stay intact no matter how the structure shifts.

→ Build your formulas to expect new accounts.

SUMIF and XLOOKUP don't break when new line items show up. VLOOKUP with a hardcoded range does. I stopped writing formulas that assume the data stays the same. It never does.

→ Lock your periods in one place.

If your current month is referenced in 40 different formulas, you're updating 40 cells every roll forward. I use one cell that says "December 2024" and everything else points to it. Change it once, the whole model follows.

These changes cut my roll forward time in half. But I still wanted it faster.

At Model Wiz we handle all of this with one button. Click Roll Forward and it moves the timeline, detects new accounts, preserves your formulas, and keeps your dashboards intact. Two minutes and you're done.

What's the most annoying part of your roll forward?

23 hours ago | [YT] | 78

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

They told me their reports take 6 hours. I showed them 8 formulas. Now it takes 10 minutes.

Join my free masterclass with Ramp on February 19th 👉 virtual.ramp.com/path-to-cfo-8-excel-formulas/?utm…

I've seen this pattern dozens of times.

Smart FP&A teams. Good analysts. Solid finance backgrounds.

But every month, the same chaos. Copying data from exports. Pasting into templates. Fixing broken links. Manually updating date labels.

By the time the report reaches leadership, the numbers are already stale.

The problem is never the people. It's the infrastructure.

The best finance teams I work with have dashboards that refresh with one click.

Monthly, quarterly, annual, and custom views all pulling from the same source. No rebuilding. No copy-paste. No prayer that the formulas still work.

And it comes down to 8 formulas used the right way.

Here's what I'll walk through live:

EOMONTH for building date ranges that roll forward automatically each period

YEAR and MONTH for dynamic labels that update without touching a single cell

ROUNDUP for calculating Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 from any date without hardcoding

DATE for start dates that adjust themselves based on the period you're in

IF for switching between actuals and projections with one cell change

SUMIFS for pulling P&L data across any date range you define

XLOOKUP for grabbing balance sheet values as of any point in time

You'll leave knowing how to turn static exports into dashboards that update in minutes instead of hours.

This is the exact process I use when building three-statement models for my clients.

February 19th at 2pm ET.

Save your spot here 👉 virtual.ramp.com/path-to-cfo-8-excel-formulas/?utm…

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6 days ago | [YT] | 255

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

I was trembling, stomach twisted - I had to lay someone off for the first time.
He was such a great guy with so much potential, but he just wasn't delivering what we needed.

I felt extra torn because the number one thing people appreciate about working at Mighty Digits is how much we care about them.

How am I supposed to tell a man with a wife, 3 children, and a mother-in-law that he's losing his primary income?

This moment shaped my journey as a business owner and taught me how vital it is to let someone go when they aren't performing.

For a long time, I didn't know how or understand why.

➡️ I HAD IT COMPLETELY BACKWARDS

"Hire Slow, Fire Fast" was the mantra I heard everywhere.

But that didn't make sense to me. When you fire someone, you disrupt their livelihood and affect their family's financial situation.

So my approach was the opposite: "Hire fast, Fire slow."

Show employees you have a spine by treating them well, and they'll give you more output and dedication.

Until I realized I had it completely reversed.

➡️ WHY QUICK ACTION IS ESSENTIAL

Someone told me: "You're not just hurting the underperformer by keeping them - you're hurting everyone else on the team."

At first, I didn't resonate with that. But after letting a few people go, I finally understood.

You're not the only person who works with an underperformer. Your entire staff is exposed to their work.

Pairing an underperformer with an amazing performer adds pressure and workload to the performer, leaving them frustrated and at risk of leaving.

You not only have someone underperforming - you diminish the well-being of your best people.

➡️ HOW TO FIRE THE RIGHT WAY

I learned you can act quickly without burning bridges or destroying culture:

— Give ample feedback and notice before taking action

— Put them on a Performance Improvement Plan as a last resort

— Offer reasonable severance with a separation agreement

— Tell them they're better off somewhere else (usually true)

— Offer to provide a recommendation focusing on their good qualities

When you don't fire correctly, it can be one of your worst mistakes as a business owner.

Between hits to company culture, lawsuits, and disgruntled employees, treating someone unfairly creates incentives for retaliation.

➡️ THE BALANCE

It's a healthy sign when organizations let people go each year. Companies constantly evolve, and not everyone remains a good fit.

But it's important to show staff you don't see them as just output machines - you appreciate them and invest in them.

How you demonstrate that balance makes the biggest difference.

===

To me, learning to fire properly was one of the hardest but most important leadership lessons.

You can protect your team's well-being while still treating departing employees with respect.

What's your experience with letting someone go?

Have you ever had to fire someone?

Share your thoughts below 👇

1 week ago | [YT] | 59

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Your Model is 70% There. Here's What's Missing.

Most VPs of Finance I work with have a solid financial model.

P&L looks good. Balance sheet ties out. Cash flow makes sense.

But when the board starts asking harder questions, the model falls short.

"What does our deferred revenue waterfall look like?"

"Can you break down headcount costs by department with projected raises?"

"Show me the CapEx schedule with depreciation by asset class."

Silence. Scrambling. Or a promise to follow up next week.

→ The 30% That Separates Good From Credible

Your model handles the basics. That's the 70%.

The missing 30% is what makes investors and board members take you seriously:

Deferred revenue schedules that show exactly how contracted revenue converts to recognized revenue over time.

Headcount planning that breaks down salaries, taxes, benefits, and start dates by department and role.

AP aging that forecasts when cash actually leaves based on vendor payment terms.

CapEx schedules that track asset purchases, useful life, and depreciation by category.

Debt schedules that map out principal, interest, and covenant compliance.

These are the tabs that make board members nod instead of squint.

→ Wy Most Models Don't Have Them

Building these schedules from scratch takes weeks.

And most VPs of Finance learned modeling in a different context. Investment banking templates don't transfer cleanly to operational SaaS models. The company you came from had different revenue recognition. The templates online are too generic to actually use.

So you skip it. You tell yourself you'll build it later. You hope the board doesn't ask.

Until they do.

→ Why I Built Model Wiz

I spent years as a fractional CFO building these exact schedules for clients.

Deferred revenue. Headcount. AP. AR. CapEx. Debt.

The same modules, over and over, customized to each business.

So I built them into Model Wiz.

Model Wiz is an Excel plugin that connects to QuickBooks Online and lets you add professional schedules to your existing model with a few clicks.

You're not rebuilding anything. You're not learning a new platform. You're just attaching the modules your model is missing.

Each schedule plugs into your driver's tab and flows through to your statements automatically.

Your 70% model becomes 100%. And when the board asks about deferred revenue, you pull up the tab instead of promising to follow up.

Book a call with my team to see how this can look for you. Link in the comments.

1 week ago | [YT] | 53

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Your financial model has vulnerabilities. You just don't know where yet.

Get the financial model template from this video
modelwiz.kit.com/only-financial-template-you-need?…

After building hundreds of financial models and training hundreds of people across the globe, I keep seeing the same three tabs missing.

Without them, your assumptions are scattered everywhere. Your errors hide until they cost you real money. And nobody but you knows how to use the file.

This template fixes all three.

I put together a full video showing you EXACTLY how to build this from scratch.

Here's what you'll learn:

→ The drivers tab setup that keeps every assumption in one place, so you change one input and the entire model updates

→ How to build dropdown drivers that automatically update your projections without touching formulas

→ The error check system that catches mistakes before they cost you. I once missed a $3 million error because I didn't have this in place.

→ How to blend actuals and projections so your board sees where you've been AND where you're going

→ The instructions tab that documents everything, so when you send it to an investor or hand it off to someone else, they know exactly how it works

→ Color coding that tells readers what they can edit, what's a reference, and what's a calculation

You may think, hey, I designed this model so I'll remember how it works. But what happens when an analyst on your investor's team wants to get familiar with it? Or when you outgrow your role and need to pass it on?

9 times out of 10, you aren't going to be the only one in your financial model.

The template is useful on its own. But knowing how to build this yourself is worth ten times more.

You'll understand drivers, error checks, and documentation at a level that applies to ANY financial model you build going forward.

Watch the full tutorial below

And grab the free template here:

modelwiz.kit.com/only-financial-template-you-need?…

1 week ago | [YT] | 26

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Your Financial Model Shouldn't Need a Babysitter

But here you are. Every month end. Feeding it.

Export from QBO. Delete the old columns. Add the new months. Check the formulas. Pray nothing broke.

Two hours later, you're done. Mentally drained. And you haven't even looked at what the numbers are telling you yet.

→ The Real Cost Nobody Calculates

VPs of Finance are some of the highest paid people at a startup.

And yet many of them spend 25% of certain workdays on tasks that require zero strategic thinking.

Roll forwards. Manual data entry. Formula maintenance. Formatting fixes.

You didn't get hired to babysit a spreadsheet. You got hired to help the company make better financial decisions.

But how can you do that when your model demands constant feeding before you can even use it?

→ Maintaining vs. Actually Using

There's a difference between having a financial model and using a financial model.

Having one means you update it every month. You keep it accurate. You make sure the formulas don't break.

Using one means you analyze trends. You run scenarios. You give the CEO answers in real time. You walk into board meetings with insights, not just numbers.

Most VPs of Finance spend 80% of their time on the first part and 20% on the second.

It should be the opposite.

→ Why I Built Model Wiz

I spent years as a fractional CFO watching this pattern repeat with every client.

Smart finance people. Great models. Exposed to the same tedious maintenance cycle month after month.

So I built an Excel plugin that connects your existing financial model to QuickBooks Online and handles the babysitting for you.

Model Wiz pulls your QBO data into a driver's tab that acts as the command center for your entire model. When you click roll forward:

New accounts get detected and added without overwriting your projections.

New columns appear for the latest month.

All connected dashboards refresh instantly.

No new system to learn. No black box platform. No rebuilding.

Just your model, your structure, your formulas. Updated in one click.

You didn't become a VP of Finance to babysit spreadsheets.

Book a call with my team to see how this can look for you. Link in the comments.

1 week ago | [YT] | 69

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Data validation is the most underused feature in Excel.

Most people don't even know it exists.

But once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever built models without it.

→ Dropdown Lists

This is where most people start.

Select your cell. Go to Data > Data Validation > List.

Type your options separated by commas, or reference a range.

Now users pick from a list instead of typing freehand.

Perfect for status columns, department names, account categories.

→ Number and Date Restrictions

You can limit cells to whole numbers, decimals, or values within a specific range.

Building a budget template? Set expense cells to only accept numbers greater than zero.

Same logic applies to dates. Restrict entries to dates between two values, before a certain date, or after today.

→ Input Messages and Error Alerts

Input messages show instructions when someone clicks the cell. Tell them exactly what to enter.

Error alerts pop up when someone breaks the rules. You can warn them, stop them completely, or just give them information.

→ Custom Formulas

You can write your own validation logic.

Want a cell to only accept values that match another sheet? Use a COUNTIF formula.

Need to ensure one date is always after another? Write a simple comparison.

The formula just needs to return TRUE or FALSE.

Data validation won't make your models faster.

But it will make them bulletproof.

This is why I obsess over input controls in my templates at Model Wiz.

1 week ago | [YT] | 65

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

CEOs don't read budgets. They scan for 5 things.

If you've ever presented a budget to a CEO, you know this.

They're not going line by line through your 50-row P&L. They're scanning for the numbers that tell them whether the plan makes sense.

Here's what they're looking for:

→ 1. Revenue and Growth

This is the first place every CEO looks.

What's the topline? How does it compare to last year? What's the growth rate?

If you can't clearly show where revenue is coming from and how it grows, the rest of the budget doesn't matter. Revenue drives everything else.

→ 2. Headcount

This is usually the biggest expense line in the budget.

CEOs want to know: How many people are we hiring? When do they start? What does it cost fully loaded with salary, benefits, and taxes?

Get the timing wrong and your cash projections are off. Miss the benefits and you're understating costs by 20-30%.

→ 3. Cash Position

Revenue is great. Cash is survival.

CEOs want to see how much cash you have, how much you're burning, and how long the runway is. They want to know if they need to raise, cut, or hold steady.

Your cash flow statement needs to connect directly to your P&L and Balance Sheet. If it doesn't tie, you lose credibility fast.

→ 4. Key Assumptions

Every projection is based on assumptions. CEOs know this.

They want to see your assumptions clearly laid out. Growth rates. Cost drivers. Hiring timeline. Churn. Whatever is driving your numbers.

When assumptions live in one place, CEOs can challenge them. When they're buried in formulas, nobody trusts the model.

→ 5. The Summary View

CEOs don't want to dig through tabs. They want a dashboard.

Your summary financials should show P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow in a single view. Monthly, quarterly, and annual. Clear enough to drop into a board deck.

This is where the story comes together. This is what gets approved.

→ How Model Wiz Helps

Building a budget that hits all 5 takes time.

Model Wiz connects to QuickBooks Online and generates your three-statement model with one click. Your drivers tab is already structured. Your summary views are already built.

You get 80% of the model done instantly. Then you customize your revenue assumptions, your headcount plan, your projections. Everything stays in Excel. Full flexibility to make it yours.

If you want to see how Model Wiz can help you build a budget your CEO will approve, book a call using the link in the comments.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 153

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

The Most Requested Report I've Ever Built

This template usually costs $70...but today you can grab the Comparison P&L for FREE modelwiz.kit.com/most-requested-template?utm_mediu…

Every month, founders ask the same question...

"How are we doing compared to last month?"

and if your answer is a flat QuickBooks export with rows and columns...you've already lost them.

They'll skim it. Maybe nod. Then forget everything by the next meeting.

The Comparison P&L solves that.

One dropdown. Pick your period. This month vs last month. This quarter vs last quarter. This year vs last year.

Everything updates. Variances show up in green or red. Prior period AND prior year sit side by side. You barely have to explain anything because the story tells itself.

Once a founder sees a P&L that responds to a dropdown, they never go back to static spreadsheets.

I put together a full video showing you EXACTLY how to build this from scratch.

Here's what you'll learn

→ How to create a helper table that makes your SUMIFS formula copy and paste across the entire dashboard without breaking

→ The SUMPRODUCT setup that lets you sum in TWO directions at once, by section, by summary grouping, and by date range

→ How to build a dynamic date table using EOMONTH and EDATE so your periods update automatically based on one cell

→ Setting up INDEX XMATCH to pull start dates, end dates, and display text from your list tab with a single formula

→ How to create a spill array for your data validation dropdown so new periods show up without touching your formulas

→ Variance calculations with ABS and IFERROR that handle negatives and divide by zero errors cleanly

→ Error checks that tie your dashboard back to the source data...so you catch mistakes BEFORE you hit send

The template is useful on its own. But knowing how to build this yourself is worth ten times more.

You'll understand SUMPRODUCT, INDEX XMATCH, dynamic arrays, EOMONTH, and error checks at a level that applies to ANY dashboard you build going forward.

Watch the full tutorial below

And grab the free template (normally $70) here

modelwiz.kit.com/most-requested-template?utm_mediu…

What format do you use when presenting your P&L to stakeholders?

Let me know in the comments

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 49

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

The VP of Finance Curse: Owning a Model You Didn't Build

You join a new company. You're excited. Then you open the financial model.

Formulas pointing to deleted tabs.

Hardcoded numbers with no explanation. Circular references hidden three layers deep. Column widths all over the place. And a structure that made sense to someone who left two years ago.

Welcome to the Frankenstein spreadsheet.

→ The VP of Finance Curse

You didn't build this thing. But now you own it.

And you have two options:

Option one: Fix it. Spend weeks untangling the mess. Trace every formula. Rebuild the broken pieces. Hope you don't break something else in the process.

Option two: Start over. Build a new model from scratch. Lose the historical context. Retrain everyone on a new format. Take months before it's fully operational.

Both options suck.

Fixing takes longer than you think. Every time you pull one thread, three more unravel.

Rebuilding means starting from zero while still being expected to deliver monthly reporting, board decks, and forecasts.

So most VPs of Finance pick a third option: live with the mess. Patch what you can. Work around what you can't. And quietly dread every month end.

→ The Middle Path

What if you didn't have to fix everything or start over?

What if you could keep the bones of the model and attach professional modules on top?

Keep the P&L structure that everyone recognizes. Keep the historical data. Keep the tabs that actually work.

Then plug in the pieces that are broken or missing.

A clean headcount module that actually tracks salaries, taxes, benefits, and start dates by role.

A deferred revenue module that shows how contracted revenue converts over time.

An AP module that forecasts cash out based on real payment terms.

A CapEx module with proper depreciation tracking.

You're not rebuilding. You're upgrading.

→ Why I Built Model Wiz

I spent years as a fractional CFO inheriting these exact models from prior teams.

The same Frankenstein spreadsheets. The same impossible choice between fixing and rebuilding.

So I built Model Wiz to give VPs of Finance a third option.

Model Wiz is an Excel plugin that connects to QuickBooks Online and lets you attach professional modules to your existing model.

You keep your structure. You keep your historical data. You just replace the broken pieces with modules that actually work.

Each one plugs into a central driver's tab and flows through to your statements automatically. One click roll forward. New accounts detected. Reports refreshed.

Book a call with my team to see how this can look for you. Link in the comments.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 88