Happy New Year! As we kick off 2024, it's the perfect time to soak in some expert advice for the year ahead.

In this edition of The Finance Fix, I'm excited to share exclusive insights from four experienced finance experts. They're reflecting on their key takeaways from 2023 and offering their best advice for achieving success in the year ahead.

I hope their stories and advice inspire you as much as they have inspired me, guiding us toward a successful and fulfilling year.

Happy planning,
Christina

Set yourself up for success in 2024:

Insights from strategic finance experts

Ben Cohn

Manager of FP&A at Loadsmart

"As much as possible, build out your reporting infrastructure at a granular level. Businesses often change targets, reporting structures and focus areas, and having the data at a low level allows you to reorganize your reporting and adapt without losing a step—and more importantly, while maintaining credibility with your business partners by having accurate and timely information.

In 2024, we're focusing on adding additional dimensions to our reporting—moving from business unit P&L down to customer level P&L to give leadership more insights into our most profitable and efficient business."

Ethan Kutner

Director of FP&A at Edge Fitness Clubs

"My biggest tip is to start the budgeting process early and create an organized timeline in advance. At Edge Fitness, we have multiple iterations of our budget process for the new year—we have version one that we completed already, we just completed a version two, and we're planning to do a version three.

The FP&A team is always balancing multiple projects, so the earlier you have that timeline, the sooner and more easily you're able to interact with different business owners, get feedback on a consistent basis, and make everybody more aware of what's going on in the budgeting process."

Kevin Hoopes

Director of Finance at Apartment Therapy Media

"I recently achieved a promising win by integrating a new dimension with our sales order number into our system, which has been instrumental in connecting data sets previously maintained separately by different teams. This is a significant step forward in our ability to iterate and improve. My tip: Integrating and centralizing data sources can greatly improve financial analysis and decision-making."

Allen Michaelis

Sr. Director of Accounting & Finance at BlueWind Medical

"I'm so excited, and so is the rest of my team for 2024. For finance leaders aiming for success in the new year, I highly recommend implementing FP&A software to streamline your budget process and give budget stakeholders a sense of ownership.

We've started our 2024 planning cycle, and with Cube, it's a night and day difference from what our planning cycle used to be. Not just for my own needs trying to manage what's going to be a $60M spend next year, but even at the VP level, and all the department heads, they are blown away with how user-friendly Cube is; how amazing it is to be able to quickly and efficiently iterate."

What are your top finance tips?

My favorite part of The Finance Fix is getting to feature insights from readers like you. Drop your hottest finance tips (or request to chat live with someone from the Cube team) at the link below.

Essential reads: How to achieve more in 2024

1. The finance leader's guide to aligning OKRs & financial planning

It's essential to align our strategic goals with financial realities. This guide is designed to show you how to utilize OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) efficiently in your financial planning. Packed with expert insights and practical strategies, it's a valuable resource for making informed decisions. Definitely worth checking out!