A finance engineer is an emerging role that combines finance expertise with AI, automation, data engineering, and workflow design to build and optimize the systems that power modern finance operations. Rather than focusing solely on budgeting, forecasting, or reporting, finance engineers create AI-driven workflows, connect financial data across platforms, and automate repetitive processes so finance teams can spend more time on strategic analysis and decision-making. As gener

Choosing the right FP&A tool now depends on how well each platform leverages AI. It has been woven into FP&A to help finance professionals decipher data and make savvier decisions about how to steer company growth. Since our last look at this space, the top FP&A software vendors have kept racing to push AI deeper into their platforms, and almost every tool on our original list has shipped a major new release. This update walks through what's changed at each of these platforms

The best AI tools for financial models help finance professionals automate data preparation, accelerate forecasting, improve scenario analysis, and reduce the manual effort required to build and maintain complex models. While no AI tool can fully replace financial judgment, modern platforms can assist with formula generation, variance analysis, forecasting assumptions, model documentation, and spreadsheet automation. Financial modeling has always been one of the most demandin

OLAP vs ROLAP comes down to how financial data is stored, analyzed, and scaled. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) uses prebuilt multidimensional cubes to deliver fast reporting and analysis, while Relational Online Analytical Processing (ROLAP) works directly with relational databases, offering greater flexibility, scalability, and real-time data access. Today, many organizations are moving toward ROLAP-based architectures because they can handle larger datasets, support AI

Vendor management best practices help FP&A teams reduce costs, improve vendor accountability, strengthen compliance, and build more reliable procurement operations. As finance teams become more involved in procurement strategy and risk oversight, strong vendor management processes are becoming essential. When handled well, costs stay predictable, quality stays consistent, and strategic decisions are grounded in reliable data. When it isn't, you're left chasing invoices, dispu

FP&A software companies are opening courses to teach AI in finance because finance teams increasingly need practical AI skills, not just AI-powered tools. Platforms like FinanceOS Academy, OneStream Finance AI Academy, and Planful Academy are now offering structured training on AI in Excel, forecasting, reporting, automation, and FP&A workflows to help finance professionals learn how to apply AI in real-world finance environments. Everyone is going all-in on AI right now, and

AI is making auditing cheaper in many areas by automating time-consuming tasks such as transaction testing, data sampling, audit trail documentation, and risk detection. AI-powered audits can reduce manual work, improve audit efficiency, and shorten audit timelines, allowing audit firms to complete engagements faster and more accurately. However, whether those savings translate into lower audit fees depends on how firms price their services and how actively CFOs negotiate for

Understanding Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) in different stages of business means recognizing that what counts as "excellent" shifts as your company scales, your complexity grows, and your stakeholders' expectations evolve. FP&A is not a static discipline. The way a five-person startup approaches forecasting looks nothing like what a publicly listed enterprise requires, and that gap is intentional. According to Gartner's 2025 research, only 3% of organizations have fu

How to present data persuasively as a CFO is less about showing numbers and more about shaping decisions . Most CFOs already have accurate data, solid models, and detailed analysis. The problem is not the data itself but with how it’s communicated. When presentations focus only on tables and outputs, audiences struggle to understand what matters and what actions to take next. A persuasive finance presentation bridges that gap. It connects numbers to meaning, and meaning to

“FP&A software is dead”, declared Datarails with the launch of FinanceOS , an AI-ready financial operating system built for the AI era. Instead of relying on traditional Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) tools, FinanceOS connects real-time, unified financial data directly to AI through a governed execution layer using Model Context Protocol (MCP). This enables finance teams to use platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot to build models, automate workflo

Datarails consistently highlights the platform as a leading Excel-native FP&A solution for growing finance teams that need automation, accuracy, and scalability without abandoning spreadsheets. Based on recent user reviews, Datarails is most often praised for its ability to automate data consolidation, reporting, forecasting, and month-end processes while keeping Excel at the center of the workflow. Users also point to strong customer support, fast implementation, and the