The SaaS CFO | The #1 source for SaaS finance education. Video lessons, content, templates, and communities to accelerate your SaaS and career.

WHAT I DO:  I help SaaS companies via fractional SaaS CFO services, coaching, and courses in SaaS metrics and finance.  I help companies achieve financial improvement and transparency via a SaaS finance framework that links operations to finance.

WHO I HELP:  I help SaaS founders, finance/accounting, and investors.

WHY IT WORKS:  Translating the operational story into consumable numbers is the key to driving corporate performance and understanding the economics of SaaS businesses.

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT: From debits and credits to financial forecasting to M&A, my experience has not just been silo’ed in the accounting or finance track, but both sides of the desk.  My operations background at several airlines has improved my ability to translate operational performance into improved financial understanding and foresight. My on-the-job experience as a SaaS CFO has allowed me to help thousands of SaaS founders and finance teams.

Ben Murray

Josh Aharonoff, CPA

Fractional CFO | Founder & CEO at Mighty Digits | Follow Your CFO Guy for Finance & Accounting tips!

I build tools that make financial reporting effortless — starting with Model Wiz, the Excel-based FP&A platform used by accounting firms, founders, and CFOs. 

I also teach finance and Excel to a community of 400,000+ across YouTube, LinkedIn, and my newsletter. 

When I’m not creating, I work as a fractional CFO helping companies turn their financial data into action.

Check out some helpful resources here:

🔗 www.modelwiz.com - Get beautiful dashboards + forecast right in your excel file

🔗 www.yourcfoguy.com - Learn Finance & Accounting like you’ve never seen before

🔗 www.mightydigits.com - Get hands on support

CEO and Founder

Mighty Digits is a consulting firm specializing in Accounting and Finance services for early stage startups. Services include Financial modeling, Month end Close, AP / AR Management, Payroll, Compliance Filings and more.

I Asked Claude to Build an Excel Dashboard
People keep saying AI can't handle real financial work.

So I gave Claude a prompt to build a department headcount dashboard (Full prompt in the comments)

20 minutes later...

I'm staring at a fully functional dashboard.

→ What I Asked For

A department dashboard where each manager only sees their team's data.

Dropdown selector. Select "Finance" and everything updates.

Auto filtering tables. KPI cards. Cost breakdowns.

→ What Claude Built

Look at the image in the bottom right corner...this is what Claude gave me.

Source table with employees across Finance, Marketing, Sales, Product, Ops.

The dropdown works. Select a department and boom...everything updates.

Filtered table using the FILTER formula. Dynamic arrays that spill based on selection.

KPI cards that calculate automatically from the filtered data.

Cost breakdown by category. Formulas linked properly.

Clean professional structure.

But here's the thing...

→ Then I Made It Mine

The main image shows what happened after a few tweaks.

Brand colors. Some formatting adjustments. A few design touches.

Now it's world class. Presentation ready. Something I could send to executives TODAY.

That's the power here.

Claude handles the heavy technical lifting. The formulas. The structure. The logic.

You bring the polish. The brand. The final touches that make it yours.

→ What Got Me

It understood dynamic arrays and used them correctly.

The FILTER formula isn't basic. Most finance pros spend hours googling tutorials for this.

It structured everything right from the start. No trial and error. No debugging formulas.

The design thinking... KPIs at top, details below, breakdown on side. Exactly how I build them.

→ Here's What I Keep Thinking

My whole career, I've believed Excel is the most important skill in finance.

Still do.

But with tools like this? You can cut the learning curve MASSIVELY.

You don't need months mastering advanced formulas. Skip straight to using them.

Focus on the business know how. What does this dashboard need to show? What decisions will it drive?

If you know WHAT you want and WHY it matters...Claude handles the HOW.

That's not replacement. That's amplification.

→ The Real Shift

If you implement this in your workflow...use it step by step like a coach handling technical execution while you guide strategy...

That's where it gets powerful.

Every finance team rebuilds the same stuff. Headcount dashboards. Budget trackers. Revenue breakdowns.

The repetitive setup? Claude does it in minutes.

You bring the context. The judgment. The customization.

Transform your financial workflows with Claude, get started at https://lnkd.in/efHYM8VD

What dashboard should I build next?

#ClaudePartner

This post is sponsored by Anthropic.

Brand partnership • Building World-Class Financial Models in Minutes | 450K+ Followers | Model Wiz

8 Excel features for Accountants 🤓 
Learn each to 10x your productivity 🚀

Learning Excel has been one of the most impactful things I’ve done in my career.

Do you truly understand all of the things you can do?

This post will help 👇

1️⃣ PivotTables

Have a large table? Odds are you can benefit by creating a Pivot Table out of it.

PivotTables allow you to:

✅ Quickly query data sets

✅ Understand relationships

✅ Format data in a way that’s easy to understand

To get started, take a table and hit Insert > PivotTable

2️⃣ Lookups

Lookups are the most common functions in Excel.

My favorites? These 2 will yield maximum flexibility in both directions:

✅ INDEX / MATCH

✅ XLOOKUP

My least favorites? This one is outdated and is limited to only one direction:

❌ VLOOKUP

3️⃣ Conditional Formatting

Formatting your file is a big part of using spreadsheets…

but what if you wanted to format things dynamically?

Say…based on a CONDITION?

That’s the beauty of Conditional Formatting.

I use this all the time with Budget vs Actuals.

To get started, simply select your data set and hit Home > Conditional Formatting.

4️⃣ Charts & Graphs

Charts are a big part of data management…

and Excel has some of the best charting capabilities out there.

My favorites are a Donut chart 🍩, and a combo chart 📈📊

To get started, select your data and click Insert > Charts

5️⃣ Data Validation

Create a dropdown, and restrict the ability to enter only certain values in a cell.

Extra points if you create a dynamic dropdown that extends via a table and named range!

Set Data Validation by clicking Data > Data Validation

6️⃣ Power Query

Total game-changer…and few realize just how powerful it is.

One of my favorite tasks is to take a report like a Profit & Loss…and UNPIVOT the dates.

This makes it infinitely easier to manipulate and pull into dashboards.

Get started by hitting Data > From table/range (or any other source)

7️⃣ Sort & Filter

Take your data set and present it however you want - filter for key accounts, and sort ascending, descending, or any custom rule that you prefer.

Get started by selecting your table and hit Home > Sort & Filter

8️⃣ Use a Checklist

Got a month-end close process? Create a checklist in Excel and check off each task as you complete it.

Get started by hitting Developer > Insert > Check Box (enable the developer ribbon first).

===

Those are my 8 favorite features for accountants in Excel.

What are yours?

Let us know in the comments below 👇

Building World-Class Financial Models in Minutes | 450K+ Followers | Model Wiz

12 Ways to present a P&L

1. 📔 ACCRUAL basis
❔ What it is → showcases income when earned, expenses when incurred
💡 Why it’s valuable → gives you a more practical understanding of what’s actually happening

2. 🤑 CASH basis 
❔ What it is → showcases income when cash is received, expenses when cash is paid
💡 Why it’s valuable → simple to prepare / understand

3. 📂By CLASS
❔ What it is → showcases your activity based off of tags
💡 Why it’s valuable → using tags, you can add a 3rd dimension to your data

4. 🗓️MONTHLY
❔ What it is → showcases your information on a month to month basis
💡 Why it’s valuable → allows you to understand what’s happening over a short time window

5. 🗓️ QUARTERLY
❔ What it is → showcase your information on a quarter by quarter basis
💡 Why it’s valuable → allows you to identify trends & seasonality across the year

6. 🗓️ ANNUALLY
❔ What it is → showcase your information on an annual basis
💡 Why it’s valuable → helpful in seeing where you’ve been, and where you’re going

7. % of REVENUE
❔ What it is → divide each section of your P&L by revenue
💡 Why it’s valuable → helps you understand what are the biggest drivers of your business activity

8. 📁 By CATEGORY
❔ What it is → showcase your P&L based off of cost type, or summary groupings
💡 Why it’s valuable → gives you a zoomed out view of what’s happening, allowing you to drill deeper where necessary

9. 👥 By DEPARTMENT 
❔ What it is → showcase your activity based off of each department’s activity
💡 Why it’s valuable → allows you to understand what area of your business is consuming your resources

10. 🕧 vs LAST PERIOD
❔ What it is → showcases your activity as compares to last period
💡 Why it’s valuable → understand how you are progressing each month

11. ❓ vs BUDGET
❔ What it is → show what happened vs what you thought would happen
💡 Why it’s valuable → gives you confidence & insights into where your assumptions are accurate vs need adjustment

12. 📅 vs LAST YEAR
❔ What it is → compare your results against the same time period last month
💡 Why it’s valuable → allows you to compare seasonality, and how much you’ve grown in 12 months

===
Those are my 12 ways to present a P&L!

What are some other ways that you present your P&L?

Join us in the discussion in the comments below 👇

I've built dashboards for 100+ companies. These are the 10 that actually get used.

Not the ones that look pretty in a presentation. The ones leadership opens every month without being asked. Big difference.

Let me walk you through them.

→ Summarized P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flows

The big three. Custom mappings across any time period. If your leadership can't see these in one view, you're making them work too hard. And trust me, they'll let you know.

→ Budget vs Actuals

This is where the real conversations happen. Variances, trends, what's off and why. I've never worked with a company that didn't need this one. Not once.

→ KPI Dashboard

The 8 metrics that actually matter. Compared against prior period and prior year. No fluff, no vanity numbers. Just the stuff people make decisions with.

→ Comparison Financials

P&L with custom mappings against prior period and prior year. One glance tells you if things are getting better or worse. Your board will love you for this one.

→ Profit Margins

Gross, operating, net. All in one place. If you're not tracking margin trends, you're flying blind. I learned this the hard way early in my career.

→ Executive Summary Dashboard

P&L and cash flows with custom commentary. This is the one the board actually reads. Everything else? They skim. This one they study.

→ Cash Out Dashboard

Projected cash out date, current cash, monthly burn, runway remaining. If you're a startup, this one isn't optional. It's survival.

→ SaaS Metrics

MRR, ARR, churn, retention. If you're running a subscription business, these numbers run your life. You probably check them more than your text messages.

Here's the thing most finance teams get wrong. They build way more dashboards than anyone needs. Dozens of tabs, fancy charts, color everywhere. Then wonder why nobody looks at them.

Start with these 10. Add more only when someone actually asks. You'll be surprised how rarely that happens.

Now here's the thing. Even if I gave you all 10 templates right now, you'd still spend hours importing data, fixing formulas, and making sure everything ties. I've been there. It's painful.

That's why I built Model Wiz. It's a free Excel add-in that connects to your QuickBooks, pulls your data automatically, and generates all 10 dashboards with one click. No manual imports. No broken formulas. Just your numbers, ready to go.

Which dashboard does your team rely on most?

I used to lose an entire day just updating last month's numbers.

Not because the model was complicated. Because I hadn't built it to survive the roll forward.

Most models break the same way every month. A new account shows up that your formulas don't recognize. Someone inserts a row and half your references shift. The dashboard pulls from the wrong period and nobody catches it until the board meeting.

After rebuilding the same things over and over, I started doing a few things differently.

→ Keep your raw data on its own tab. Never mix imports with formulas.

When you paste new data into a tab full of calculations, you're asking for trouble. I keep one tab that's only for QBO exports. Everything else references that tab. When I update the data, the model updates itself.

→ Use named ranges instead of cell references.

Formulas that point to B14:B87 break the moment someone adds a row. Named ranges don't care where the data moves. Define them once and your formulas stay intact no matter how the structure shifts.

→ Build your formulas to expect new accounts.

SUMIF and XLOOKUP don't break when new line items show up. VLOOKUP with a hardcoded range does. I stopped writing formulas that assume the data stays the same. It never does.

→ Lock your periods in one place.

If your current month is referenced in 40 different formulas, you're updating 40 cells every roll forward. I use one cell that says "December 2024" and everything else points to it. Change it once, the whole model follows.

These changes cut my roll forward time in half. But I still wanted it faster.

At Model Wiz we handle all of this with one button. Click Roll Forward and it moves the timeline, detects new accounts, preserves your formulas, and keeps your dashboards intact. Two minutes and you're done.

What's the most annoying part of your roll forward?

A former Uber and Plaid product leader just raised $23M to automate the most hated workflow in finance. Here's why every CFO should pay attention.

The company is called Stacks. Lightspeed led the round.

And if you've ever lost weeks of your life to month-end close, you already know why this matters.

Reconciliations. Journal entries. Variance analysis. Reporting workflows. All manual. All repetitive. All soul-crushing.

Stacks automates the entire thing.

Now here's what actually caught my attention.

→ 30+ enterprise customers globally

→ 100,000+ hours saved annually

→ Close cycles reduced by up to 50%

Read that last one again. 50%.

The founder, Albert Malikov, built product at Uber and Plaid. He watched finance teams stay stuck in spreadsheet hell while every other function got AI upgrades.

So he fixed it.

The platform connects to your ERP, pulls external data, and builds a unified financial view. Then it handles reconciliation, categorization, and variance investigation. With explainable, account-level analysis.

Your team stops doing grunt work and starts doing strategic work. You know, the stuff you actually got hired for.

They just launched AI Flux Analysis. It automates variance investigation and kills those spreadsheet commentary reports nobody wants to write. We've all been there.

But here's the bigger picture.

Close automation is just the entry point. The real vision? Transform finance from a backward-looking reconciliation function into a real-time, insight-driven strategic partner.

Manual → agentic. Spreadsheets → AI-native systems. That's where this is going.

Congrats to Albert and the Stacks team on the raise.

Full announcement from Albert in the comments.

This post is sponsored by Stacks.

"How's cash looking?"

If that question makes you nervous, you need this dashboard. Every finance leader gets asked this. Most scramble for the answer.

Let me show you what I mean.

Four KPIs at the top. Revenue, COGS, Opex, Ending Cash. Each one shows where you are and how it compares to last year. Green means up. Red means down. No digging required. Your board can read it. Your CEO can read it. Even your cousin who "works in finance" can read it.

Below that, a 12-month trend chart. You can see exactly where things are heading. Revenue climbing? Great. Cash dropping? Problem. Both visible in the same view. No tabs. No hunting. No "give me a second."

Here's the thing. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a meeting where someone asks "how are we doing?" and the finance lead starts pulling up tabs. Five spreadsheets. Three exports. A pivot table from last week that may or may not still be accurate. Classic.

By the time they find the answer, the room has moved on. Or worse, someone else answers for them. That's not a good look.

This dashboard fixes that. One glance. Full picture. Conversation moves forward.

The numbers in this example tell a story. Revenue up 67%. Opex up 78%. Cash down 87%. That's a company growing fast but burning faster. You see it immediately. No one has to explain it. The dashboard does the talking.

That's what a good dashboard does. It makes the answer obvious before anyone asks the question.

I built this one inside Model Wiz. It's a free Excel add-in that connects to your QuickBooks, pulls in your data, and generates dashboards like this one automatically. No formulas to build. No templates to customize. Just connect and go.

What's the first question your CEO usually asks?

When I started my fractional CFO firm almost 6 years ago, I kept hearing the same thing 📢

"Hire slow, fire fast."

I spent a lot of time struggling with this saying.

Why should I hire slowly when my business is moving 100 MPH?

Why should I fire someone fast, and what message will that send to team morale?

I prided myself on being a people-first organization.

Wasn't going to let any boilerplate saying dictate the type of CEO I'd become.

As time grew, however, I started understanding what the phrase really meant.

Now I'm a believer in everything it says.

➡️ YOUR PEOPLE ARE EVERYTHING

When setting our company core values, #1 was a breeze to choose.

"Respect trumps all."

I had several career experiences where people I worked with were nasty.

Sometimes a manager, other times a coworker.

The feeling left me tense, anxious, sad, trapped.

Your work is huge part of your life.

When you work with someone who treats you poorly, it affects you during work and even when you go home.

I promised myself I'd never create that environment when managing others.

It's close to impossible for consulting firms to scale without heavy investment in people.

Your staff isn't just people who "get the job done."

They represent you, allow you to work on bigger picture, outperform you where you're weak.

They collectively make your organization stronger.

➡️ HIRE SLOW MEANS PROPER DUE DILIGENCE

Hiring is challenging, time intensive, expensive.

Even under best circumstances, you're still at risk of hiring wrong person.

Technical skills are just one part...there's people skills, where they are in life, what they're experiencing outside work.

Some want casual 9-5, others want environment to grow quickly in chaos.

Some seek incredible meaning, others just want big paycheck.

None are right or wrong...just matter of finding right fit both sides.

Here are costs of hiring wrong person:

Lost investment in training time and resources.

Negative morale when employee becomes disgruntled.

Expensive severance packages plus salary while employed.

Risk of employee litigation if terminations aren't handled correctly.

Missed company targets due to underperformance.

➡️ FIRE FAST DOESN'T MEAN HEARTLESS

Taking quick action doesn't need to mean letting someone go immediately.

Unless there are financial constraints, everyone should get performance improvement plan opportunity.

This protects from wrongful termination lawsuits.

Gives employee time to consider options for another role.

Communicates to team that you invest in people's success.

When someone isn't right fit after feedback, PIP, and still not performing...time to part ways.

If employee is poor cultural fit, part ways before their morale affects others.

If underperforming, part ways before best performers feel they're compensating with extra work.

Cost of working with wrong person is too large.

Have you struggled with balancing people-first culture and business needs?

5 SaaS Finance Templates I Charge $180+ For Are Yours for Free This Week
Register for my free masterclass with Maxio and get all five 👉 https://lnkd.in/ed7pWgHy

I built these templates over years of working as a fractional CFO with SaaS companies at every stage.

Every engagement had the same gap. The metrics existed somewhere, scattered across billing systems, spreadsheets, and dashboards nobody trusted.

ARR calculations that didn't match between finance and sales. 

Deferred revenue schedules built on formulas that broke every time someone added a new contract. SaaS P&Ls that took a full day to rebuild for board meetings.

So I built a set of templates that cut SaaS reporting from days to minutes. And I've refined them through every client engagement since.

Here's what you're getting:

✅ ARR, MRR, and Logo Forecasting Template that lets you project revenue and customer count with real assumptions your board can trust

✅ ARR Calculation Dashboard showing exactly where your recurring revenue stands across new, expansion, contraction, and churn

✅ SaaS P&L Template built for subscription businesses so your financials actually make sense to investors

✅ Deferred Revenue Template that tracks and recognizes subscription revenue without the manual reconciliation that eats your weekends

✅ SaaS Metrics Template covering CAC, LTV, ACV, and more so you always know which levers move the business

On Wednesday, March 4th at 1:00 PM ET, I'm hosting a free masterclass with Maxio where I walk through all five live.

You'll see exactly how each one works. How to plug in your own data. And how to adapt them to your specific setup.

Here's what else we'll cover:

→ How to build an ARR forecast you can defend in a board meeting

→ The exact process for tracking deferred revenue without breaking your formulas

→ Why most SaaS P&Ls confuse investors and what yours should look like instead

→ Where manual metric tracking falls apart and what the modern toolkit looks like in 2026

===

Register here and get all 5 templates 👉 https://lnkd.in/ed7pWgHy

taplio

The Battle

Ben Murray

Josh Aharonoff, CPA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJosh Aharonoff, CPA's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ben Murray

Josh Aharonoff, CPA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Josh Aharonoff, CPA's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJosh Aharonoff, CPA's LinkedIn Performance