FP&A Today

The best FP&A professionals don't just explain the numbers. They understand the business
well enough to influence it.

Gauri Tambe, Head of Finance & Accounting at Genezen, joins FP&A Today to explore what
finance looks like inside the world of cell and gene therapy. Scientific uncertainty, capital-intensive
programs, customer funding risk, strict quality requirements, and constantly changing timelines
mean that simply consolidating the numbers is not enough. For Gauri, understanding the
day-to-day operations of the business is fundamental to being an effective finance leader.

Gauri estimates that only 40% of her role is running and reporting the numbers, while the other
60% is influence: aligning sales with operational capacity, helping R&D and supply chain make
better decisions, building contractual protections around uncertain programs, and keeping teams
focused on the same business outcomes. She also shares how Genezen uses
probability-weighted pipelines, weekly flash reporting, and a 13-week cash plan to manage
uncertainty.

The broader lesson for FP&A is that you have to become a strong business professional before
becoming an effective finance professional. As AI is increasingly used for reporting and analysis,
understanding operations, challenging assumptions, influencing people, and knowing what is
happening behind the numbers is becoming more valuable.

Key Moments
● FP&A has to understand how the business actually operates. In a high-risk environment,
knowing the numbers without understanding operations makes it difficult to identify the real risks
and opportunities.
● Influence can matter more than reporting. Gauri describes her role as roughly 40% running the
numbers and 60% influencing R&D, operations, sales, and supply chain.
● Finance connects the organization. When sales forecasts demand that operations cannot
deliver, finance is uniquely positioned to bring teams together and reconcile ambition with
capacity.
● Forecasting uncertainty needs more than one forecast. Pipeline probabilities, contractual
protections, bad-debt reserves, weekly flash reporting, and cash planning all work together.
● Contracts are part of financial planning. Upfront payments, cancellation provisions, and stage
gates can protect capacity and capital when customer programs change unexpectedly.
● Cash can tell a different story from the P&L. Finance teams should challenge a strong-looking
P&L by asking whether the same strength is actually showing up in the bank.
● How Genezen operates as a finance function with five people in accounting and a team of two
in FP&A.
● AI raises the expectations placed on finance professionals. If reporting and basic analysis can
increasingly be automated, junior finance professionals need to develop operational
understanding, critical thinking, and cross-functional experience earlier in their careers.

Timestamps
08:18 - Why finance leaders need to understand operations, not just the numbers
11:13 - Gauri's 40% numbers, 60% influence philosophy
19:00 - When strategic misalignment needs a meeting, not an email
28:03 - Using contracts and cancellation clauses to protect against revenue risk
31:27 - How Genezen uses 50-90% probabilities to forecast its opportunity pipeline
41:35 - Weekly flash reporting and managing a 13-week cash outlook
50:41 - Why a good finance professional must first be a good business professional
56:30 - Stop relying on your P&L and look at your cash flow statement

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Further Reading/Listening
Gauri Tambe & the Genezen Leadership Team
https://www.genezen.com/about-us/meet-the-team/

Genezen - Cell & Gene Therapy CDMO
https://www.genezen.com/

Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation
https://pitthopkins.org/

Sarah discusses her daughter's Pitt Hopkins diagnosis in the episode and the role
foundation-funded research can play in advancing rare-disease therapies

For FP&A, the most dangerous revenue number may be the one that looks credible enough not to question.

A $100 million acquisition was just three weeks from closing. The target had been audited, the opinion had come back clean, and the deal looked compelling. Then Devon Coombs, CPA, spent a weekend digging through the contracts and came back with a very different conclusion: the revenue story did not match the contractual rights and cash flows underneath it.

In this episode of FP&A Today, Devon explains why FP&A cannot automatically treat invoicing as revenue, how principal-versus-agent decisions can make the same transaction appear as either $100 or $3 of reported revenue, and why worsening cash flow can reveal problems that a strong top line hides. The conversation also looks ahead to AI and consumption-based pricing, where minimum commitments, usage, overages, invoicing cadence, and contract structure can make forecasting and revenue recognition substantially more complex.

The bigger lesson for FP&A is simple: understanding revenue means understanding the contracts and economics behind the number, not just the number itself.

Key Moments

Revenue and cash flow need to tell a coherent story. Rising revenue and income should trigger questions when operating cash outflows continue to deteriorate.

An invoice is not automatically revenue. Recognition depends on contractual rights, performance obligations, and when those obligations are actually satisfied.

Gross versus net revenue can dramatically change the top line. The same $100 transaction could result in $100 or $3 of reported revenue depending on the company's role in the transaction.

Good diligence starts before management explains the numbers. Devon describes looking at the financials first, forming an independent view, and then going directly to the underlying contracts.

Contracts are an FP&A input, not only an accounting or legal document. Pricing, billing, and commercial terms can materially affect forecasts and the economics FP&A is trying to model.

Standardization reduces revenue risk. Clearer offerings, pricing structures, contracts, and RevRec processes make it easier to scale without discovering problems during a transaction.

AI and consumption pricing are changing the forecasting problem. Minimum commitments, overages, usage, breakage, and billing cadence can produce very different revenue patterns.

Finance teams need a revenue architecture strategy. FP&A should understand how pricing, contracts, billing, revenue recognition, and forecasting fit together as one system.

Timestamps
05:29 — Should the same transaction produce $100 of revenue or $3?
08:15 — Why invoicing does not necessarily equal revenue
12:30 — The $100M acquisition everyone wanted to move forward with
17:58 — Devon's diligence method: start with the numbers, then read the contracts
18:42 — How the buyer avoided a $100M mistake
40:40 — Why SaaS, AI, and consumption-based pricing are changing the revenue model
48:45 — Practical steps for aligning offerings, contracts, and RevRec
56:05 — The revenue architecture question every FP&A team should be asking

Earn CPE Credits

If you would like to earn CPE credit for listening to the show, visit earmarkcpe.com/fpna. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate.

Further Reading/Listening
Devon Coombs — Website & Resources:
https://www.devoncoombs.com/

Connect with Devon on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/devoncoombs/

The 10 Laws of Finance:
https://www.devoncoombs.com/book

Top FP&A business consultant Anders Liu-Lindberg joins FP&A Today four years after his first appearance on the show to talk about the radical changes in FP&A and CFO transformation over that period. In the time since, Anders has cemented his reputation as one of the most in-demand consultants for finance transformation, sharing his practical, on-the-ground experience.

4 years on: what's changed in FP&A transformation

How career-minded FP&A professionals are enjoying the best era ever

A real example of a finance transformation that didn't land

3 metrics to measure the impact of business partnering

Why CFOs should obsess over value

If you would like to earn CPE credit for listening to the show, visit earmarkcpe.com/fpna. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate.

Further reading/listening

Communicating Financials to Executives: by Anders Liu-Lindberg (Author), Christian Frantz Hansen 

FP&A Today: More than 12 ERP implementations later…Cindy Vindasius

Peter McKenzie, GM at a Blackstone portfolio company, professor at IESE Business School, and speaker at 50+ conferences across the world, talks frankly about executive presence for finance professionals, developed through 25+ years of C-suite experience   He coaches FP&A teams and CFOs on what exactly separates the executives who get recognised from the ones who don't (Communicate with influence, not just authority and focus on strategy and what boards actually want). 

In this episode

What the board reads (and skips) in a board deck 

What “business partnership” actually means 

What knowing the numbers means 

How to draw a narrative “red line” 

Now that AI writes a competent narrative, what's the role for finance?

After two years in the host's chair, Glenn Hopper passes FP&A Today to its new host, Sarah Schlott:  a 20-year FP&A leader. The two swap stories on their unlikely paths into finance (including Glenn's forgotten 2006 indie film ), then dig into what's next for the show: more curiosity, more challenging of FP&A's "sacred cows". 

 

Glenn's new book: The AI-Ready CFO: A Strategic Guide to Evaluating and Implementing AI, Automation, and Analytics https://www.amazon.com/AI-Ready-CFO-Evaluating-Implementing-Automation/dp/1394415885

 

Two recommended follows for AI content

 https://www.youtube.com/@AIDailyBrief 

 https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@matthew_berman⁩