Most finance teams stay on Excel longer than they should. The hard part is knowing when it is actually time to switch.

In this episode, I sit down with Paul Barnhurst, also known as The FP&A Guy. Paul has trained thousands of finance professionals, hosts three podcasts including FP&A Unlocked, and has tested almost every major FP&A tool on the market. He is known for his clear, independent reviews and helping finance teams make smarter choices about the tools they use.

We break down when Excel stops being enough and how to know it is time to move to a real FP&A tool. The biggest mistakes companies make when buying FP&A software, including the implementation traps that quietly kill projects. How to spot red flags in software demos and what to ask before signing anything. Where AI actually fits into the modern finance team and where it is just hype. What Paul found when his team tested Claude on real financial modeling cases. The difference between deterministic and generative AI and why finance leaders need to understand it. How FP&A teams will look different in the next few years. And the one soft skill Paul says is now more important than the technical ones.

If you lead a finance team or you are an FP&A professional trying to figure out when to upgrade your tools and how to actually use AI, this episode is the honest map you have been looking for.

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