The Diary of a CFO

The episode contains several substantive points about ERP implementation challenges (cross-departmental collaboration, Excel dependency, change management, stakeholder involvement, and future-proofing systems) that would be useful to CFOs and finance leaders. However, significant portions of the conversation are biographical storytelling and career retrospectives that don't directly contribute to the core value proposition. The banking/Fispen discussion is relatively brief and somewhat promotional. A more focused episode would trim the early career narrative and expand the implementation specifics.

“accounting is downstream of what upstream does. So what sales is doing, what legal is doing, what, you know, the things that they're working on affect accounting downstream”

“look at where your business is now and look at where you want your business to be. where do you want to grow to? Because I think one of the pitfalls we run into is we're trying to solve for the current business. We're not looking at the future”

While the advice given is sensible and grounded in real consulting experience, the frameworks presented are largely standard best practices: involve stakeholders, plan for the future, manage change resistance, build trust. The Fispen banking integration example is concrete but feels like a case study rather than a novel insight. The episode lacks contrarian or first-principles thinking about ERP implementations or finance transformation.

“Excel...using Excel as a validation tool or a tool for us to use, but not doing all of our work in Excel”

“showing them how this is going to be an efficiency for them where they can now concentrate on other things”

Sharon Barboza brings genuinely relevant credentials: 25+ years across public accounting, multiple controller roles in different industries, senior NetSuite consultant, and current manager at a major advisory firm (Citron Cooperman). She has directly implemented systems and worked with hundreds of clients across industries. She is a practitioner-cum-consultant with real operational scars, not a career podcast guest or pure theorist. Her experience spans the full arc from small business owner through enterprise implementation.

“a manager in digital services at Citroen Cooperman Advisor LLC, where she is a senior resource for their enterprise applications delivery practice. Before this seat, she spent decades on every side of finance, as a licensed CPA running her own small business practice, as a controller inside technology, healthcare, and real estate companies, and as a senior next week consultant”

“I get to work with so many different clients over so many different industries”

The episode includes some concrete examples: a one-year project delay caused by SKU redesign not accounting for revenue recognition, a 78-tab forecasting spreadsheet that required weekend work, a client with 10+ international bank accounts, Fispen integration with JP Morgan, and a post-bad-implementation turnaround project. However, many claims lack specifics: company names are rarely given, financial impact is vague, timeline details are sparse, and quantified metrics are limited. The banking discussion is relatively detailed but the majority of implementation advice remains abstract.

“I had one project that literally, like it caused the project to delay a year because when we got to the point where we were going into the, you know, we were getting the information from the sales team that had redone all of their SKUs. It wasn't working for accounting”

“I had a forecasting spreadsheet that I used to update. That was 78 tabs. And it was touched by so many different people in the company”

The host asks reasonable opening questions and shows genuine interest in Sharon's career trajectory, but the conversation lacks intellectual push-back, challenge, or deeper probing. When Sharon makes broad claims (e.g., about change management or stakeholder resistance), the host responds with sympathetic validation rather than asking for evidence, counterexamples, or nuance. There are few follow-ups that dig into contradiction or test assumptions. The host's questions are warm but largely surface-level.

“That is awesome because thinking like the, the past few minutes that we talked, um, you're consulting, helping, and your favorite thing to do outside of work is also helping people. That is amazing”

“I have two young kids at a time and they're both below the age of 15 and I'm like... I don't know how people will work with them when they hit the workforce”