Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

4 BEAUTIFUL Dashboards for Your Business

All built with the help of Excel's Copilot 🤖

📩 Join our newsletter and get instant access 👉 yourcfoguy.notion.site/copilot-dashboards?utm_sour…

Here are the dashboards we built together 👇

➡️ PAYROLL DASHBOARD

A standard department cost breakdown, critical for any CFO running monthly financials.

The dashboard splits personnel expenses into their core components:

- Base salary distribution across departments

- Total loaded costs per division

- Department cost concentration

- Headcount allocation

When you're managing an organization's largest expense line, this view gives you the metrics that matter for board meetings and budget planning.

➡️ BUDGET VS ACTUALS

The foundation of monthly variance analysis, because every CFO needs to explain those deviations.

This dashboard consolidates four critical metrics:

- Revenue performance against budget

- Operating expense variances

- Cash flow monitoring

- Ending cash position

The four quadrant visualization puts these metrics in context with each other.

No more flipping through multiple reports during monthly reviews.

What matters here is the relationship between operating performance and cash position, the two metrics your board cares about most.

➡️ AP DASHBOARD

Standard accounts payable tracking that every finance department runs monthly.

This view consolidates:

- Total outstanding invoices

- Current aging metrics

- Payment scheduling

- Vendor delivery tracking

For treasury management, these metrics drive your short term cash forecasting.

The aging breakdown helps predict upcoming cash requirements.

➡️ HIRING DASHBOARD

A straightforward recruitment funnel analysis, because headcount changes drive financial planning.

The dashboard tracks:

- Application conversion rates

- Stage by stage progression

- Total pipeline volume

- Time in each stage

When you're forecasting personnel costs, understanding your conversion rates and pipeline velocity is essential for accurate budgeting.

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If until recently you needed deep Excel expertise to build professional dashboards, today Copilot changes that equation.

But here's the thing. While Copilot handles the heavy lifting, it still needs a CFO's strategic direction.

No single prompt will generate these dashboards perfectly.

You need to know what metrics matter, how they connect, and what story they should tell.

Have you tried building a dashboard using Copilot? How many prompts did it take you to get it right?

Grab it here: yourcfoguy.notion.site/copilot-dashboards?utm_sour…

Let me know in the comments below 👇

2 days ago | [YT] | 56

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

The Ultimate Business Dashboard Every CEO Needs 🤓

7 snapshots that tell you everything happening in your business

...and you can get this dashboard for free

📩 Join our newsletter and get instant access 👉: yourcfoguy.kit.com/ultimate-business-dashboard

Every day our company shares internally a number of dashboards into close to every area of our business.

These dashboards give me QUICK insight into KEY areas of the business...after 30 seconds of consumption, I have a good pulse on everything that's happening.

If you are running a business, there's no way that you can get in the weeds with everything...you need quick snapshots to summarize what's happening.

Here is my preferred set up:

➡️ REVENUE & GROWTH

There are few things that are as important as sales, and growth.

This is especially true if you’re an early stage startup, where revenue & growth is what determines your ability to get more funding from investors

➡️ CASH FLOWS

OK…I said there are few things as important of sales & growth…

cash flows is definitely one of them.

I like to keep track of how much cash is coming in from receivables…

how much cash is going out to employees…

as well as to vendors…

The last thing I want is to be taken by surprise with anything cash related

➡️ PROFIT & LOSS

Your P&L is one of the most useful reports…

and is designed to tell you ONE thing…

how much profit (or loss) you are generating

➡️ HEADCOUNT

Your headcount is one of the most important things to key track of…

Why?

Because it’s often times the LARGEST expense…

and often times the BIGGEST contributor to your success

➡️ PIPELINE SALES

It’s not enough to understand how much you’ve done in sales…

it’s just as important to understand what you have coming in the pipeline.

This can help you prepare resources, cash flows, and much more.

➡️ HIRING

Are you in the process of hiring for a new role?

It’s crucial to stay up to date on what’s happening with the job post…

I like to review this snapshot every morning as we have an active role (which we do - check out our hiring page at Mighty Digits!)

➡️ BUDGET VS ACTUALS

Budgets are a great thing - I don’t care how much backlash that comment gets.

It allows you to create a blueprint for what you think the future will look like…

and then track against that blueprint, understanding whether you need to tweak your assumptions, or whether all is going according to plan.

This is by far my favorite report…I can’t get enough of it.

===

That’s my take on the metrics you should be tracking everyday, and the best way to ingest this information at a quick glance via an attractive dashboard…

but every CEO has their own metrics which matter more to their business / industry.

You can grab it here: yourcfoguy.kit.com/ultimate-business-dashboard

What metrics are you tracking?

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

4 days ago | [YT] | 94

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

8 Ways to Value a company

1. DISCOUNTED CASH FLOWS (DCF)

• How it Works: Calculates the present value of an investment based on its expected future cash flows.

• Formula: CF_1 / (1+r)^1 + CF_2 / (1+r)^2 + ... + CF_n / (1+r)^n (CF = Cash Flow, r = discount rate, n = number of periods)

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: M&A, Corporate Finance, Investment Banking

2. MARKET CAP

• How it Works: Values a company by multiplying its current share price by the total number of outstanding shares.

• Formula: Share Price x Total Outstanding Shares

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Publicly traded companies

3. COMPARABLE COMPANY ANALYSIS (CCA)

• How it Works: Compares the company's financial metrics to similar companies to determine value.

• Formula: Based on multiples like P/E ratio, EBITDA, etc., specific to the industry.

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Useful for valuing both public and private companies, especially when comparable financial data is available.

4. PRECEDENT TRANSACTIONS

• How it Works: Analyzes prices paid for similar companies in past transactions.

• Formula: Valuation based on transaction multiples, adjusted for size, market, and timing.

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Used in M&A, particularly relevant for investment banking and private equity.

5. EBITDA MULTIPLE

• How it Works: Applies a standard industry multiplier to a company's EBITDA.

• Formula: EBITDA x Industry Multiplier

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Often used in industries where EBITDA is a key performance metric.

6. BOOK VALUE

• How it Works: Based on the company's assets minus its liabilities as recorded on the balance sheet.

• Formula: Total Assets - Total Liabilities

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Relevant for asset-heavy companies, like real estate or manufacturing.

7. 409A VALUATION

• How it Works: Determines the fair market value of a private company's common stock.

• Formula: Utilizes various valuation methods, often DCF or CCA, adjusted for private company specifics.

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Crucial for startups and private companies planning to offer stock options.

8. REVENUE MULTIPLIER (including ARR/MRR)

• How it Works: Applies a multiplier to a company's total or recurring revenue.

• Formula: Revenue x Revenue Multiplier

• Common Uses & Suitable Company Types: Particularly relevant for SaaS and subscription-based business models.

===

Did you learn something? I know I sure did…

But there’s much more to it.

Got anything to add to the topic?

Join the discussion in the comments below 👇

5 days ago | [YT] | 79

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

The Excel D∙A∙D∙A Framework

A comprehensive framework for how to structure your excel files

Excel continues to be the #1 tool for Finance & Accounting professionals…

and there is an endless amount of content to help you get the most out of working with excel.

While every excel file can differ…

they should all follow the same structure, and utilize the same principles.

Let’s do a deep dive on the Excel D∙A∙D∙A framework so that you can get the most out of using Excel:

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D → DYNAMIC & FLEXIBLE

Your workbooks should be dynamic & flexible, allowing you to move QUICKLY…and EFFICIENTLY.

Here, the key parts to focus on are:

⏩ One source linked to multiple outputs

when designed properly, your source files and inputs drive multiple outputs, without the need to edit or tweak

🧮 Dynamic formulas & Named Ranges

with the correct mix of Relative, Absolute, and Mixed references, you can scale your formulas to be reusable in multiple areas of your excel file.

Another great way to reuse data is by creating a named range

♻️ Easy to refresh with Source Data

your source data should be synced in it’s raw native format, and then cleaned up using power query. This will make refreshing your data, inputs, and outputs, and breeze

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A → ACCURATE

It’s not enough for your excel files to be dynamic & flexible…

they must also be ACCURATE

Accurate means free of errors…and even better, including error checks where you will be alerted if information does not tie from one location to another.

a classic error check is to ensure that Asset = Liabilities + Owners Equity

---

D → DIGESTIBLE

It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be the only person using your excel file…

so it’s key to design things in a way where others can understand…

WITHOUT the need for lengthy explanations

Here, you’ll want to utilize a comprehensive structure where your Inputs drive your outputs…

it’s also a good idea to utilize a relevant color scheme, and table of contents

---

A → ATTRACTIVE

Here comes my favorite part 🤩

Remember…we human beings are creatures of design!

Invest in pretty design for your excel files to captivate your audience, and leave them feeling happy to ingest the data you are presenting them

===

The Excel D∙A∙D∙A framework is what I strive to use in all of my excel file…

but it’s an ever ending pursuit to deliver the right value.

How do you structure your excel files?

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

5 days ago | [YT] | 69

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

CASH vs ACCRUAL accounting

A CRUCIAL topic for understanding Financial Statements.

Before you can close out the books…

before you can report to management…

before you can comprehend what happened in your business…

you must understand which BASIS of Accounting you are reporting on.

Let’s do a deep dive:

Watch the FULL tutorial here 👉 youtu.be/7n5G4aAR4Hk

➡️ What is an “Accounting Method” or “basis of Accounting”?

They in essence represent the set of “rules” that you are following when reporting your numbers.

See…if you report income, you need to first define what that actually means.

Does it mean you made a sale? You delivered your product? You received money?

In order to give clarity to the readers of the financial statements, you must clearly define what “rules” you are following with the numbers you are reporting

➡️ What is the Cash basis of accounting?

The cash basis of accounting means that you treat all income once you receive money..

and all expenses once you pay for something

Now…there are exceptions to this rule (see below), but that’s the gist

➡️ What is the Accrual basis of accounting?

The accrual basis of accounting means that you record income once you DELIVER your product or service (or rather, once you “earn” the income)…

and you record expenses once you CONSUME those expenses (or rather, you “incur” the expense)

➡️ Are there exceptions?

Yes! The cash basis of accounting doesn’t treat all money received as income…for example, you may have a refund from a vendor, which would be a negative expense.

You also wouldn’t classify all money out as expenses - instead, certain items need to be “capitalized” or put on the balance sheet.

For example…inventory…capex…loans

➡️ Which method is right for my business?

Like most things in life, it depends.

If you’re a really small company, without any stakeholders - I’d vote that you go for the cash basis of accounting.

Why? Because it’s so simple to manage. You don’t need to book too many complex journal entries

If you’re a bigger company, with investors and other shareholders, then the accrual basis is most likely the right option for you.

Why? Because the accrual basis gives you a lot more insight into what’s actually happening in the business. And odds are, if you’re a bigger company, you can invest in a proper finance & accounting team to reconcile your books.

===

That’s my take on Cash vs Accrual accounting…

but there’s much more to it! What would you add?

Join the discussion in the comments below 👇

1 week ago | [YT] | 87

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Your head of sales asks why you only recorded $10,000 of revenue this month. The deal they closed was worth $120,000.
⠀
They know the business incredibly well. They've just never had to think about revenue recognition, and they shouldn't have to.
⠀
Translating that is finance's job, and it's one of the four steps in departmental budgeting.
⠀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAH3...
⠀
I've watched companies get this wrong more times than I can count, and it costs them hours every month.
⠀
Step one is structuring the data.
⠀
A traditional P&L tells you WHAT the company is spending money on. But it doesn't tell you WHO owns that spending.
⠀
So every transaction needs two labels instead of one.
⠀
Most companies handle that one of two ways. You can stack the departments straight into the P&L, G&A on top, then sales and marketing, and so on.
⠀
That works until the head of sales asks for their own budget. Now you're exporting, deleting rows, fixing formulas, and keeping a separate file alive.
⠀
So I keep the P&L clean and tag each transaction with its department. Same report, one change, and you're looking at sales and marketing instead.
⠀
Step two is working with the department heads.
⠀
The biggest mistake I see is sending someone a giant report and asking, can I get your budget?
⠀
Where do they even start? Most department heads have never worked in finance, and they shouldn't need to.
⠀
Step three is building it. I only collect three pieces.
⠀
People. Who's already there, what they cost, and who they want to hire next year.
⠀
Existing spend. Most don't remember every subscription they signed up for. So I show them what they're spending today and let them tell me what to keep and what to cancel.
⠀
New spend. The conference, the new software... or the presidential suite at this year's company offsite.
⠀
Then leadership looks at the whole thing and sometimes says... absolutely not.
⠀
So you go back to the department head and work out what matters most now that 300,000 has turned into 200,000.
⠀
Step four is holding people to it.
⠀
Every month you run budget vs actuals and drill into the biggest variances. But now the explanation isn't sitting entirely with you.
⠀
You go to whoever owns that budget and ask what happened. Is that new hire still coming, or did it slip a month? You've used HALF the annual spend already, was that the plan?
⠀
And when the answer changes things, the original budget stays FIXED for everyone who agreed to it. You update the rolling forecast instead.
⠀
Full walkthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGAH3...
⠀
A CFO once told me that budgets should be collaborated on by many people, but owned by one person. I've never forgotten it.
⠀
So who owns the budgets at your company?

1 week ago | [YT] | 56

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

A lot of people use a budget vs actuals, but they don't understand all the parts.

So the report gets built every month, and still nobody can really say what it's telling them.

Once you know what all 7 parts do, you'll understand your business like you never have before.

So here they are, starting with budget and actual.

→ Budget On The Left, Actual Right Beside It

The budget is the plan you saved down, and nobody touches it after that.

The actual sits right next to it and gets refreshed every month.

And when it's time for a new budget, usually once a year and sometimes every quarter, you save down a NEW version instead of editing the old one.

→ What Goes Down The Side

I keep the rows to a summarized P&L and the cash flows.

The balance sheet stays off the report, because I'd honestly rather read the cash movement straight from the statement of cash flows.

One detail on the cash rows... the ending cash budget is just the closing balance, so you don't add the months together.

→ The ▲ Column

That's your dollar variance, and I like mine set up a very specific way.

Good variances are positive.

Bad variances are negative.

Now, you can't just take budget minus actual on every line.

Sometimes you WANT the actual to come in higher, and sometimes you want it lower.

Revenue coming in under budget is bad news, but payroll coming in under budget is good news.

So income and cash lines get actual minus budget, and cost lines get budget minus actual.

Which is why cost of goods sold went over budget and shows (60,000), while G&A came in under and shows 40,000, even though both are cost lines.

→ The % Column

You divide by the ABSOLUTE value of the budget, so the % always carries the same sign as the ▲.

Net operating income was planned as a loss, and it came in $80,000 better than that, so it shows +53%.

But without ABS, a positive variance over a negative budget gives you a negative percent... so good news shows up as bad news.

→ Why You Need Both Columns

A million dollar miss doesn't tell you much on its own.

If the company did $100 million in sales, that's just a 1% miss.

If they did 3 million, well, that's a 33% miss, which is MUCH more serious.

And it works the other way too.

On the report, sales and marketing and cost of goods sold both show (10%), but one is only a $30,000 miss and the other is $60,000.

→ How The Whole Thing Reads

The chart is there to quantify the variance.

People read a graph way faster than they read a table.

But a chart can't tell you why it happened, so the commentary explains the key variances in plain English.

And it all stays at the summary level, so you only drill into the individual accounts when you need to.

===

Save this one for the next time you sit down to present your budget vs actuals.

P.S. If this report eats up your time every month, Model Wiz now works out every ▲ and % for you.

The 20% off Model Wiz ends tonight. Book a call before then to get it. The link's in the first comment.

1 week ago | [YT] | 74

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

Budget vs actuals vs rolling forecast.

A lot of people confuse them.

Here's the actual difference.

In my workbook, the budget and the rolling forecast sit on two different tabs, and the actuals only ever go into the rolling forecast.

The budget is the version that got signed off, and you don't change it after that.

The actuals are what really happened, pulled straight from your accounting software.

And the rolling forecast holds your actuals to date, plus a forecast for the months that are left.

The budget and the rolling forecast start off with the exact same data on the day you first save down your budget.

Then they drift apart... so in the example, by October the budget tab STILL shows 6,000,000 for the full year, while the rolling tab is up to 6,350,000.

You save down a budget at least once a year, and the rolling forecast gets updated EVERY month.

→ How They Work Together

It all starts with a first pass of your forecast that gets signed off.

You save down a separate version of it, and that copy becomes your budget.

Then each month, you roll your forecast forward with the new actuals.

So now you can compare it against the budget and see exactly where you were on and where you were off.

If a variance is just timing, the budget stays put.

But if the business itself changed, you save down a NEW version and get that one signed off too.

And the best CEOs I work with go through their budget vs actuals with me every single month, in detail.

→ Where It Gets Hard

Refreshing the model with actuals is honestly one of the hardest parts of the whole thing.

New accounts keep popping up in your chart of accounts, and each one has to be identified and linked up, or your new month won't tie to the old one... and that takes hours.

→ Mistakes To Avoid

The first one is editing the budget when actuals come in different, instead of putting those changes in the rolling forecast.

Another is expecting zero variances, when you'll ALWAYS have them because the future is totally unpredictable.

And the last one is treating your forecast as a one time exercise, when it only works if you keep updating it.

===

Run the two together, and you get a fixed budget to hold yourself accountable to, plus a rolling forecast that's always up to date.

So how often do you save down a new budget... once a year, every quarter, or once a year plus whenever something big changes?

P.S. If updating your budget vs actuals takes hours every month, **@Model Wiz** now puts your budget next to your actuals for you, with every variance worked out and new accounts flagged.

The 20% off Model Wiz ends tomorrow. Book a call before then to get it. The link's in the first comment.

1 week ago | [YT] | 88

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

I've built a lot of budget vs actuals, and a lot of people miss the most important part.

Some of them don't even do it at all.

It's the commentary sitting next to the numbers.

How can a few sentences be that important?

Well, a 10% variance with a good explanation is WAY better than a 2% variance you don't understand.

Let me show you how to write it.

→ Start With The Example

In the example report, general and administrative came in $40,000 favorable.

And the commentary next to it gives TWO reasons, the talent recruiter we didn't hire and the Delaware franchise tax we haven't paid yet, each with its own dollar amount.

That's what shows you've got a grip on what's actually happening in the business.

Now look at the word "primarily"...

Those two reasons cover at least $32,000 of the $40,000, so the sentence explains the big stuff without trying to account for EVERY dollar.

→ Not Every Line Needs A Sentence

The same goes for which variances get commentary in the first place.

Don't explain every $5K variance... focus on what impacts business decisions.

But for every material one, here's what I'd ask.

→ 1. Is It Temporary Or Permanent?

Will this variance keep showing up, or was it just a one off?

→ 2. What Are The Details That Make It Up?

To answer it, you go from the summary down to the actual accounts.

The more you know about how financial statements are produced, the more you can speak to the variances.

→ 3. Which Of The Four Causes Is It?

An Excel error is a mistake in the model itself... and yes, I've been there a bunch of times 😅

An error in judgment is an assumption that was too aggressive, or too conservative.

A difference in timing is when it lands in a different period than planned, something like "We projected $200k more in sales, but our product launch slipped three weeks due to supply chain delays. Revenue moved into Q2."

And a change in business trajectory is when the business model itself shifts away from the plan.

→ 4. How Do I Say It In Plain English?

Your commentary should read like a brief executive summary, not a novel.

So have someone else read it cold, and if they can't follow it, rewrite it.

→ 5. What's The Next Action Item?

The goal is to go from "here's what happened" to "here's what we're going to do about it."

Sometimes that action is saving down a new version of the budget.

→ 6. Who Needs To Be Aware Of This?

Your CEO and a department head can care about COMPLETELY different things.

From there, I'll either email the full story to a client, or save it for when I'm presenting live in front of leadership or the board.

===

P.S. Model Wiz won't write your commentary... that part is still yours. But with your budget next to your actuals and every variance worked out, you get to the lines worth explaining faster.

The 20% off Model Wiz ends tomorrow. Request a demo before then to get it. The link's in the first comment.

1 week ago | [YT] | 76

Josh Aharonoff (Your CFO Guy)

If you're the one keeping the budget vs actuals current every month, you know the routine.

You export fresh actuals, line every account back up with your budget, and check the math before anyone else sees it.

Then the next month comes... and you do it all over again.

That's exactly why we just launched budget vs actuals in Model Wiz, my software.

And for the next 3 days, you can get it at 20% off.

If you already want to see it with your own numbers, book a call here: app.modelwiz.com/demo-booking?utm_source=social&ut…

Here's what it does for you.

It pulls your actuals straight from your accounting software.

It lines them up against your budget, with every variance in dollars and in percent.

And it builds the whole report into your Excel model, and online in the Model Wiz web app.

Your budget only goes in once. Here's how it gets in, wherever you keep it today.

→ It's In QuickBooks Online Or An Excel File

Either one comes straight in.

And if your Excel file carries a balance sheet budget too, you see cash against the plan as well as profit.

On Xero? Send your budget as an Excel file or hand it to my team, since a direct Xero import is coming soon.

→ It's A Spreadsheet Only You Can Follow

A lot of budgets get built WITH the CEO and the department heads.

So by the time one is signed off, the file has been through a lot of hands 😅

Maybe yours is already done, but the layout only makes sense to you.

Or the accounts in it don't quite match the accounts in your books.

That's totally fine.

Send us the file.

My team gets your budget into Model Wiz for you.

You don't reformat a thing.

→ You Don't Have One Yet

Model Wiz connects to your accounting software and builds your financial model from your books, forecast included.

That forecast can be your starting budget.

You adjust what you want, the adjusted copy becomes your plan, and your forecast carries on separately.

Which is exactly how I'd do it by hand... save down a copy, and let the forecast keep moving.

→ Every Month After That

You don't line accounts back up or recheck the math.

Your new actuals come in, and your time goes into explaining WHY the numbers moved.

3 days left.

At the end of Tuesday, the 20% launch discount ends... and after that, you pay full price.

And if your budget lives in a messy spreadsheet, don't wait to clean it up first. Send it over, and my team handles it.

Book a call before Tuesday is over, and 20% off Model Wiz is yours.

You can grab a time here: app.modelwiz.com/demo-booking?utm_source=social&ut…

1 week ago | [YT] | 32