I find where finance and operations break down between teams, fix the process first, then put the right tools to work, often ones you already own. You get cash you can see, forecasts you can trust and decisions that stop stalling.
16 years in corporate finance and FP&A, including $20B+ business planning at Microsoft.
That's the gap I fill. Your accountant tells you what already happened. I help you decide what happens next.
You learn about a shortfall when it's already a problem, not weeks before when you could still act.
There's no budget, or there's one nobody has opened since January.
You need a model, a story and assumptions that hold up in the room.
Tools are everywhere. Clear definitions, review steps and ownership are not.
Sales, finance and operations each own a piece of the problem, and decisions stall in between.
Most problems that look like software problems are really people and process problems. I start there, so you don't pay for a new platform when the fix is a better handoff.
I talk with the people closest to the problem: who owns what, where handoffs break and what everyone is working around.
I fix the workflow, ownership and timing first. Many of the biggest wins cost nothing but a clearer process.
Then I put the right tools to work, often ones you already pay for, including AI agents that connect systems and teams.
Vendor-neutral: I don't resell software or earn referral fees, so recommendations are based only on what fits your business.
Every engagement has written deliverables, a timeline and a fee agreed before work begins. You know exactly what you're getting.
Get a clear picture fast, and a tool your team keeps using.
A senior finance partner in your leadership meetings, for a fraction of a full-time hire.
Practical AI and process fixes for finance and business teams, with the controls that make them trustworthy.
Forward Strategy Advisory works alongside your bookkeeper, CPA and tax adviser. It does not replace them.
We talk about where the business is, what's keeping you up at night and whether I'm the right fit. No pitch deck.
Usually a Financial Health Check or a 13-week cash forecast. Deliverables, timeline and fee are agreed in writing before we start.
Monthly FP&A or CFO partnership on a steady rhythm: forecast, review, decide.
Clear, decision-ready deliverables. These are examples of the format.
Weekly ending cash against the minimum balance leadership agreed to hold. Weeks that approach the floor are flagged early, so there's time to act.
The handful of numbers leadership reviews every month, each with a defined owner.
Samples use fictional numbers for illustration. Client work and data are always kept confidential.
For my final year at Microsoft, I worked as an internal consultant to commercial leadership. A few of the problems I helped solve:
I redesigned the escalation process so pricing, capacity and commercial issues reached the right owner across a matrixed organization, with a clear deadline to resolve them.
Decision time cut from 108 days to 30
I supported the Copilot pricing work by bringing Finance, Sales and Product together to evaluate subscription versus consumption-based models.
Shared analysis across Finance, Sales and Product
I supported a review of advertising finance processes and tools to decide where AI belonged, starting with process changes that needed no new spend.
Process fixes first, technology second
Business I owned planning, forecasting and executive reporting for at Microsoft Advertising & AI.
Recurring analysis workflow, after I built an AI-powered tool (Node.js + LLM) to do the heavy lifting.
Finance professionals I co-led in practical AI upskilling.
Savings identified with capital and cash forecasting tools I built at JetBlue.
Company names refer to prior employment. They are not clients and do not endorse Forward Strategy Advisory.
I'm Stephanie St. Louis, founder of Forward Strategy Advisory. For 16 years, I've helped executives turn financial data into decisions.
For my final year at Microsoft, I was a Senior Business Strategy Manager in Revenue Strategy, effectively an internal consultant with a new business problem every month and Sales, Finance, Product and Engineering at the table. Before that, I led planning, forecasting and executive reporting for Microsoft's $20B+ Advertising & AI business, led finance at Xandr through AT&T's sale of the company to Microsoft, built finance processes from scratch at The NPD Group and led an enterprise planning-system rollout at JetBlue.
Now I bring that same discipline to growing companies, without the big-company overhead. I'm hands-on and direct. I'm good with people, fluent in the technology and focused on what helps you run the business.
Stephanie
A newsletter on making AI pay off in finance: what to measure, who owns it and how to keep the numbers trustworthy.
Hours saved are not dollars saved. How to tell cash savings, cost avoidance and new capacity apart before claiming a return.
Read on LinkedIn → Special EditionWhy one ROI yardstick doesn't fit every AI investment, and what to test instead.
Read on LinkedIn →Tell me a little about your business and what you're trying to solve. I'll reply within one business day to set a time.
Book a consultationOr email [email protected]