Introducing Paul Barnhurst Paul Barnhurst (a.k.a. "The FP&A Guy") founded  FP&A Guy, a company that provides FP&A coaching and consulting services. Paul has 12+ years of professional experience across several industries, with a strong background in financial planning, financial modelling, report building, and business partnering. Paul is also a content creator, LinkedIn influencer, and host of "FP&A Today," one of the most popular FP&A podcasts, and is known for his deep understanding of the FP&A software planning space. What You Will Learn Strategies for enhancing the FP&A  processes Integrating Technology in PE Firms What FP&A teams need to improve PE processes Breakdown [00:32] Getting to Know Paul Barnhurst [01:12] One Mistake by PE Firms and action to correct it [02:29] Three things to improve PE firm’s FP&A  process [04:32] How PE firms can improve decision-making around PF&A [07:23] How PE Companies choose and integrate Technology [10:26] Disregarded areas in FP&A that PE need to pay more attention to [13:20] What inspired Paul to set up a podcast and a community [16:17] Paul's Go-To Self-Improvement Resources [17:39] How to become a world champion at Excel [19:49] How to connect with Paul Improving FP&A in Private Equity What should PE companies do to improve their FP&A process? According to Paul, FP&A can be broken down into three areas. First, it’s people. The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have the right people, and you are upscaling that. With everything that is coming up with AI, you need people who can meet today’s demands, be commercial, and help drive the business forward. The second thing that the FP&A team needs to think about is the processes. They have to constantly streamline and automate the processes because data and demand are constantly increasing. The third thing that Paul shares is bringing the right technology. Technology serves as an enabler, and it can help PE firms reach the next level. However, according to Paul, if you start with technology, you will almost end up with a failed transformation. So think about the other processes first and then use technology to enable and free up your team to focus on being good business partners. How to Contact Paul Paul on LinkedIn Thefpandaguy.com Thank you for tuning in! To get the latest Private Equity episodes, you can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify here. Lastly, if you have any feedback on the podcast or want to reach out to Alex with any questions, send an email to [email protected].