Curt Brown
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History writer, lives near Durango, author of Minnesota 1918, View from Split Rock; So Terrible a Storm, Little Crow Footsteps & MN History in Star Tribune
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Articles by Curt Brown
Structured Scenario Planning: FP&A’s Proven Edge
Structured scenario planning delivers FP&A’s biggest wins: 13% better external integration, budgets down to eight weeks, and consistent execution – while 62% of non-adopters waste time on static budgets, per the latest AFP FP&A Benchmarking Survey. The survey also shows that senior leadership has clear processes in place, but many teams struggle to follow those plans with consistency. Finance groups generally manage risks and opportunities, yet only 46% report coordinating across departments.
3 Critical Steps to Shield AP from Theft
Accounts Payable teams are contending with a new kind of fraud threat driven by generative AI. A recent report in American Banker described how banks are evaluating AI-generated documents that look authentic enough to pass initial review. That same capability poses clear risks for corporate finance teams. When documentation can be generated instantly and adjusted to meet specific criteria, traditional review processes face new pressure.
Master Excel Custom Number Formats in 3 Easy Steps
In the fast-paced world of financial analysis, consistency is the cornerstone of professional reporting. When stakeholders review your spreadsheets, the visual presentation of data often dictates how quickly they can interpret key insights. Inconsistent formatting—such as varying decimal places or mismatched currency symbols—can lead to confusion and a perceived lack of attention to detail.
3 Proven T&E Strategies to Protect Your Cash Flow Today
Managing cash flow is one of the most pressing challenges finance teams contend with. T&E programs are a large and variable part of company budgets, and the latest research from Navan, The State of Corporate Travel and Expense, shows that many organizations are still struggling to keep T&E costs predictable. The report shows that off-platform bookings, which often fall outside approved travel systems, are a major source of budget uncertainty.
5 Best Ways to Master Excel’s Moving Average Tool Now
In the world of finance and data analytics, “noise” is the enemy of clarity. Monthly revenue, stock prices, and operating expenses often fluctuate wildly due to seasonality or one-off events, making it difficult to see where the business is actually heading. To gain a clearer picture, professionals rely on “smoothing” techniques. The Excel Moving Average tool is a powerful feature in the Data Analysis ToolPak that filters out short-term volatility and highlights long-term patterns.
5 Massive Workforce Risks Shaping Finance Planning Now
Workforce Risk '; Finance leaders monitor workforce conditions because managing workforce risk is essential for controlling labor costs and maintaining productivity. And there is a growing gap between employer expectations and worker sentiment, according to The Workmonitor 2026 study from Randstad Enterprise, which surveyed over 26,000 workers and 1,200 employers across 35 different markets.
Excel 3 Simple Steps to Prevent Costly Data Entry Errors
For finance professionals, data integrity is the cornerstone of every spreadsheet. Whether you are managing a budgeting template or a complex allocation sheet in Excel, a single manual entry error can lead to hours of troubleshooting during month-end reconciliation. While Excel is a powerful tool for analysis, it is often vulnerable to human error when shared across departments. One of the most effective, yet underutilized, features to mitigate this risk is the Input Message.
5 Bold Strategies for Finance
The CFO Agenda 2026 reveals a paradox: while economic volatility has become the baseline, the greatest threat to mid-market firms isn’t the market — it’s an internal inability to prioritize, a phenomenon known as priority dilution. Finance teams are being asked to balance two strategies: manage costs carefully and still support growth initiatives and new technology investments.
5 Easy Steps for Better Forecasts
In the world of financial planning and analysis, the ability to predict future trends with precision is a superpower. While many users rely on simple linear regressions, these often fall short when dealing with real-world business cycles. If your business experiences predictable fluctuations — such as a holiday retail spike or a summer slowdown in construction — you need a tool that understands “seasonality.” Excel’s FORECAST.ETS function is designed specifically for this purpose.
6 Winning Strategies
As the U.S. economy navigates the fiscal landscape of 2026, a significant financial gap has emerged between labor segments. A recent survey found that roughly 40% of hourly employees say they’ve seen no benefit from overall economic growth in the past year. That’s in stark contrast to salaried workers, who tend to report greater financial momentum. For a significant portion of hourly workers, the way income is received and the timing of access to cash are as important as the paycheck itself.
6 Winning Strategies
As the U.S. economy navigates the fiscal landscape of 2026, a significant financial gap has emerged between labor segments. A recent survey found that roughly 40% of hourly employees say they’ve seen no benefit from overall economic growth in the past year. That’s in stark contrast to salaried workers, who tend to report greater financial momentum. For a significant portion of hourly workers, the way income is received and the timing of access to cash are as important as the paycheck itself.
5 Ways BLS Productivity Report May Reshape 2026 Budgets
CFO Executive Briefing: Q3 2025 Productivity Pulse: Unit labor costs have hit a deflationary pocket (-1.9%) while output efficiency has surged (+4.9%). If your 2026 labor budgets are still based on 2024 inflation markers, you are likely over-provisioning for labor and under-investing in capital-driven growth. Metric Q3 2025 Stat Trend Strategic Signal Labor Productivity +4.9% 🟢 Increasing Labor is producing more per hour; potential to freeze headcount.
4 Essential Ways New Bonus Trends Impact Finance Teams
Corporate compensation is changing as labor markets adjust. According to a recent ADP study, traditional annual bonuses are becoming less common and smaller in size. For finance leaders, this affects payroll numbers in addition to workforce planning, cash flow management, and retention. Annual bonuses have long been a reliable way to reward employees and maintain workplace engagement. They also made year-end financial planning more straightforward.
Use Excel to Speed Up Your Month-End Close: 3 Simple Steps
In a typical month-end scenario, you are dealing with hundreds or thousands of rows of transactions. Manually inserting rows to calculate totals for each department or project is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error. The Excel Subtotal tool automates this process. It identifies changes in your data categories and inserts summary rows (like SUM or AVERAGE) automatically. This is particularly useful for: Audit Trails: Quickly showing the breakdown of expenses by category. Budget vs.
7 Proven Tactics
The Velocity Gap: Legacy static controls are failing because GenAI has reduced the cost and time of attacks to near zero, while institutional response times remain tethered to manual processes. From Silos to Networks: Modern fraud strategy must move from isolated “point-in-time” checks to network-level intelligence that monitors the entire customer lifecycle to prevent downstream losses.
3 Step Guide to Analyze Break-Even Points
In the world of corporate finance and small business management, understanding the “break-even point” is critical. It is the moment where total costs and total revenues are perfectly equal, resulting in zero profit but – more importantly – zero loss. While many professionals use the basic “Goal Seek” feature for simple calculations, Excel’s Solver Tool offers a much more powerful way to handle complex scenarios involving multiple variables and strict business constraints.
6 Small Business Hiring Trends to Spur Growth Now
New data from ADP sheds light on how small employers are adjusting to shifting hiring trends and compensation strategies amid today’s economy. These insights offer Finance Pros a clearer view into labor cost dynamics and workforce planning at a time when margin pressure and uncertainty remain elevated. ADP’s research indicates that job growth among small businesses has been sluggish.
5 Critical Steps for Finance Teams
Business leaders are confident about the economic outlook. A recent study found that 95% of CEOs surveyed expect the economy to improve in the coming year. On top of that, 84% believe conditions will be better than they are now. Optimism matters for today’s finance functions, since it shapes investment decisions and planning cycles, and influences how teams manage risks. For finance leaders, this level of confidence in the economic outlook presents both an opportunity and a responsibility.
7 Proven Ways to Automate Workflows Fast
The distinction between ‘finance strategy’ and ‘corporate strategy’ has all but dissolved. Today’s finance leaders are operating with a vastly expanded portfolio, moving beyond reporting to actively manage enterprise-wide priorities like digital transformation and risk mitigation.
6 Proven Ways to Automate Workflows Fast
The distinction between ‘finance strategy’ and ‘corporate strategy’ has all but dissolved. Today’s finance leaders are operating with a vastly expanded portfolio, moving beyond reporting to actively manage enterprise-wide priorities like digital transformation and risk mitigation.
3 Powerful Excel Rounding Tricks for Finance Pros
Rounding is often treated as a final formatting step, but relying solely on cell formatting (the visual “decrease decimal” button) does not change the actual value stored in the cell. This can lead to “floating point” errors where the sum of a column does not match the individual visible numbers. By using functional rounding, you ensure that the numbers your audience sees are exactly the numbers Excel uses for calculations.
5 Steps to Better Vendor Management with AI Tools
The pressure on Accounts Payable managers is relentless. You’re expected to be the flawless gatekeeper — process invoice volumes quickly, fight fraud, enforce strict compliance and oversee vendor management. Relying on manual workflows in this environment isn’t just exhausting — it leaves your organization vulnerable to costly oversight gaps. But you don’t have to shoulder this burden alone.
10 Powerful Tips to Unlock Advanced Excel Filtering
The Advanced Filter in Excel transforms routine data tasks into powerful analysis—perfect for finance, accounting, or anyone managing large spreadsheets. This guide will show you how to harness Excel’s advanced data filtering capabilities, helping you pull precisely the records you need and streamline your reporting workflow.
3 Steps to Boost Productivity
Busy finance leaders are always looking for efficiencies in reporting, reconciliation, and compliance routines. Excel Macros offer a proven way to optimize manual data processes, freeing you and your team to focus on analysis, forecasting, and strategy. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to start automating your tasks today, from recording a macro to building a library of reusable scripts.
Excel PivotCharts: 5 Powerful Tips for Better Dashboards
In the world of data, raw numbers are just the beginning. The real power lies in turning those numbers into actionable insights. While an Excel PivotTable is the undisputed champion of summarizing data, a PivotChart is what brings that data to life. Excel PivotCharts are a powerful data visualization feature that transforms your static PivotTable into a dynamic, interactive visual. Unlike a standard Excel chart, a PivotChart is directly linked to your PivotTable and its controls.
Study Shows 5 Powerful Traits
If your accounting and finance leadership teams don’t include women, you could be missing out on key advantages. Recent meta-analyses and research from Florida State University show that women leaders in finance consistently outperform men in most leadership competencies across a range of styles. These recent studies support earlier findings from Harvard Business Review. That study confirmed that female leaders excel at both agentic (assertive) and communal leadership behaviors.
3 Financial Strategies Beyond Cost
With benefits costs climbing and new laws like SECURE 2.0 adding complexity, viewing employee benefits as a simple fixed cost is an outdated model. For finance leaders, the key is to start tracking benefits ROI (return on investment), not just the sticker price. Here’s the challenge: For decades, the finance department’s primary role in benefits was negotiating the annual premium. The conversation centered on cost control. Today, that’s a failing strategy.
AI in Accounting: Close Faster & Deliver 12% More Detail
AI is not replacing accountants, but it is enhancing their capacity to reduce repetitive work, enhance communication, and improve the accuracy of their reporting, according to a new study from Stanford University and MIT Sloan School of Management. It shows this technology can lift productivity and financial reporting quality when paired with professional judgment.
5 Powerful Excel FILTER Tips for Instantly Better Reports
The FILTER function is one of Excel’s most powerful and modern tools for data analysis. As one of the “dynamic array” functions, it fundamentally changes how you extract and work with data. Gone are the days of clunky Advanced Filters, complex INDEX/MATCH arrays, or inflexible VLOOKUP limitations. FILTER lets you return an entire range of data that meets your exact criteria. This returned list is dynamic, meaning it instantly updates when your source data changes.
A Simple 3-Step Guide
Unlock seamless team collaboration in Excel. The Shared Workbook feature allows multiple users to access and input data simultaneously, dramatically speeding up workflows. This guide will walk you through setting up shared workbooks, tracking changes, and using modern co-authoring tools in Office 365. Follow these steps to enable both the legacy sharing feature and the new, real-time co-authoring tools. The classic “Share Workbook” feature is ideal for older Excel versions and internal networks.
Essential Excel Error Checking Tool for Finance: 3 steps
Finance pros know that even one small formula error can cause major reporting headaches. Microsoft Excel includes built-in auditing features to help you spot and fix issues before they reach your CFO or controller. The Error Checking Tool is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to verify that your formulas are consistent and accurate across spreadsheets. Start by navigating to Formulas > Error Checking on the ribbon.
Navigate Hiring Costs, Compliance Risks
Now that there’s a mandatory $100,000 government fee per new H-1B visa petition, financial leaders are increasingly scrutinizing this strategy. Before considering global hiring, it is critical to understand the financial burden of this traditional “onshoring” approach. For Finance Pros, the H-1B visa process represents a volatile and costly investment in human capital. The financial drawbacks extend far beyond a simple application fee.
Ultimate Guide to Accelerating in 4 steps
For finance leaders, not many responsibilities are as stressful (or as important) as closing the books. The financial close aims to make sure statements are accurate, compliant, and ready for reporting. For many organizations, however, this task can stretch on for weeks, drain resources, and leave little time for thoughtful analysis or planning. The financial close is anything but simple.
Amazing Powerful Excel Custom Views setup in 3 steps
Learn the simple steps to set up and use Excel’s Custom Views feature. Instantly switch between report layouts, filters, and print settings to save hours on recurring reporting tasks and streamline your spreadsheet workflow. Custom Views are a powerful, often overlooked, feature that allows you to store different display settings, applied filters, and defined print areas for the same worksheet.
The Shocking $100K H-1B Visa Cost: What Now?
In September 2025, the Trump administration introduced a significant policy change that impacts H-1B visa costs: a one-time $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions. This move sparked immediate concern among U.S. businesses, especially in sectors that rely on skilled foreign labor, such as technology, healthcare, and education. The H-1B visa allows U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specific occupations, all of which require at least a bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent).
3 Proven Strategies to Drive Growth
More businesses — including B2B outfits — are moving away from big national banks in favor of regional banks and credit unions. Why? The best regional institutions combine stability with personal service and a better understanding of local businesses’ day-to-day realities. Case in point: “Boordy Vineyards has enjoyed a productive relationship with M&T Bank for three and a half decades,” said Robert DeFord, president of Boordy Vineyards.
3 Proven Strategies to Drive Growth
More businesses — including B2B outfits — are moving away from big national banks in favor of regional banks and credit unions. Why? The best regional institutions combine stability with personal service and a better understanding of local businesses’ day-to-day realities. Case in point: “Boordy Vineyards has enjoyed a productive relationship with M&T Bank for three and a half decades,” said Robert DeFord, president of Boordy Vineyards.
3 Steps to Reduce Risk
For finance teams and analysts, time spent on repetitive data entry and reporting can quickly add up. Excel’s Quick Analysis tool is a built-in feature that streamlines formatting, calculations, and visualization—no formulas required. This tutorial shows you how to speed through data entry and create presentation-ready insights in seconds. The Quick Analysis feature in Excel works best when you start with a clean dataset.
Master Excel Formula Auditing Toolbar with 4 Pro Tips
Spreadsheets are the backbone of financial reporting, forecasting, and day-to-day analysis. But their flexibility comes with a trade-off: even the smallest formula error can slip by unnoticed and lead to costly mistakes. A single misplaced reference or hard-coded value can undermine a financial model, confuse management reports, or trigger compliance concerns. That’s why Excel includes a powerful set of features designed to help you work more confidently.
Powerful Financial Wellness Moves to Slash Employee Stress
Financial wellness programs often sound expensive or complex, but the truth is that one simple step — helping employees better understand their pay — can move the needle quickly. From boosting retirement plan participation to reducing payroll errors, pay literacy is emerging as a cost-effective strategy that benefits both workers and employers. “Your employees want and need your help.
3 Powerful Steps to Master This Tool
Ever get asked, “What will it take to hit our target?” Instead of guessing and checking, you can make Excel do the hard work for you. Goal Seek is an incredible tool that lets you work backward from a desired outcome to find the exact input you need. It’s perfect for finance professionals who need quick, precise answers. Here are three key steps to applying Excel’s Goal Seek tool: First things first, your model needs to be set up correctly.
N.D. writer Marilyn Hagerty takes viral fame (and snark) in stride
Grand Forks Herald columnist Marilyn Hagerty had no idea what kind of fuss she was about to kick up when she e-mailed her latest Eatbeat column to her editor this week. After all, she writes five columns a week. And at 85, she's been doing this for decades.
80% of Businesses Face Shocking New Tactics
Fraud has become an increasing concern for AP teams, and the financial impact is quite significant. Criminals are taking advantage of various manual processes, outdated systems, and overworked staff. Finance leaders need to strengthen both their tech stacks and their teams in order to reduce the risk of costly mistakes in this climate. The majority of organizations have dealt with attacks in AP security, or at least attempted attacks.
Your Secret to Real-Time KPIs
Dashboards offer a fast way to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs). By using Excel’s Form Controls, you can make dashboards interactive without writing complex code. This guide outlines the key steps to building a dynamic dashboard that empowers users to explore data on their own terms. To create an interactive dashboard, you’ll need to add Form Controls from the Developer tab. Go to the Developer tab in the Excel ribbon.
3 Keys to Elevating Periodic Reporting
Periodic reporting requires flexible references that grow with your data. Instead of manually adjusting formulas, use dynamic named ranges that automatically resize. This method is especially useful in dashboards where performance needs to be compared across periods, and for preparing year-to-date metrics without constant rework. This guide will show you how to use the OFFSET and COUNTA functions to create a dynamic named range.
Top States, Banks Revealed
Usually, you need to wait until year’s end for pertinent lists and countdowns. But fortunately, two lists will be especially interesting to CFOs developing a finance strategy, because they rank two of the most important factors to consider in the finance executive world: taxes and banks. Instead of waiting for year-end recaps, these rankings provide timely insights now.
Essential Excel AGGREGATE Tips for Reliable Analysis
When you’re summarizing financial data in Excel, especially filtered data or hidden rows, traditional functions like SUM or AVERAGE often lead to misleading or error-prone results. The Excel AGGREGATE function solves this by delivering accurate summaries while skipping errors, hidden rows, or filtered values — making it a smart choice for financial reporting accuracy and reliable financial analysis in Excel.
Excel NPV and XNPV: Proven Tools for Accurate Cash Flow
Excel cash flow modeling is a core skill for finance professionals evaluating investments, projects, or business decisions. Two essential tools in this process — NPV and XNPV — help you discount future payments to their present value, allowing for more accurate financial analysis. The NPV (Net Present Value) function is best when your cash flows occur at regular intervals, such as monthly or yearly.
Automate Excel Reports Today with Power Query: 3 Steps
Manually updating reports wastes valuable time. Automating your report delivery with Power Query can save hours of repetitive work, reduce errors, and ensure consistency across reporting periods. This tutorial will walk you through how to Automate data imports and transformations using Excel’s Power Query tool. Here’s how: To get started with Power Query: Go to the Data tab. Click Get Data and select your data source.
4 Steps to Unlock Smarter Forecasts Using COUNTA Tool
A rolling forecast in Excel helps you stay current by updating automatically as you enter new data, unlike traditional static forecasts, which lose relevance over time. With Excel‘s OFFSET and COUNTA functions, you can build models that automatically update as you enter new data. How to boost accuracy in three quick steps: Begin by organizing your data chronologically. For example, enter monthly sales totals in column B starting at cell B2.
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