andrewlgood

12 ms·

91.
by andrewlgood 5y ago
I think one of the communication challenges in this broad discussion is what is a "finance" person. Several people refer to them as people in Accounting (accountants) when I think they really mean Financial Planning & Analysi
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Ha. You are correct
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Terribly misleading title. Packages to allow Python to create/manipulate Excel files have been around for a long time. Like MeinBlutIsBlau, I thought this was going to be Microsoft finally ditching VBA for Python as its macro language
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Definitely SAP. If you believe the movie, Facebook. Trello/Stack Exchange (Foghat)
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
It is unfortunate you had such a bad experience. It's even more unfortunate that there a many more such companies out there. As a CFO, I want to earn a seat at the table where decisions are made. Finance frequently has access to a si
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
IMHO, you are not wrong. The advantage of spreadsheets is they are incredibly flexible. The disadvantage of spreadsheets is they are incredibly flexible. Over the years I have noticed a few conventions that make spreadsheets easier to rea
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
It is sad how much of Finance (primarily FP&A) gets run through Excel. There are many products out there today that can make the job easier, but as you point out, not all organizations are quick to embrace them. My personal hope is fin
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
For clarity, when you refer to finance, I think you mean Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A). I think you would agree that centralized Tax, Treasury, and Accounting functions are ok and should probably report to the CFO. With resp
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
When I have seen this done, it is because the CEO does not want to get into the details of IT. At that point IT needs to report to someone. There may or may not be a COO. Sometimes see it reporting to a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
They are, as are salaries. Let me propose it this way, how much do you think the company should spend on responsible waste disposal? 10 dollars? 10 thousand dollars? 10 million dollars? 10 billion dollars? Why do you pick the number y
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
No. You actually get better tax treatment for opex as you can record the full amount of the expense immediately as a deduction against your income. Capex spreads the deductibility of the expense over years. As I mention above, opex vs cap
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
This is not a Finance function issue. Finance has absolutely no preference between opex and capex. There are accounting rules that determine the appropriate classification and any reasonable CFO simply wants it done correctly. The opex &#
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
And that man/woman is the CEO. Cash flow is the actual movement of money - paying payroll, paying vendors, receiving cash from clients (not just sending out the invoice). Lack of cash flow is what makes companies go bankrupt. Allocati
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
I do not recommend getting an MBA or some other financial degree. Rootsudo's response is excellent. There are actually very few financial concepts involved in these types of analyses (e.g. discounted cash flows, IRR, and NPV). IMHO,
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Full disclosure, I am a CFO and have spent much of my career in Finance. I have never worked in a place where I or anyone else there thought Finance is "any more intelligent than the other players in the company." This article is
106.
by andrewlgood 5y ago
They actually have a page on the site for this - https://ocw.mit.edu/give/other-ways-to-contribute/ Nothing exciting. Send them feedback on how OCW made a difference in your life and spread the word.
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Let me start by saying I love OCW. It allows a connection to MIT far beyond simply donating money each year. As an alum of MIT, I find it interesting that the OCW video lectures are generally much better than what I recall the actual clas
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
The introduction of high-deductible health care plans has accelerated consumerism (shopping for best deal) in health care delivery driving down costs. Deloitte study: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte&
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
We clearly differ on the USPS. FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc clearly provide superior service for overnight and courier service. Rural service could be solved - it simply has a cost. To your point, "as a country we've decided that it&#x
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
But they may be excessively worried that they are sick and demand excess testing and excessive stays in hospitals.
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Like the IRS has streamlined taxes and the US postal service has streamlined mail delivery?
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Silly response. One study found 20.6% of overall medical care was unnecessary. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5587107/ Simple example is testing. If free to consumer, they will get too many ca
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
They also reduce choice and supply. They get to decide who gets what treatments. The death panel analogies sound ominous, but at the end of the day they are accurate. Someone has to decide what will be covered. For most people, if it is
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Simpler question is why you have to go through your health care insurer to buy the diabetes supplies. One of the distortions of having healthcare insurance paid for by companies is it makes it tax deductible. Thus $100 spent on healthcare
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
But it would be paid for by taxes spread across the tax-paying citizens. It would appear to all people in the US that their healthcare is free as they are not directly paying for it. Hence infinite demand.
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
I disagree with the assertion "administrative cost to the consumer is profit for the company." Anyone who has looked at customer support expense from a company's perspective knows it is a burden that the company would gladly
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
To be clear, I agree we should eliminate the deduction for employer paid health care. For historical reference, employer-paid insurance only became prevalent in the US during/after World War II as a way to compete for labor after the g
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
Free goods have infinite demand. Medicare for All will simply degrade outcomes a lower common denominator. Interestingly, will the government allow private medical practices to exist in a Medicare for All regime? If so, it seems we would
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
By analogy, automobiles would be cheaper if you could only by green sedans using an online portal. Sure it would be less expensive, but you also eliminate many choices.
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by andrewlgood 5y ago
It is not that the residencies themselves are profitable. It is that medical schools need to be able to provide residency slots to their students to have an effective program. Definitely an issue for newly formed for-profit medical schoo

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