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, most recently within Microsoft's $20B+ advertising and AI portfolio.
That's the gap I fill. I build on accurate accounting with forecasts, planning and decision support, so you can see what's coming and decide what happens next.
You know the bills are coming. What you don't know is whether the cash will be there, and every payment comes with a sense of dread.
One bill is due in 30 days, another in 180. Keeping it organized, and knowing what you can actually afford this week, falls through the cracks.
You want to hire, launch or expand, but you can't see how much cash is truly free once the bills are covered, or which investment will pay back first.
There's no budget, or there's one nobody has opened since January.
Getting into the weeds feels overwhelming, so the decision moves to next week, and then the week after.
Sales, finance and operations each own a piece of the problem, so a call that should take a day takes weeks.
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.
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.
I don't just recommend AI. I build the workflows, then teach your team to run them, with the controls that keep the numbers 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.
Automation does the collecting and drafting. A finance professional checks the work and owns the call.
Each earnings season, analyze results from the major advertising platforms and benchmark performance for CFO earnings commentary.
Each week, build the revenue pacing report, then chase owners one by one to explain what moved.
In my final role 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 pricing work for a new AI product 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
Microsoft advertising and AI portfolio where I ran five-year planning and P&L forecasting for my area.
First-draft earnings analysis per company, using an LLM tool I built in Node.js.
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.
In my final role 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 was a Senior Finance Manager in FP&A for Microsoft's advertising and AI business, owning five-year planning and P&L forecasting for my area. Earlier, I was a Senior Manager of FP&A at Xandr through AT&T's sale of the company to Microsoft, built FP&A for an acquired business at The NPD Group and led planning-system implementations 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
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