The Shift No One Wants to Talk About Every finance leader says the same thing:“We’re adding AI to our forecasting.” But few have asked the harder question:“What happens when AI starts making the decisions we used to?” Most conversations about AI in FP&A focus on efficiency — faster close cycles, automated consolidations, variance detection. Those […]
The Paradox at the Heart of Modern Finance Your forecast isn’t wrong.It’s overfit. Across finance, teams have become masters of calibration—tight ranges, decimal-perfect models, immaculate reconciliations.And yet, the moment markets shift, those models freeze. We’ve mistaken accuracy for intelligence.We’ve built systems that can measure everything but learn nothing. At The Schlott Company, we call it […]
You’ve heard this before: “Our dashboards are real-time.”You’ve seen it in board meetings, investor updates, and in the optimistic pitches from software vendors. But here’s the paradox: even in organizations with “real-time” systems, decisions feel like they’re being made on stale data — delayed by weeks or months. That gap between what’s happening now and […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/pexels-pixabay-265087-1.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngSarah Schlott2025-10-13 21:10:122025-10-13 21:10:36Why “Real-Time” Finance Still Runs 30 Days Late
We once reviewed a model from a CFO who claimed his forecast was accurate to the penny. It wasn’t.It only looked that way. The workbook was polished — balanced, reconciled, color-coded, every cell accounted for. Yet inside that perfection lived a quiet flaw that erodes credibility across finance teams: false precision. The Illusion of Accuracy […]
A Counterintuitive Start Finance has always been seen as the function of “no.” No to risk. No to expansion. No to ideas that didn’t fit the spreadsheet. But what if finance wasn’t about rejection at all? That’s the paradox Sarah Schlott leans into. For her, finance is not a brake pedal — it’s a navigation […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_3985-1.jpg10251024The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-10-03 09:17:042025-10-03 09:18:31Forecasting as Strategy: Sarah Schlott’s New Finance Lens
A Forecasting Prediction We Can’t Ignore Over the past decade, FP&A has quietly shifted from an annual budget exercise to a continuous discipline. But the next decade will force something more radical: the rise of AI-driven zero-based forecasting (ZBF). Traditional budgeting still carries legacy habits: incrementalism, sandbagging, and the classic “last year plus 5%.” But […]
A SaaS CFO once told me over coffee: “We’re finally at $80M ARR, but I feel less in control than when we were at $8M.” The culprit wasn’t product-market fit. It wasn’t sales productivity. It was something quieter, messier, and far more dangerous: forecasting across multiple entities. Here’s the paradox: scaling should bring clarity. Instead, […]
I’ve spent nearly two decades in the trenches of finance — from mergers to startup scaling to advising founders who are making million-dollar bets on instinct and incomplete data. If there’s one lesson that has stuck with me, it’s this: finance, when done right, doesn’t limit ambition. It amplifies it. That’s why I’ve started describing […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/130.jpg8001200Sarah Schlotthttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngSarah Schlott2025-10-03 08:54:332025-10-03 08:54:55Modern FP&A: The Shining City on a Hill for Founders
The first wave of AI hype was all about replacing people. Call centers, copywriters, junior analysts — no job seemed safe. But the next wave of AI isn’t about replacement. It’s about augmentation, especially in one of the most founder-sensitive areas of business: finance. Here’s the prediction: AI-driven FP&A will become the single biggest unlock […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/pexels-jakubzerdzicki-25589797.jpg8001200The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-10-03 08:50:122025-10-03 08:50:12AI and the Future of Entrepreneurial Finance for Founders
Angel investing is often framed as a leap of faith — backing founders, betting on vision, riding upside. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the discipline many angels dismiss as operational housekeeping — financial planning & analysis (FP&A) — is one of the highest-leverage growth and protection tools available. It’s a paradox: angels care fiercely about […]
https://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/182.jpg8001200The Schlott Companyhttps://theschlottco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo-schlottco-1.pngThe Schlott Company2025-10-03 08:44:332025-10-03 08:44:33Why Angel Investors Underestimate FP&A — and Miss Out
When AI Replaces the Analyst
The Shift No One Wants to Talk About Every finance leader says the same thing:“We’re adding AI to our forecasting.” But few have asked the harder question:“What happens when AI starts making the decisions we used to?” Most conversations about AI in FP&A focus on efficiency — faster close cycles, automated consolidations, variance detection. Those […]
When Forecast Accuracy Kills Adaptability
The Paradox at the Heart of Modern Finance Your forecast isn’t wrong.It’s overfit. Across finance, teams have become masters of calibration—tight ranges, decimal-perfect models, immaculate reconciliations.And yet, the moment markets shift, those models freeze. We’ve mistaken accuracy for intelligence.We’ve built systems that can measure everything but learn nothing. At The Schlott Company, we call it […]
Why “Real-Time” Finance Still Runs 30 Days Late
You’ve heard this before: “Our dashboards are real-time.”You’ve seen it in board meetings, investor updates, and in the optimistic pitches from software vendors. But here’s the paradox: even in organizations with “real-time” systems, decisions feel like they’re being made on stale data — delayed by weeks or months. That gap between what’s happening now and […]
When Forecasts Lie: The Hidden Cost of False Precision in FP&A
We once reviewed a model from a CFO who claimed his forecast was accurate to the penny. It wasn’t.It only looked that way. The workbook was polished — balanced, reconciled, color-coded, every cell accounted for. Yet inside that perfection lived a quiet flaw that erodes credibility across finance teams: false precision. The Illusion of Accuracy […]
Forecasting as Strategy: Sarah Schlott’s New Finance Lens
A Counterintuitive Start Finance has always been seen as the function of “no.” No to risk. No to expansion. No to ideas that didn’t fit the spreadsheet. But what if finance wasn’t about rejection at all? That’s the paradox Sarah Schlott leans into. For her, finance is not a brake pedal — it’s a navigation […]
The Future of AI-Driven Zero-Based Forecasting in FP&A
A Forecasting Prediction We Can’t Ignore Over the past decade, FP&A has quietly shifted from an annual budget exercise to a continuous discipline. But the next decade will force something more radical: the rise of AI-driven zero-based forecasting (ZBF). Traditional budgeting still carries legacy habits: incrementalism, sandbagging, and the classic “last year plus 5%.” But […]
Solving Multi-Entity Consolidation Forecasting in SaaS
A SaaS CFO once told me over coffee: “We’re finally at $80M ARR, but I feel less in control than when we were at $8M.” The culprit wasn’t product-market fit. It wasn’t sales productivity. It was something quieter, messier, and far more dangerous: forecasting across multiple entities. Here’s the paradox: scaling should bring clarity. Instead, […]
Modern FP&A: The Shining City on a Hill for Founders
I’ve spent nearly two decades in the trenches of finance — from mergers to startup scaling to advising founders who are making million-dollar bets on instinct and incomplete data. If there’s one lesson that has stuck with me, it’s this: finance, when done right, doesn’t limit ambition. It amplifies it. That’s why I’ve started describing […]
AI and the Future of Entrepreneurial Finance for Founders
The first wave of AI hype was all about replacing people. Call centers, copywriters, junior analysts — no job seemed safe. But the next wave of AI isn’t about replacement. It’s about augmentation, especially in one of the most founder-sensitive areas of business: finance. Here’s the prediction: AI-driven FP&A will become the single biggest unlock […]
Why Angel Investors Underestimate FP&A — and Miss Out
Angel investing is often framed as a leap of faith — backing founders, betting on vision, riding upside. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the discipline many angels dismiss as operational housekeeping — financial planning & analysis (FP&A) — is one of the highest-leverage growth and protection tools available. It’s a paradox: angels care fiercely about […]