Hosted by
Carl Seidman CPA | Microsoft MVP
The person Fortune 500s use for their financial leadership development programs
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Technical and Strategic Mastery
4.7 (73 Ratings) · 3-Weeks · Cohort-based Course
- Enduring business growth comes from strong financial strategy and execution. This course makes the complexity of FP&A remarkably simple.
Partial List of Current & Former Clients
Course Overview
FP&A is Where Financial Strategy, Analysis and Operational Execution Converge
FP&A Technical and Strategic Mastery was created from Carl Seidman’s flagship FP&A professional development curriculum which has been a cornerstone of FP&A training at dozens of Fortune 500 financial leadership development programs (FLDPs), midmarket companies, and small entrepreneurial businesses. Companies that have enrolled FP&A Analysts, Managers, and Directors include:
ABM Industries, Allscripts, CHEP, Choice Hotels, CIBC, Cigna, Cox Enterprises, Crawford & Company, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Discover, Energy Transfer, Erie Insurance, EVRAZ, Express Scripts, FS Investments, Genentech, Guy Carpenter, HCPI, Heartland Financial, HP Enterprise, Hormel, Hostess Brands, IGT, Michelin, NerdWallet, Outsystems, Rapid7, Santander, Sloan Valve, Sol Petroleum, Spotify, Telus, Triple-S, United Technologies, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Verizon, Walmart, and Workday.
You’ll learn the technical skills and mindset to make the greatest amount of difference to landing a job in FP&A, getting promoted, and pursuing the internal opportunities you’re looking for.
Gain a comprehensive understanding of financial management tailored for small and midsized businesses (SMBs):
- Financial planning & analysis
- Accounting & treasury
- Corporate finance and valuation
- Business & data analysis
Equip yourself with the skills to make informed financial decisions and support strategic growth:
- Forecast revenue and expenses
- Drive enduring profitability
- Optimize working capital
- Manage cash flow
Throughout this 2-month immersive learning experience, you’ll effectively navigate financial challenges and growth opportunities. You’ll master key concepts like:
- Dynamic FP&A business modeling
- Rolling P&L forecasts
- Strategic planning
- Business valuation
The 2024 relaunch includes curriculum that has been refined, upleveled, and expanded to address the combination of technical, strategic, and critical analysis within FP&A.
This course will empower business owners and financial leaders to translate financial data into actionable strategies, ensuring long-term sustainability.
Seidman Financial is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.NASBARegistry.org.
Seidman Financial is a division of Seidman Global LLC.
* Tuition assistance available
JANUARY 2025 COHORT:
- 6 Sessions, 3 hours each
- 9 am - 12 pm CDT
- Total Live Commitment: 18.0 hours
- Total CPE: 18.0 credits
Who Is This Course For
What You’ll Get Out of This Course
-
Develop strategic financial planning capabilities.
Strategic financial planning goes beyond short-term budgets and forecasts. You'll learn how to align financial plans with business objectives, assess investment opportunities, and plan for long-term growth. -
Acquire skills in financial analysis and interpretation.
Learn key financial metrics and ratios, interpreting what you see in the financial statements, built from supporting schedules. This analytical skill set will empower you to evaluate business performance and make data-driven decisions within the operations of the business itself. -
Learn pricing strategies for profitability.
Pricing is a critical element in any business model. You'll explore various pricing strategies and learn how to set prices that attract customers while maintaining healthy profit margins. This knowledge will be invaluable for product rationalization and revenue forecasting. -
Understand cost structures and cost optimization.
You'll delve into the various types of costs businesses incur, and analyze the nature of fixed to variable elements. You'll learn techniques for cost analysis and optimization, enabling informed decision-making that maximize profitability without compromising on efficiency. -
Gain expertise in cash flow management.
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. You'll discover how to analyze cash flow statements, manage working capital, and implement strategies to optimize cash flow. -
Master the fundamentals of budgeting and financial planning.
You'll learn the essentials of creating and managing budgets, including revenue forecasting and expense tracking. This foundational skill will enable you to allocate resources efficiently, identify financial risks early, and set achievable financial goals.
This Course Includes
- Interactive live sessions
- 41 In-depth lessons
- Projects to apply learnings
- Private community of peers
- Lifetime access to course materials
- Direct access to instructor
- Guided feedback & reflection
- Course certificate upon completion
Course Syllabus
Week 1: Jan 7—Jan 12
📄 FP&A Business Modeling and Financial Modeling Best Practices
📄 FP&A Business Model Structure and Layout
📄 FP&A Modeling and the P.E.A.C.E. Framework
📄 FP&A Formula Auditing, Error-Checking, and Evaluation
📄 Monitoring and Tracking Updates and Changes
📄 Introduction to Dynamic FP&A Business Modeling
📄 Dynamic Functionality in Enterprise Performance Management and Excel
📄 Dynamic Data Sets and Tables
📄 Dynamic Data Ranges and Formulas
📄 Dynamic Data, Pivot Tables and Slicers
📄 Dynamic Sparklines
📄 Dynamic FP&A Models in Practice
Week 2: Jan 13—Jan 19
📄 Resonating with the Intended Audience
📄 Managing Aesthetics, Presentation, and FP&A Model Components
📄 Enhancing User-Interface with Form Controls
📄 Presenting Dashboards, Waterfall Charts, and Executive Summaries
📄 Sum of Worksheets Approach to Scenario Management (Excel)
📄 Multi-Dimensional Modeling Approach to Scenario Management (Excel)
📄 Scenario Manager Tool (Excel)
📄 Employing Sensitivity Analysis for Variable Inputs and Drivers
Week 3: Jan 20—Jan 23
📄 Methods in Forecasting, Budgeting, and Projection
📄 Forecasting, Budgeting, and Projections for SMBs
📄 Techniques for Improving Forecast Accuracy
📄 Integrating Rolling Forecasts
📄 Modeling Risk, Uncertainty, Probability, and Impact
📄 Quantifying the Value of Major Projects
📄 Determinations for Appropriate Investment and Maintenance Capex
📄 Measuring Cash Flow, Revenue Recognition, and Cost Allocations
📄 FP&A Strategic Planning and Gap Analysis
📄 The Income Statement and Underlying Reporting
📄 Revenue and Cost Analysis
📄 The Balance Sheet and Underlying Reporting
📄 Working Capital Forecasting and Planning
📄 Cash Flows and Underlying Reporting
📄 Common-Sizing and Period-Over-Period Trend Analysis
📄 Liquidity Planning and Debt-Sizing
📄 Performance Optimization, Metrics, and Ratio Analysis
📄 Strategic Growth Planning and Profitability Enhancement
📄 Appraising the Business and Enhancing Value
📄 Course summary, reflections, wrap up, and next steps
Bonus
📄 Untitled Lesson
📄 Untitled Lesson
What Students Are Saying
Carl is beyond your ordinary modelling classes. He helps you change your mindset, and makes you realize that your critical thinking skills should not be applied to just the mechanics behind a process, but rather behind driving the overall process. His class was constantly engaging, and I would absolutely recommend others to take it, if they want to grow in their FP&A career!
Avneesh
Financial Analyst, Workday Inc.
Carl is an exceptional instructor that engages with his students, and he made 8 hours fly by with informative and practical tips and lessons.
Joyce
Financial Analyst, Private College
Highly recommend taking this course from Carl
Student
I enjoyed all the new formulas but more importantly I enjoyed learning how to start thinking about your modeling before beginning.
Ricardo
Senior Finance Analyst, Workday
Excellent financial modeling training. Carl is very patient and explains everything clearly. We learned many new, efficient ways to do our job.
Dani
Finance Licenciatura Workday
"Carl's class was incredibly engaging, challenging, and insightful. His energy and storytelling abilities were fantastic and made the two days fly by!"
-- Kim, Sr Finance Manager, Workday
Meet Carl, Your Instructor and Guide
Carl Seidman CPA | Microsoft MVP
Principal, Seidman Financial | Microsoft MVP
Carl serves as a Fractional CFO, FP&A advisor, and management consultant to entrepreneurial businesses throughout North America and Europe and assists them with strategic financial planning, value enhancement, and revitalization.
He is a Microsoft MVP and one of the preeminent trainers and facilitators in strategic finance and FP&A, with more than 13,000 participants attending his financial training programs, seminars, workshops, and masterminds. Notable clients include:
ABM Industries, Accordion, AlixPartners, Allscripts, Broadridge, CHEP, Choice Hotels, CIBC, Cigna, Cox Enterprises, Crawford & Company, Deloitte, Dexcom, Discover, Dominium, Express Scripts, EY, FS Investments, EVRAZ, Genentech, Healthpeak, Heartland Financial, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hostess, IGT, KPMG, Marsh & McLennan, Michelin, NerdWallet, Radisson, Rapid7, Sol Petroleum, Spotify, Triple-S, Telus, Santander, United Technologies (RTX), UBT, Verizon, Walmart, and Workday.
Carl is masterful at making the complex amazingly simple, engaging his audiences, building confidence, and facilitating a welcoming and transformative group experience. His content is rich and relatable, used in financial leadership development programs (FLDPs) at Fortune 500 companies, and is utilized or licensed by 7 of the top global financial training companies.
Carl serves as an Adjunct Professor in data analytics at the Jones School of Business at Rice University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) has earned other professional credentials including the CIRA, CFF, CFE, CGMA, AM (Accredited Member in Business Valuation), CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), Certified Anaplan Model Builder, and was a National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) 40 Under Forty honoree. He holds a BA in finance and economics and an MS in managerial accounting.
He’s been where you want to be and does the work you want to do.
Join an upcoming cohort
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Technical and Strategic Mastery
COST
$1,850
UPCOMING
Cohort 6 (Jan 2025)
DATES
Jan 7—23, 2025
PAYMENT DEADLINE
Jan 23, 2025
Students receive a certificate and 18.0 continuing professional education (CPE) credits for completing the course.
Seidman Financial is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)
Frequently Asked Questions
You are strongly encouraged not to miss live sessions, as a great part of the experience is both the live-reveals and the participant interaction.
In other words, you get to:
- learn in real-time
- apply in real-time, and
- reflect in real time
Yes, sessions are recorded and you can go through them on your own, but learning tends to be reduced.
We meet for 6 weeks, 3 hours each session. It is intentionally spaced out over a number of days and weeks so you can work your schedule around it.
That’s 18 hours all in: content, discussion, reflection, cases, and Q&A.
There is occasional pre-work and post-session work but it is minimal.
It is not customary for me to offer refunds.
Across hundreds of training, seminars, workshops, and conferences — in person and virtual — to thousands of people, I have never been asked once for a refund.
For one in-person training program, there was a blizzard and my flight was canceled. I offered a rescheduling option for a future date.
I offer more than a dozen training programs and immersive development experiences across a wide range of finance and accounting topics.
This program is intentionally designed for professionals who want greater familiarity with financial planning & analysis.
Versions of this program have been delivered to the top FP&A teams at Fortune 500 corps.
We meet live on Zoom for 3 hours each session.
Each session consists of 1-2 modules. Each module ties into prior and future modules, so it is vital to try to avoid missing classes.
There will also be asynchronous content and exercises you’ll do on your own to reinforce what we cover live.
Prerequisites for the course include the following:
- You should have a basic-to-intermediate understanding of Microsoft Excel
- You should have a current version (2016 or later) of Microsoft Excel, ideally (though not necessary) on a PC.
- You should have at least an intermediate understanding of accounting and finance concepts.
Yes, it qualifies for 18 CPE credits.
Seidman Financial is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credits.
You will be expected to have a working computer with a webcam, microphone, and reliable internet connection.
You will benefit from having general business knowledge.
Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
Technical acumen is not required for participation in this program which means a deep understanding of financial and accounting times does not apply.