Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

For years I rebuilt my P&L by hand every single month.

I got so sick of it that I set out to build the world's greatest pivot table.

After a lot of failed formulas, I actually pulled it off.

Today you can grab it for free.

Like this post and comment below, and I'll send your copy over in the next 24 hours:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/greatest-pivot-table

I am not going to pretend it was easy.

I had a transaction export, almost 1,400 rows of it, and no idea how to turn it into a real profit and loss.

So I made ChatGPT and Claude my personal tutors and got to work.

I learned the data model.

I learned power pivot.

I wrote measures I had never heard of a week earlier.

I broke it more times than I can count.

Formulas came back empty.

The accounts showed up in the wrong order.

The totals refused to add up.

I went down rabbit hole after rabbit hole until the whole thing finally clicked.

And when it clicked, it was glorious.

Here is what this one pivot table can do.

You drop in a transaction export from your accounting software and it becomes a complete profit and loss.

You can drill any number all the way down to the exact transactions behind it.

You can switch the time period with one click, current month, trailing 3, 6, or 12 months, year to date, or any full year.

You can compare your actuals against your budget, your prior month, and your prior year, side by side.

You can filter the entire report by department in a single click.

Every line shows the variance in both dollars and percent, so you see what beat plan and what missed at a glance.

And when the next month closes, you export the new transactions, hit refresh, and the whole report rebuilds itself in one click.

You never rebuild it by hand, chase a broken formula, or start over again.

The report that used to eat hours of my month now takes a few seconds.

It might just be the most powerful pivot table you will ever open.

And today it is yours for free

3 days ago | [YT] | 163

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

I spent 12 hours building this Financial Health Dashboard.
Today you can get it for free.

👍 Like this post and comment below, and I'll send your copy over in the next 24 hours:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/financial-health-dashboard

The hardest part of running a business is knowing whether it is actually healthy.

Your revenue can be climbing while your margins quietly shrink.

Your P&L can look great while you are two months away from running out of cash.

I have watched founders get blindsided by this more times than I can count.

The numbers were always there. Nobody had them in one place where the problem was obvious.

I am a Microsoft Excel MVP, and I have built hundreds of dashboards and financial models over my years as a fractional CFO.

This is the one I reach for when I want to know if a business is truly healthy.

It took me about 12 hours to get right, and it puts the eight metrics that actually matter on a single screen.

ARR, gross margin, working capital, EBITDA, net margin, CAC, cash flow, and how many months of runway you have left.

Then it grades each one against your target and colors it green, yellow, or red.

So you can tell in about three seconds what is winning and what is about to break.

At the top you get an overall status and a simple count of how many metrics are on track and how many are not.

You drop in your numbers and the whole thing updates on its own.

No formulas to build, no charts to wire up from scratch.

What you walk away with is the one view I would want in front of me before any board meeting, any investor update, or any Monday morning.

You can have it today for free.

Like and comment below and I will send it your way:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/financial-health-dashboard

4 days ago | [YT] | 203

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Today I'm giving away my Headcount Forecast Variance Template that I usually sell for $49.

👍 Like & comment this post to grab it here: www.clicktime.com/resources/headcount-forecast-var…

Headcount is the biggest line item on the P&L at most companies I work with.

But the data behind it lives all over the place.

Hiring plan in a Google Sheet. Payroll in Gusto or Rippling.

Hours on projects in some time tracker. Original forecast buried in someone's model. Actuals in NetSuite or QuickBooks.

That's five tools and zero connection between them.

So when the board asks why Project A came in $200k over budget, you're stuck splitting payroll line by line in a spreadsheet the night before the meeting.

I've lived this with my fractional CFO clients more times than I care to admit.

This template ends it.

Here's what you can do inside the file:

Forecast every hire with start date and projected cost in one place.

Compare planned headcount budget against actual spend on one clean dashboard.

Pivot labor costs by project, division, or person, then filter by team, time period, or cost center.

See exactly where labor costs moved, by how much, and why, in a variance waterfall.

Here's where ClickTime comes in.

I partnered with ClickTime to build this because they solve the hardest part of the equation: getting clean labor data at the project level in the first place.

ClickTime is a labor cost management platform that has been around for over a decade.

They track 40 million hours a year and recover more than $2 billion in labor costs annually across thousands of finance teams.

What matters for this template is how they track time.

Every hour gets categorized at the point of entry as billable work, CapEx, or R&D. It also gets tagged by project, by person, and by cost center.

So when the template pulls actuals from ClickTime, the data is already organized the way a CFO actually needs to see it.

You're not pulling raw payroll and trying to split it across projects after the fact.

You're pulling labor data that drops straight into the variance dashboard, already categorized.

If you're not on ClickTime yet, the template still works.

You can enter hours manually. If you are on ClickTime, the pivot reporting and variance waterfall update automatically.

Here's what you walk away with:

A single defensible report that shows leadership where labor dollars went and how actual spend compared to plan.

The kind of report you can take into a board meeting instead of spending the weekend manually splitting payroll by hand.

Grab it here:

www.clicktime.com/resources/headcount-forecast-var…

This post is sponsored by ClickTime.

5 days ago | [YT] | 48

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

I usually sell my Cash Flows Dashboard for $49. Today you can have it for free

👍 Like this post and comment below, and I'll send your copy over in the next 24 hours:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/cash-flows-dashboard

Cash flow is the one thing my clients ask me to explain more than anything else.

And honestly, I get why.

You can look great on paper and still wake up to an empty bank account.

Revenue is up, the P&L looks healthy, everyone feels good about the month.

Then payroll hits, a big invoice comes due, and suddenly there is nothing left in the account.

I have watched it happen to real businesses more than once.

The problem is that almost nobody can actually see their cash clearly.

They can pull a profit number in seconds.

But ask them where the cash actually went last month and you get a blank stare and half a day of digging through bank statements.

Profit tells you whether you made money.

Cash tells you whether you can keep the doors open.

Those are two completely different questions, and most reporting only answers the first one.

So I built this dashboard to answer the second one in about ten seconds.

It shows you where your cash started, every dollar that moved through operating, investing, and financing, and exactly where you ended up.

All on one screen.

You can see the months your cash climbed and the months it quietly drained, lined up across the whole year.

You drop in your own numbers and the entire thing updates on its own.

No formulas to wire up, no charts to rebuild from scratch.

What you walk away with is a view you can put in front of a founder, your board, or an investor, and they understand your cash position before you finish your first sentence.

You stop exporting data, rebuilding the same report every month, and hunting through tabs just to find one number.

And you finally get to talk about your cash with the same confidence you talk about your revenue.

It is yours free today.

Like and comment below and I will send it your way:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/cash-flows-dashboard

6 days ago | [YT] | 197

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

An Entire Financial Model Fits On One Page 🎯
🔖 Download this FREE template for free for the next 48 hours only!
yourcfoguy.kit.com/one-page-model


Every business needs a financial model.

But it’s not enough to throw together a few formulas in a spreadsheet…

you need a properly structured set of INPUTS that result in insightful OUTPUTS.

That’s why I love this one-page model - it gives you the bare bones for what you need to forecast out your business all on ONE PAGE.

Here’s how I build it 👇

➡️ STEP 1: BUILD YOUR THREE STATEMENTS

Start by setting up your columns: Jan through Dec, with quarters and annual totals.

Your monthly section is where you’ll input your values, your quarterly / annual section is where you can roll things up.

The P&L section needs:

- Revenue
- COGS
- Operating expenses in 5 key categories: advertising/marketing, travel, professional fees, headcount, and G&A
- Net Other Income
- Calculated metrics for Gross Profit, Net Operating Income, Net Income

Your Balance Sheet Structure:

- Assets divided into Cash, AR, current, fixed, and other
- Liabilities broken down by AP, Deferred Revenue, Current Assets, and Debt
- Equity summarized by Contributed capital and retained earnings

Cash Flow presentation:

- Three distinct sections with clear subtotals
- Operating cash starting from net income
- Investing activities focused on fixed asset movements
- Financing section showing debt and equity changes

➡️ STEP 2: CONNECT YOUR RETAINED EARNINGS

This connection requires precision:

- Start cell references your prior month's ending balance
- Add current month's net income (linked directly from P&L)

Now you have your P&L connected to your Balance Sheet

➡️ STEP 3: BUILD YOUR CASH FLOWS

Now for the cash flow mechanics:

- For operating, take net income and the movements in your current assets (last period - this period), and current liabilities (this period - last period)
- For Investing, take the difference in your fixed assets (last period - this period)
- For Financing, take the difference in your debt & contributed capital (this period - last period)This gives you a complete picture of how cash moves through your business each month.

➡️ STEP 4: LINK YOUR CASH POSITION

Create a robust cash linkage:

- Beginning cash pulls from the prior month end
- Add three subtotals for operating, investing, and financing to get total cash flows
- Ending cash = Beginning + Cash Flows
- Link Ending cash to your balance sheet same period

➡️ STEP 5: INSTALL YOUR ERROR CHECKS

Make your model bulletproof with a check on your balance sheet

===

This one page model is great for quick forecasts at a high level.

What are your tips for creating financial models?

Share your techniques below 👇

1 week ago | [YT] | 194

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Get my $49 Budget vs Actuals Dashboard for free

🎁 Like and comment to get the report for free in the next 24 hours
yourcfoguy.kit.com/budget-vs-actuals-dashboard

Budget vs Actuals is my FAVORITE report

In fact…if I had to present just one report to a CEO, it would be this one

Why?

First… let’s start with some definitions:

➡️What is a Budget vs Actuals report?

A Budget vs Actuals report allows you to compare what you THOUGHT was going to happen…

…to what ACTUALLY HAPPENED

This can be anything in the business, though a profit and loss is most commonly included

Next…

➡️ Why is this my favorite report?

Well, a number of reasons:

1️⃣ It Adds Credibility

The biggest thing you can do to add credibility with this report is to have a STORY for every line…

➡️ Explain what happened

➡️ Explain what you thought would happen and why

➡️ Explain how the 2 differ…or ideally, are aligned 🎯

Of all the exciting feelings I’ve had in my career…

Accurately predicting what would happen has been amongst the top

2️⃣ It Allows you to Aggregate the Key KPIS

There are a million and one financial reports out there…

The Budget vs Actuals is often concise, showing all the key takeaways from the largest areas of the business

The truth is a budget vs actuals report can be as detailed as you wish…

My favorite method is to start on a summarized level, and then drill deeper into details where needed

3️⃣ You can prepare it with nice DESIGN 🤩

Unlike a Profit & Loss or a Balance Sheet… A Budget vs Actuals often includes various graphs

These graphs give you the opportunity to explain what’s happening more easily

and allows you to add value to the presentation with some pretty design

Don’t undermine how much value stunning design to add to a financial report!

Those are my reasons for why the Budget vs Actuals is my favorite report

What do you think about the Budget vs Actuals report?

Let me know by joining us in the discussion in the comments below 👇

1 week ago | [YT] | 109

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Wait…you did all of this in EXCEL??
Grab your FREE template today 👇

Just when you think you've pushed Excel to its limits...you discover something new.

This CFO report template will give you the perfect balance between numbers & the story to accompany what is happening in your business

Give this post a 👍.comment, then grab the template for FREE in the next 48H...
→ yourcfoguy.kit.com/cfo-report

Today, I want to show you EXACTLY how I built this CFO report directly in Excel...

But first, let's understand why Excel...

➡️ WHY EXCEL

Excel is my favorite application...by far. I use it everyday, and what I love most about Excel is how SEAMLESSLY you can manipulate data.

Most people think of data only as numbers...but in reality, data can be text, pictures, shapes, icons, and so much more.

I chose Excel for this CFO report because it's the perfect tool for merging cells and combining different forms of data easily...plus I can link it to other files that contain DYNAMIC data when necessary.

➡️ WHAT'S IN THE REPORT

The report starts with three core metrics at the top...

The monthly metrics visualization on the right helps track performance between July and June...simple but effective for spotting trends.

Below that, you'll find the OPEX breakdown showing payroll at 47% of expenses...this updates automatically whenever your data changes.

I've included a breakdown of other expenses like travel and general overhead...giving you a complete picture of where money is being spent.

At the bottom, the month-over-month changes give you a clear view of performance shifts...each section has space for commentary to add context to your numbers.

What makes this report different is how it combines high-level metrics with detailed breakdowns...you can start with the big picture, then drill down into SPECIFIC areas that need attention.

➡️ HOW TO BUILD THIS

It's actually not that hard...

The formulas are simple - mostly arithmetic and comparisons...what makes it work is how everything connects. One change updates all related numbers AUTOMATICALLY.

For visualizations, Excel's built-in charts do the job perfectly:

Monthly metrics: combination chart for different scales

OPEX: pie chart for expense breakdown

MoM changes: column charts for easy comparison

Everything in the template is customizable: metrics, charts, colors, calculations...whatever works for your reporting needs.

The commentary sections are structured to guide your analysis...instead of just showing numbers, you can explain variances, highlight concerns, and suggest action items.

This approach simplifies monthly reporting by eliminating manual updates, reducing errors, and keeping everything in one place.

===

That's my take on creating a CFO report in Excel...practical, efficient, and easy to maintain.

What tools do you use for your financial reporting?

1 week ago | [YT] | 98

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Most of what people are taught about financial modeling made it harder than it actually is.

It is taught in the wrong order, with the wrong tools, starting from the wrong place.

That is the whole reason I am running a free training this Thursday at 12 PM Eastern.

landing.approvalmax.com/financial-modeling-and-con…

It is one hour, just me on screen, walking through how a financial model is actually supposed to come together.

Funny part is, even taught the wrong way, building a financial model is still the most important skill anyone in finance can have.

So I want to give you the full thing.

If you show up live, you walk away with the entire financial model I am building during the session.

It is the actual file I use with paying clients, the same structure that has helped them raise over $400 million.

It is yours free, for attending live.

Here is what we are covering in the hour.

We start with the trick that makes a statement of cash flows tie itself, the one that quietly unlocked my whole career.

Then I show you the simple structure that lets you refresh a whole model in minutes instead of rebuilding it from scratch every month.

After that, we go through the error checks built into a model so it tells you the moment a number drifts off.

Then I move quickly through how I forecast revenue, headcount, and the balance sheet.

And in the second half, we cover what happens to your numbers after the model is done, the approval and payment side where things quietly go wrong.

The model goes to live attendees.

The recording goes out to everyone who registers.

Save your spot:

landing.approvalmax.com/financial-modeling-and-con…

1 week ago | [YT] | 65

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Big 4 Accounting - is it worth it?

===

We asked 9 of the top finance leaders to open their playbooks. They said yes.

Spots are limited. I'd grab one.

Register for free: strategicfinancesummit.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm…

===

When I started my career, I was fortunate enough to work at one of the Big 4 Accounting firms…a goal for many aspiring accountants.

And while the experience shaped my career without a doubt…I’ve also come to realize it is not the best environment for some, with many richer opportunities elsewhere.

If you work in Finance & Accounting, or are thinking of entering the field, this post will simplify your options for you and give you greater clarity on whether Big 4 is for you.

But first…

➡️ WHAT ARE THE BIG 4 ACCOUNTING FIRMS?

They used to be the big 8…and now, they consist of:

• Ernst & Young (E&Y)

• Deloitte

• KPMG

• Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

➡️ WHAT ARE THE CAREER PATHS AT BIG 4?

1️⃣ Audit → Reviewing financial statements and accounting records, testing internal controls, and identifying potential errors or fraud

2️⃣ Tax → Preparing and filing tax returns primarily for large businesses, ensure compliance, and help with tax planning and strategy to reduce tax liabilities

3️⃣ Advisory → This is more broad, and is pretty similar to consulting.

➡️ WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF BIG 4?

PROS:

✅ Strong Brand Recognition → employers love seeing big 4 experience

✅ Strong Benefits → good 401k and health insurance

✅ Competitive Pay

✅ Strong learning experience

✅ Large exposure to reputable fortune 500 companies

CONS:

👎 Potential Long hours → this may be the most notorious aspect of big 4, but not all teams have long hours.

👎 High concentration in a specific area as opposed to broad exposure → While you may learn a lot, you’ll often times get “pigeon holed” into a specific area of accounting.

👎 Limited opportunity in areas outside of Audit / Tax / Advisory

👎 Corporate atmosphere → I work everyday in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Expect the exact opposite if you work at big 4 😅

➡️ HOW DO YOU GET A JOB IN THE BIG 4?

As you’ve probably heard before…it’s not WHAT you know.

It’s WHO you know.

Start by forming relationships with people who work at big 4.

Next…give strong consideration to getting your CPA…

and if you are still in school, aim for a 3.5 GPA or higher.

===

So is Big 4 worth it?

Well…that depends on who you ask.

For some it can be a dream come true. For others, it can be a nightmare.

For me? I didn’t have the best experience….but that was because I was working in tax, and little did i know….I’m really bad at it (and I don’t have any interest in it).

I learned so much more working at smaller orgs where I got to see the full picture, and work on more exciting things like closing the books, and creating a forecast.

What about you?

Share your experience below 👇

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 86

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

This is the CRAZIEST dashboard I’ve ever built…

and today I’m giving it away for FREE

👍 and comment 🗨️ below and then get your free copy here:
yourcfoguy.kit.com/ultimate-dashboard?utm_medium=v…

I spent maybe 20+ hours researching, designing, and building this dashboard…

and it tells you all sorts of key information like:

✅ Revenue & Gross Margin

✅ Comparison against budget

✅ Comparison against prior period

✅ Departmental breakdown

✅ Breakdown by cost type

and can all be updated with just ONE CLICK…

Here’s how I built it…

➡️STEP 1: DESIGN YOUR DASHBOARD

Don’t make the mistake of exporting a P&L from your accounting software and sending that to management/investors.

Instead, invest in DESIGN. And when I say design, I mean…

🎨 a cohesive color scheme

🔡 a proper font

🔀 proper alignment and placement

➡️ DATA STRUCTURE

Here, we have 4 departments:

👥 General & Administrative

👥 Sales & Marketing

👥 Research & Development

👥 Customer Support

Each department has a P&L, and we have our P&L segmented by:

1️⃣ Section

2️⃣ Summary Grouping

3️⃣ Account

and then we have a data set for ACTUALS…and another for BUDGET.

This means 8 tabs, 4 with actuals, 4 with budget

➡️ TRANSFORM WITH POWER QUERY

Now that we have our data, it’s time to TRANSFORM it in a way that will allow us to easily MANIPULATE our data.

That means UNPIVOTING our data with power query.

We’ll then append all actual tabs, and all budget tabs

➡️ CREATE RELATIONSHIPS IN POWER PIVOT

Power Pivot is the big leagues of Excel…and is something I’m still learning a lot about.

What’s amazing about Power Pivot is that you can create RELATIONSHIPS between different tables, allowing you to mix and match when creating your pivot tables

I then created a bunch of MEASURES, which are like Excel formulas, only it’s using what’s known as DAX.

➡️ CREATE PIVOT TABLES

With the data set up properly, and our measures in place, it’s time to create our pivot tables.

This part should be a breeze!

➡️ LINK UP DASHBOARDS

And now comes the grand finale 🪄🎩

With our data in place, linking up our dashboard is a breeze.

===

What I love about this dashboard is the fact that I can just click any period like YTD, or TRAILING 12 MONTHS and it all updates easily.

Have you ever used power pivot? Do you think you can create a dashboard like this?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 156