SouFBP

I can help Finance Teams  train their storytelling and presentation skills

Thanks to a wisely crafted training program, your FP&A team can learn how to
- prepare their message: get the main insight from their analysis
- prepare the story: use a framework to deliver a clear and convincing story
- prepare their visuals: learn design techniques and tools to build clean slides and graphs
- prepare themselves: master the delivery of a presentation and switch to discussion facilitator when needed

Founder

Proximus

Responsible of Strategic Finance for the Consumer Business Unit, I helped
- building our 5 years strategic plan
- designing key objectives in our priorities: Fiber, 5G, market share
- working on innovative projects (eHealth, eEducation,...)

All that with transversal teams composed of Finance, Marketing, Sales and Strategic advisors

Finance Manager Strategic Projects CBU

	Budgeting and Forecasting (Short to Long Term): new modelization including business assumptions
	Monthly Reporting and Variance Analysis vs Budget/Forecast/Last Year
	Assistance and review of Business Cases (New product Launch, Investments,…)
	Business Strategic KPI’s Settings and Follow up 
	Development of Automatic and Comprehensive Reports (usable for all Stakeholders)

Finance Business Partner EBU Mobile at Proximus

Deloitte Belgium

Manager

Leisure and Travel Industry (Zwijnaarde): Business Controller
Plastics Manufacturing (Kontich): Cost Controller
Leisure and Hotels (Brussels): Financial Controller
Gas (Vilvoorde): Financial Professional
Manufacturing (Aalst): Treasury Officer
Consultancy (Diegem): Treasury Responsible

Experienced Senior

Groupe Vlan

•	Follow-up of general costs and production costs (printing, paper, set up and distribution)
•	Follow-up of commissions charged and turnover granted by national advertising distributor
•	Monthly analysis of reportings per product (titles)
•	Follow-up of legal updates (Accounting Law, Corporate Law, Taxes,…)
•	Participation to yearly budgets 
•	Setting up of Closing Procedures
•	One-off requests (Business Object queries, financial calculations,…)

Financial Controller

PricewaterhouseCoopers

•	Industry department: Main Clients: Sodexo Pass Belgium, Bosch, European Air Transport (DHL), Pharma Belgium,…
•	Organisation of audit engagements as in-charge and coach of junior members
•	Specialised in revenue recognition of services companies
•	Assignments both in French and in Dutch

Senior Auditor

I train Finance Teams at Soft Skills | Corporate Training Facilitator | Course Instructor | Keynote Speaker

𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

As the leader of The Finance Circle, I am passionate about transforming the role of finance professionals into strategic business partners. 

With over a decade of experience in corporate finance, I specialize in bridging the gap between technical expertise and essential soft skills. 

My mission is to empower finance teams with advanced financial modeling, FP&A tools, and statistical forecasting techniques, while also emphasizing business acumen, communication, storytelling, and leadership.

At The Finance Circle, we offer tailored training programs that cater to both large teams and individuals. 

Our initiatives, including the Financial Storytelling Program, are designed to enhance your team's ability to influence and drive business success. 

Our approach has been trusted by leading organizations, and we continue to make a significant impact through workshops, speeches, and personalized coaching sessions.


Key Trainings:

- Financial Storytelling Program / The Finance Stage: Learn Storytelling for Finance
- The Finance Copilot: Make your Finance Team a real Business Partner
- The Finance Window: Finance for Non-Finance Teams
- Slides and Visuals Design: Learn how to use Excel and PowerPoint to build your slides

Soufyan Hamid

A great slide does 3 things:
1️⃣ It’s quick to read
2️⃣ It’s easy to trust
3️⃣ And it stays in your mind

But when I look at the first draft of the finance teams who follow my program, most miss all 3

Too many look like dashboards: typical information overload to make sure we don't miss anything

The result is that it IS exhausting for most people

But did you know that part of this is not even due to the quantity of information that is shared?

Design matters in slides as much as the way you prepare your meal on a plate

So, no matter how good your insights are, if you want to get the attention of your audience, here's how:

✅ Consistency
Keep the same layouts, fonts, and titles
Your audience shouldn’t have to solve a puzzle at every slide

✅ Balance
Distribute text, visuals, and white space evenly
A slide has a center, so start from it

✅ Contrast
Guide the eye
Use color, bold text, or shape to highlight what matters

✅ White space
The human eyes need space to digest
If everything is important, nothing is important

✅ Pattern
Follow a simple layout logic
It helps people navigate faster and remember more

✅ Hierarchy
Start with the message
Then show the data that proves it

✅ Simplicity
It's not only a question of style, but of acceptance
If it takes 30 seconds to understand, it’s too slow

✅ Alignment
Even one misaligned box changes perception
And trust me, perception is everything

✅ Variety
Choose visuals that serve your point
Sometimes a simple table has more effect than a chart

Remember: your slide isn’t there to contain everything you know

This part is the backend

But making sure the message is heard, understood and acted upon is the ultimate goal

If you had to choose, which of these principles is the one you struggle the most with?

I trained 1.235 Finance Pros in Storytelling | EMBA Lecturer | Keynote Speaker

Every week in my training, we do the same exercise: actuals < budget

And 80% of the room says, “The budget is wrong” or “Finance made a mistake”

I know, I speak of my “Finance for Non-Finance” training and we cannot expect everyone to be fair to our work, but there is a thing to learn here

Budgets and forecasts are tools to discuss drivers that haven’t happened yet

When there’s a variance, our assumptions are to be checked

Which one slipped?
- Volume we expected but didn’t convert
- Price we thought we could hold
- Mix that shifted
- Timing that moved
- Capacity or productivity that never showed up

Assumptions must be co-owned

Sales, product, ops, finance ... we build them together.

And yes, they’re often stretched. That’s fine

But once they’re in the system, we accept them as the basis for execution

If reality disagrees, we don’t blame “the budget.” We revisit the thinking, update the driver, and learn

Next time you see a gap, ask:
- Which assumption broke?
- What changed in the market or in behavior?
- Who owns the driver?
- What are we changing now?

Don’t shoot the forecast
Fix the assumptions

That’s how finance becomes a partner in decisions

Most people expect answers from FP&A

What if leadership was more about the questions

If you want Monday to feel different, cross the gap:

•  Shape the question before it’s asked. Don’t wait for a request and frame the discussion
• Model to support a decision (so think of it first)
• Explain variance by what happens next
• Design every slide to play with consequences
• Set the agenda early and bring scenarios
• Create ownership in others
• Get alignment in advance
• Challenge the business model
• Be the thought partner they call first
• Earn your seat in strategic conversations by being relevant

The truth is simple: technical skill is the base

What moves you forward is mixing business with finance, helping the company choose, and challenging the status quo

Useful > Accurate

Read this today but what I want from you on Monday: 

Pick one shift, one meeting, one decision

...and work on it 

Because your career depends more on the steps you take than on the choices that are made for you

Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs had an edge in presentations

So let’s learn what we can from him and apply it to finance:

But before doing it, it's important to know that I am not asking anyone to become a TED talker or an inspirational leader

Our business updates have a different goal: help leaders grasp what changed, why it matters, and what we do next

So here is how I translate six of his core presentation rules to FP&A work:

1️⃣ Clarity beats complexity

Ask yourself: can a non-finance leader grasp my point in 10 seconds? If not, strip the slide to the essentials and name the decision it supports.

2️⃣ Numbers inform but stories transform

Turn “Q3 margin down by 8%” into a short storyline: pricing lag, mix shift, energy spike, and the fix we control next quarter. 

Use the 3 What: what happened, why it matters, what we do next.

3️⃣ Your voice is the real slide

Slides do not drive change. People do. Rehearse tone and pacing so your presentation leads to engagement....and discussions

4️⃣ Less text -> More impact

One idea per slide. One message per chart. If they read more than they listen, you have already lost them.

5️⃣ Rehearse like a partner

Your goal by rehearsing won't be to know everything by heart. 
Instead, know your structure, detect when something goes wrong, anticipate the CEO’s first question. 
But more importantly, refine transitions, so you won't have to say "on the next slide, ...

6️⃣ Command the room, even virtually

Own the narrative with purposeful pauses, direct headlines, and clear next steps.

A simple checklist I use with teams:
• Headline first, chart second
• One decision per slide
• Driver table before variance waterfall
• “What we’ll change” on the final page
• Rehearse answers to the five hardest questions you expect

Yes, I know, many of his craft weren't directly applicable to Finance

But the outcomes are transferable and learnable, and they work in finance

Let’s make our updates shorter, sharper, and more useful to the business

 Steve Jobs’ 6 Rules of Presentations — Applied in FP&A

Control is an illusion in Finance

Focus where it actually counts 🎯

There are tons of things you can't change as a CFO 
- Market changes (who could have guessed today)
- Political decisions (we know about that in 2025)
- The mood of a board member (I hope you can't)

Of course, that doesn't mean you have to see things coming

I plan for it, then I put my energy here:
• How I simplify complex stuff
• My confidence and consistency
• The tools I choose to make ideas land
• The link to purpose, priorities, and next steps
• The story that is tailored to who you have in front
• Human insight leaders can act on (with info they get)
• My integrity in presenting facts and context (no cheating)
• My understanding of what the audience actually cares about

This is the work

Even if you predict, you can't control all reactions

Building a story that travels well enough to survive them

Whatever it is: month-end, QBRs or Earnings prep

Discipline and integrity are what you control

Let the uncontrollables be uncontrollable

What are you putting in your circle of control this week?

You open Excel

There are hundreds of chart options

And somehow… none of them look right

We’ve all been there: you try one, then another, then tweak the colors…

...and twenty minutes later, you still have a chart that no one understands

I know it hurts, but you need to hear this:

You don't need 100 charts in Finance
You only need 7

7 charts that, when used and designed properly, can explain 95% of what we do in FP&A

And the problem is that most people don’t use them right

They let Excel decide the colors, keep the gridlines, and end up with visuals that confuse instead of clarify

In my new video, I’ll show you:
👉 The 7 charts every finance professional should master
👉 When to use each one (and when not to)
👉 And how to design them beautifully in Excel

🎥 Watch it here → https://lnkd.in/edyBbmqZ

Because charts are like jokes

If you need to explain them, they're probably not so good

Story first then charts

But most experts will give "exploratory" tips

While I want you to also think "design"

Because most “default” Excel charts are...

...how can I put this delicately: UGLY

They mix weird colors
They hide the message
They feel designs from the 90s

The problem is that it costs attention, credibility and time

But no, I won't tell you that you need a new tool for that

You just need a better way to use the one we all open every day

Here’s the bar I set when I build finance charts in Excel:
• Use the company palette so people recognize the story as ours
• Remove decoration that doesn’t inform: borders, gridlines, clutter
• Put the message on the chart, an idea, a headline
• One idea per visual

A few small moves change everything:

📈 Line charts
• Smooth the line (it's more pleasant)
• Adjust the y-axis bounds if it helps the point land clearly

📊 Bar charts
• Set gap width to roughly three quarters so the bars breathe and read fast.
• Add data labels and simplify the axis so the eye doesn’t work twice.

🥧 Pie charts
• Keep it simple, use “inside” labels, and let the colors carry the logic
• Don't listen to the haters: they're great too

🫗Waterfalls
• Build them clean so drivers read in order and the labels come from your story
• Avoid the famous "connectors" 😣

Most finance teams still live in Excel and that’s fine

What matters is how intentional you are with the design

🎥 Yesterday I published a new video where I walk through, step by step, the best practices for seven charts every finance team needs

Go have a look, then share it with someone who needs help

 Steps to Creating the Perfect Finance Chart

I still remember the day my CFO said I sucked at presenting

Not exactly formulated like that but I took it personally

Not because he was wrong...
...but because he was right

My slides were good (and so was the design) 

And the analysis behind was impeccable 

But there was no story, no structure, no point

Which made it so that no one understood and remembered it

That day, I decided to prove him wrong

I studied how people listen

I learned how to build tension, simplify insights, and land a message that sticks

I practiced. A lot.

Until one day, people stopped seeing me as “the finance guy with slides”

They started asking me to teach what I was doing differently

That moment changed everything

Today, I help finance teams across Singapore, the US, Europe, and Africa tell stories that move business forward

And I speak in front of hundreds of finance professionals who share the same challenge I once had

And the same determination to overcome it

Because here’s what I’ve learned along the way:
- Being susceptible is not a weakness. It can be your fuel
- There’s nothing in the world that can’t be trained
- Sometimes, one harsh comment is all it takes to start your whole journey

You just need to listen, and decide what you’ll do with it

The best strategy is one your team can actually execute

It’s easy to hear that and think:

“So… let’s aim low”

But that’s not what I mean with that

There is a difference between "easy" and "achievable"

Looking for "achievable" is what I recommend because I know that, little by little, the results are more sustainable and move people in the same direction

The proof is that I’ve seen it often when discussing budgets with teams

When a target is difficult, people sigh, maybe whisper a bit… but they get to work

When it’s impossible, that spark disappears

Because people we work with can tell the difference between hard and hopeless

I'm certainly not the one who will allow sandbagging (my ex-colleagues will confirm that) in a budget/forecast process

But if you have to choose, go for the high but realistic path

One that searches for your team's performance without breaking them

Ambition is giving people the belief (and the means) to make progress

If people don't understand Finance, it's our fault

Because they DO want to understand

But the problem is that we limit the education to 
- T-shaped balance sheet (they never see that)
- Debits and credits (they never book anything)
- Examples of a grocery store (they work in big corporates)

Somehow, it's normal to find our colleagues lost in finance

But it doesn't have to be like that

Because we need the rest of the company to
- understand our reports
- extract observations and analyse
- participate to budget/forecast exercises
- make decisions based on financial outcome

That's how I thought my "Finance for Non-Financials" course

Roles in which Non-Finance people have a real impact

And to do so, the training is
1️⃣ Tailored: I'm not speaking of a SaaS to a Manufacturer
2️⃣ Active: Adults don't want to be back at the university bench
3️⃣ Engaging: People take a full day off their work, and I respect that

Dounia said it herself: these 6 hours are probably the most well invested in training for years

And I'm not done with it!

In the next year, I want to train at least 1.000 more people to understand and use Finance in their jobs

So, my fellow finance leaders, if you want your colleagues to finally understand finance in your company

➡️ Contact me 😉

In any career, there are boosters and traps

If you want to be tactical, be intentional about these

Careers in FP&A accelerate when you treat them like a roadmap

You identify the boosters, avoid the potholes, and drive with intent every week

Promotions tend to follow momentum

Here are ten tactical choices that build momentum.

1️⃣ Combine output with ease

Deliver what you promised and make collaboration smooth. The fastest way to gain trust is to hit deadlines while removing friction from meetings and handoffs

Obstacle to avoid: smart work that feels heavy to everyone else

2️⃣ Own your market value

Keep a running log of wins that tie to concrete results. I tracked cycle time reduced, forecast accuracy gained, and the margin moves my team enabled.

Obstacle to avoid: thinking people will notice your work

3️⃣ Be selective with effort

Choose problems that matter to the P&L (and cash-flow). No one expects you to be an expert in everything.

Obstacle to avoid: perfect outputs on low-value questions

4️⃣ Layer capabilities

Numbers first, then data modeling, then communication, then influence. There is no point in becoming a storyteller if your input is a mess.

Obstacle to avoid: trying to go directly to the top of the pyramid

5️⃣ Manage stakeholders upward

Great CFO updates are short and sharp. What was requested, what changed, the decision needed, and the risk if we wait. No suspense. Clean choices.

Obstacle to avoid: status for the sake of status

6️⃣ Lean into your edge

Maybe you see patterns in messy data. Maybe you stay calm in tense reviews. Double down on what makes you distinct because distinct sticks.

Obstacle to avoid: trying to be great at everything

7️⃣ Stay out of noise

Complaint threads drain credibility. Energy spent on solutions builds it.

Obstacle to avoid: the coffee machine's negative chit-chat

8️⃣ Protect mental clarity

Close is a marathon each month. Sleep, boundaries, and clean files keep judgment sharp. Foggy brains miss the quiet risks.

Obstacle to avoid: treating heroics as a plan

9️⃣ Make people feel seen

Great analysts learn the field reality before they challenge the plan. Sales and Ops follow people who respect their constraints.

Obstacle to avoid: drive-by finance

🔟 Invest in others

Your legacy is the careers you help lift. When your team grows, so do you.

Obstacle to avoid: direct all attention to you

I know some of these look selfish or even Machiavellian

But if you want your career to depend on no one else but you, you will have to deal with them

So for this week, ask yourself: which area should I turn into a differentiating edge?

I built a CFO clone to present in my place

Should you?

Quarterly town halls are where momentum is made… and lost

People drop off after 30 seconds of "underlying result", "EBITDA" and other "Guidance" stuff

Sometimes, it's due to education, others to simple language differences (try motivating people in Madrid when you speak in English)

Yes, I could learn the 12 languages of my group, but that would take some time. 

So I tried something different: a HeyGen avatar of me delivering the same message in multiple languages and a consistent tone

It's a new way of thinking your all-hands presentations if your group is split into different regions and time zones

But if this is feasible, it’s also a risk

Deepfakes, impersonation, “urgent transfer” scams

I couldn't simply show you the trick without warning of the risks...and exploring solutions

In the new video, I show:
👉 When an avatar helps for quarterly results (and when it shouldn’t)
👉 Step-by-step build: avatar, voice, script, scenes, languages
👉 The guardrails every finance team needs

🎥 Watch it → https://lnkd.in/gnDnnVzs

Tried avatars already? Powerful, weird… both?

Tell me how it felt (and what you’d want me to test next)

You know that moment in a meeting when you’re explaining a number…

and you see eyes glazing over?

That’s the exact second Finance loses the room

And it happens to smart people: because we confuse “being clear” with “being precise”

But here’s what I’ve learned after four years of teaching non-finance people about finance

👉 When we’re not understood, it’s because we don’t want to be understood

Non-finance colleagues are ready to learn
They want to understand.
They just don’t want a lecture.

In my new video, I break down how to speak finance so business people actually listen

An this, without dumbing it down, and without losing yourself in the process

🎥 Watch it here → https://lnkd.in/eKg_fUat

That’s the difference between being the finance person who reports numbers…

...and the one people call before they make decisions.

26% of finance pros regularly use AI in their job

That's better than LY but that means 74% are missing something

🚨 And tomorrow 28/10 at 5PM CET, you can learn about this in Nicolas Boucher's free webinar "How to Become an AI CFO" (register here https://lnkd.in/eARHiA9g)

Because AI won't solve every problem, and certainly not the most important ones in your job

But it will help you with these common issues
- lack of time
- lack of a clear structure
- lack of presentation skills

Last week, I showed what could be done at a conference in Amsterdam and even did a masterclass for the AI Finance Club beginning of this month

I can't remember such a surprise when the audience saw what could be done with tools you use every day

So, if you want to use your time efficiently as a Finance Business Partner

Come to the free "How to Become an AI CFO" webinar

📅 Tuesday, Oct 28
🕔 5PM CEST | 12PM ET
🔗 Register here https://lnkd.in/eARHiA9g

I'll be there

Will you?

---------

If you want to go deeper, here are three ways I can help you:

📘 I put together a free Financial Storytelling Starter Pack — you can grab it here: https://lnkd.in/eadSXhKp

🤝 And if you want to explore solutions for your team, you can plan a call with me here: https://lnkd.in/eKTff5s2

In the real world, “storyteller” means everything and nothing at the same time. 

I’ve been 
- the FP&A lead who wrote the board narrative at 2 a.m.
- the controller who had to explain a variance clearly
- and the guy in the room when sales and marketing could not agree 

The story changes shape every time, because the need changes

Some days you are the Architect
You design the structure of the story, following who will hear it and the amount of information you have

Other days you are the Translator
You make sure that everyone will understand, from the call center operator to the director

You become the Connector
You link numbers to people so they see how their real-life is impacted

You step in as the Strategist
You shape direction with a clear “what changed, why, what next”, just like an internal super consultant

Sometimes, you roll up sleeves as the Builder
You turn insights into plans, owners, and dates so someone takes accountability

And many more roles

That’s why “storyteller” is not a skill but a chameleon skill set

I don't know if I can count myself as one of them, but the best finance leaders I’ve worked with swap roles without ego 

So, if you lead a finance team, build this range. 

Hire for it
Coach it
Reward it

Because the right story, in the right role, at the right moment, moves the business.

Which role did you play this week?

AI Finance Club

AI Finance Club is the place where Finance Professionals can stay updated and learn about AI in Finance.
By joining the AI Finance Club, you will receive: Monthly Live Masterclass given by experts, In-depth reviews of AI Tools for Finance, Digest of AI Finance news, Mini-Courses on Generative AI for Finance and Deep-dives on how to use AI in Finance Processes.

Nicolas Boucher Online

Corporate Finance tailored workshops:
🤖 ChatGPT For Finance
📊 FP&A
💡 Finance for Non Finance

Keynote speaker
🤖 AI in Finance
🧑‍💻 Finance for Non Finance
📊 FP&A

✉️ More info: hello@nicolasboucher.online

Consulting:
📈 LinkedIn Growth
🤖 ChatGPT and AI implementation

✉️ More info: hello@nicolasboucher.online

Trainings for finance professionals individuals:
🤖 ChatGPT for Finance
https://nicolasboucher.gumroad.com/l/ChatGPT-For-Finance
📊 FP&A
https://nicolasboucher.online/course/

Founder / Corporate Finance Trainer / Keynote Speaker

Thales

As from 2022: Senior Manager Controlling for Ground Transportation Systems
Scope of responsibilities:
-Reporting business reviews to top management
-Involved in the strategic activities 
-Working in 3 languages (English, German and French)
-Budgeting and Forecasting activities
-Transversal role on commercial, R&D and project controlling
-Part of the carveout process

From 2018 to 2021: Head of Finance and Controlling for MIS Germany
Scope of responsibilities:
-Head of Finance for the Space Segment (Cross regional scope between Germany and France)
-Working in 3 languages (English, German and French)
-Leading a team of 8 controllers and accountants
-Member of the local management (production, engineering and R&D teams representing 400 employees) 
-Involved in the strategy and bids activities 
-Strong focus on commercial, industrial and budget controlling
-Led significant cost reduction activities
-Reorganised the Finance & Controlling team (reduction of the team size, use of shared services, optimisation of processes)

Senior Manager Controlling / Head of Finance & Controlling

Managed the Finance Transformation initiatives for Thales Germany which consisted mainly of:
-Organisational changes
-Implementation of a business intelligence tool
-Harmonization of Financial Information Systems and Processes
-People development

In addition, I performed ad hoc missions such as budgeting and controlling, transfer pricing documentation and internal control documentation.

Head of Finance Transformation Thales Deutschland GmbH & Senior Manager Finance & Controlling

PwC Luxembourg

1) Audit of Insurance and Reinsurance top tier companies (70% of portfolio), exposed to other industries (Investment fund, holdings and commercial companies)
-	Supervision of audits under IFRS and Luxembourg GAAP (statutory and consolidation)
-	Proposal writing for new key clients and fee negotiation for recurring jobs
-	Building and maintaining valuable relationships with clients by understanding and offering solutions
-	Production and presentation of board papers, executive summaries and memos
2) Consulting and advisory
-	Regulatory gap analysis for an international Reinsurer
-	IT roadmap and study on distribution needs for a Life Insurer
-	International expansion study for a Life Insurance IT provider
3) Internal projects
-	PMO for the Insurance industry leader (help on business plan, strategy to action plan, coordination)
-	Conduct and organize key meetings with different lines of services (audit, tax, advisory, IT)
-	Regular update on regulatory matters and market topics
-	Participation to key human resources steps as reviewer for juniors (objectives, validation of probation period, evaluation committee and annual review)
-	Instructor for training

Manager - Financial Audit

PwC Singapore

Audit of Insurance and Reinsurance top tier companies
-	Manager in charge on 80% of my portfolio
-	Supervise, schedule, conduct and organize audits under IFRS (statutory and consolidation)
-	Project management: budgeting, tasks allocation, planning, monitoring
-       Build and maintain valuable relationship with our clients by understanding, offering solutions, and providing value
-	Coaching and team management in order to deliver high quality work in respect of the deadlines
-	Production and review of deliverables (Financial Statements and management letters)
-	Involved in advisory jobs and internal projects

Assistant Manager - Financial Audit

Audit of Insurance and Reinsurance companies (Axa, La Luxembourgeoise and New PEL Group all of them part of the Top10 Luxemburgish Insurance sector), Investment Funds (assets under management up to USD 40 billion : Amundi, Bluebay, Wellington, Platinum Trust, Genesis) and Holdings (Finmeccanica)
-	Schedule, conduct and organize audits of full complexity for conformity with policies and procedures of company under Luxembourg GAAP and IFRS (consolidated accounts)
-	Coaching and team management in order to deliver high quality work in respect of the deadlines
-	Production and review of deliverables (Financial Statements and management letters)
-	Involved in advisory jobs and internal projects
-	Education program of certified public accountant of Luxembourg (“IRE”)

Senior Financial Auditor

Group Reporting Department
-Analysis and control of financial statements sent by the subsidiaries, monthly for management figures and annually for forecasts
-Key Performance Indicators : Income Statement, EBITDA, Cash flow Statement, Balance Sheet
-Management of the Information System for reporting and consolidation (Magnitude)

I teach Finance Teams how to use ChatGPT - Keynote speaker on AI for Finance & FP&A

For AI Finance Trainings and Workshops:

✉️ Contact me here: hello@nicolasboucher.online

About me:

Finance Thought Leader specialized in AI, trained more than 5,000 people and on a mission to help more than 1 million finance professionals.

I teach finance people how to use AI.

You can also book me as a keynote speaker.


My previous roles:

🏭 Thales (Germany):
2022-23: Senior manager controlling role for the Transportation business (€500 million business)
2018-22: Part of the management and led the Finance and Controlling team of a production site (400 people) specialised in producing Traveling Waves Tubes for Satellites
2016-2018: Head of Finance Transformation

👨‍💻 PwC:
2014-2016: Audit Manager in PwC Luxembourg
2012-2014: Audit Manager in PwC Singapore
2009-2012: Auditor in PwC Luxembourg


My experience:

Living in 5 different countries across 3 different continents (France, USA, Luxembourg, Singapore and Germany) gave me the capacity to integrate myself quickly and understand different local and working cultures.

Worked 8 years for Thales, an engineering and industrial french multinational.
I had finance manager roles and was part of the management of a 400 people production site.

Prior to that, I worked 7 years as an auditor and consultant for PwC in Luxembourg and Singapore.


My private life:

I am married and a happy father of two young daughters. We both learn from each other and we enjoy reading french books together and play outside.
When I am not busy with my daughters, I am exercising, cooking and spending quality time with friends.
Finally, traveling and tasting new food are some of my favorite experiences. But if you ask me where is the most beautiful place and where can we find the best food in the world, I have only one response: my hometown, Brittany in France.


My Specialties:

-Finance & accounting
-Controlling, budgeting & forecasts
-FP&A
-ChatGPT
-AI
-Storytelling
-Cross-cultural management, coaching and training
-Cost reduction
-Management
-Analytics, Business Performance and Activity Dashboard
-Audit & controls
-Business Processes Modelling
-Financial Statements and Cash Flow
-Business Intelligence
-Fluent in French (native speaker), English & German

Hashtags:
#finance #controlling #accounting #management #cfo #cash #budgeting #forecasting #chatgpt

https://nicolasboucher.online

Nicolas Boucher

Most people will say that this is useless

But for me, having a catalog of KPIs help me identify my blindspot

Do you agree?

If you want to steal my high resolution PDF, go here: https://lnkd.in/e4xcA8Vd

We need to make sure we are working with the right KPIs, the right formulas

That’s why I built The KPI Catalog:
a curated list of the 100 most valuable KPIs across every key area of finance

Inside you will get all the KPIs formulas and definitions

Here's what's included:

• 10 Accounting KPIs
• 10 Cash KPIs
• 10 CEO KPIs
• 10 SaaS KPIs
• 10 Investors KPIs
• 10 Headcount KPIs
• 10 CAPEX KPIs
• 10 Balance Sheet KPIs
• 10 Tax KPIs
• 10 Inventory KPIs

This catalog gives you the most actionable metrics in one high-resolution PDF.

👉 What are the most valuable KPIs in this list?

👉 Which one do you think are not useful?

I teach Finance Teams how to use AI - Keynote speaker on AI for Finance (Email me if you need help)

TOP 100 KPIs (GUIDE)

7 books to help you as a CFO

+ 48 Laws of power applied to finance: https://lnkd.in/exeXveeY

Many people see The 48 Laws of Power as a book about manipulation

But in finance, it reads differently
It’s a lesson in strategy — understanding influence, timing, and perception

Because power in finance isn’t about control
It’s about clarity and impact when decisions matter most

-

Reading books is still essential for every finance professional

(Post inspired by Ben Meer’s MBA in 6 months post)

Here is my selection of the top finance books:

1. Accounting for Non-Accountants by Wayne Label

Lessons:

- How to prepare and use financial statements
- How to control cash flows
- How to manage budgets
- How to use accounting ratios

2. The CFO Lens by Ravikumar Ramanan

Lessons:

- Taking finance to the next level of business support and performance
- The dynamics of managing finance in the digital economy
- Soft skills

3. Budgeting Basics and Beyond by Jae K. Shim, Joel G. Siegel, Allison I. Shim

Lessons:

- Strategic Planning & Budgeting
- Break-Even and Contribution Margin Analysis
- Forecasting and Planning

4. The Audacious Finance Partner by Andrew Codd

Lessons:

- Finance Business Partnering Skills
- Business Transformation
- Leadership Skills

5. Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes

Lessons:

- Transform your insights and data visualizations into appealing data stories
- Fundamental elements of a data story and key audience drivers
- Seven essential principles of better visual storytelling into your work

6. Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga

Lessons:

- Basic financial calculations
- Introduction to Monte Carlo methods
- Excel functions

7. Future Ready by Steve Morlidge & Steve Player

Lessons:

- Principles of a good forecast
- Mastering the process of forecasting
- Implementation of management techniques

👉 Explore The 48 Laws of Power — Applied to Finance: https://lnkd.in/exeXveeY

🔁 Repost to help your finance peers sharpen both their skills and their strategic mindset

TOP CFO BOOKS

Do you know the AI Agent inside SAP?

I got the chance to get insider insights. Swipe the doc to learn more

In SAP Cloud, you can start building AI Agents with the Joule Agents functionality

If you want to learn more about the SAP Business Suite and how it uses AI + Data, then I recommend you join the webinar organized by SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP
👉 https://lnkd.in/eu5FuiVy

Save the date, October 22, 2025 Wednesday
America: 11:00 am EDT / 8:00 am PDT
Europe & Africa: 11:00 am CEST
Asia Pacific: 9:30 am IST / 12:00 pm SGT / 2:00 pm AEST

I am collaborating with SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP as I believe having AI into your ERP is where you will see more and more value delivered and that's what SAP Cloud is doing right now with all their new AI functionalities (under the name Joule)

As you can see in the infographic:
Joule AI Agents don’t just answer questions—they trigger actions, automate processes, and connect across SAP and non-SAP apps to get real work done


🔹 How Joule AI Agents work:

✅ They have direct access to your business data

Unlike generic AI, Joule pulls real-time business data to make smarter decisions and automate workflows

✅ They connect beyond SAP

Joule AI Agents work with Outlook, Copilot, SAP Ariba, and more—so you can integrate, automate, and bridge the gap across multiple platforms

✅ They come with 1,300+ automation skills

From finance and HR to sales and IT, Joule AI Agents automate complex tasks and execute workflows faster than ever

✅ You can build your own—no coding required

With Joule Studio, teams can create custom AI Agents that are tailored to your business needs—without writing a single line of code

🚀 Real-World Impact: How Businesses Use Joule AI Agents (some examples reported by SAP)
- Finance: Reduce accounts receivable matching effort by 71%
- Sales: Accelerate deal cycles by 80% with AI-driven customer insights
- HR: Automate candidate assessment, cutting manual review time by 80%
- IT: Boost app management productivity by 75% with AI-powered DevOps automation


Save it to your calendar! March 12 12pm Singaporean time
👉 https://lnkd.in/eu5FuiVy


📌 What’s one task you’d love to automate? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Brand partnership • I teach Finance Teams how to use AI - Keynote speaker on AI for Finance (Email me if you need help)

SAP AI AGENT - JOULE

My 6 AI plays to cut software waste
👉 Let me show some of them live this Thursday: https://vrtc.io/48jirtn

(made free thanks to Vertice sponsoring it)

Imagine you are the CFO and you see this:
SaaS prices up 11%, but 66% of seats sit idle
Renewal was last week

How would you react?

I'm sure you don't want this to happen again.

This is why we need a repeatable way to find shelfware fast


This is what we will discuss this Thursday.

Here are already some examples on how you can use AI:

1. Use GenAI to surface your true KPIs
Ask an AI model with your raw data: “Which 10 KPIs best represent software spend health—and why?” It spots board-level metrics (logins per paid seat, cost per active user, renewal risk cohorts

2. Run cohort analysis in minutes, not days
Segment by department and show 30/60/90-day activity vs. seats and cost; flag cohorts where activity falls below 5%. Finance teams report 2–8 hours; AI does the first pass in ~2 minutes

3. Automate the data mess
Prompt AI to write scripts (Google Apps Script/Office Script/VBA) to combine tabs, standardize vendor names/SSO IDs, and keep only needed columns. No more manual cleanup

4. Ask AI: “What are 100 things I don’t know but should?”
Drop in a billing summary or describe your stack. You’ll uncover blind spots—SSO mismatches, duplicate tools, zombie seats, or teams paying outside procurement

5. Invest in AI-native finance tools
Auto-categorize transactions, flag anomalies, draft entries, and connect ERP/AP/SSO/vendor exports so usage, billing, and renewals flow into one view

6. Pull data via API—with AI as your helper
Have AI draft a Python script to pull last-login and active-seat counts from Okta, Zoom, Atlassian, or M365; then join across apps. Same pattern for Salesforce renewals.

Your team can find and kill shelfware fast by pairing finance judgment with small AI workflows
Cleaner data, stronger negotiations, less waste—without waiting on engineering

👉 See the AI workflows:
Join me here: https://vrtc.io/48jirtn

You’re invited to my biggest event: “How to become an AI CFO” (link in bio)

taplio

The Battle

Soufyan Hamid

Nicolas Boucher

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taplio

The Battle

Soufyan Hamid

Nicolas Boucher

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);}Soufyan Hamid's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreNicolas Boucher's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSoufyan Hamid's LinkedIn Performance