May 20, 2026 @ 10:30AM - 4:00PM (ET) - Eligible for 4 CPE Credits*
Future in Focus 2026: Excel Your Budgeting, Close, and Audit Readiness for Nonprofits
Free Virtual Conference
Designed for non-profit finance leaders. Unlock the full capability of Excel for nonprofit budgeting, close, and audit readiness in one focused, CPE eligible day.
Can’t make it live?
Every registrant receives full access to session recordings and materials.
Modern Excel. Connected ERP. Stronger Nonprofit Finance.
Future in Focus 2026 is a one day complimentary virtual conference designed to help nonprofit finance leaders fully harness modern Excel and extend it into their ERP environment, with CPE eligible sessions.
Nonprofit finance teams carry overlapping cycles all year long. At the center of it all is Excel. It is the modeling environment, the reporting layer, and the bridge between ERP data and stakeholder expectations.
What many teams have not had time to explore is how significantly Excel has evolved: dynamic arrays, Power Query, modern lookup architecture, and structured workbook design that improves clarity and audit traceability. The platform has expanded into a powerful data and modeling engine, often underutilized simply because daily demands leave little room to experiment.
Why Attend?
|
Who Should Attend:
|
If Excel is central to your workflow, this event is built for you.
Event Date & Time:
May 20, 2026 | 10:30AM – 4:00 PM (ET), Zoom
Event Agenda
What You Will Experience
Presented by: Carl Seidman, CSP, CPA, Seidman Financial | 10:30AM – 12:30PM
We open the day with a hands-on, product neutral workshop focused on modern Excel in the context of nonprofit finance.
This session explores advanced Excel capabilities that support stronger budgeting, reporting, and audit readiness across grant driven and multi entity environments. Attendees will gain practical techniques to improve structure, clarity, and efficiency inside the Excel workbooks they rely on every day.
12:30PM – 1:00PM
Presented by: Rob Caluori, Westchester Library System | 1:00PM – 2:00PM
Hear from a nonprofit CFO about evolving budgeting, close, and audit processes in a connected finance environment.
This session examines how Excel and ERP data work together in practice, highlighting operational changes that improved visibility, strengthened controls, and streamlined reporting workflows. The discussion centers on lived experience, decision points, and measurable improvements across planning and compliance cycles.
Choose the sessions aligned to your ERP, with dedicated separate tracks for Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Acumatica.
Session 1: Budgeting and Forecasting
Presented by: TBA | 2:00PM – 3:00PM
Session 2: Close and Audit Readiness
Presented by: TBA | 3:00PM – 4:00PM
Check back for more information…
Featured Speakers
Jim Norton is a licensed CPA and Senior Product Manager at Velixo, combining deep accounting expertise with hands-on experience in cloud ERP systems. His career spans both public accounting and private industry roles (Controller/CFO). This affords him the unique perspective of understanding in-depth system implementations and related reporting processes from both the client side and the consulting side.
Jim has tackled complex implementations involving multi-entity, multi-currency, project/job/grant accounting, and sophisticated allocation requirements. He’s worked across a wide variety of industries including nonprofit organizations, regulated utilities, professional services, boutique fitness, media, and others. Jim has also developed training programs, mentored partners, and supported presales engineering. He has spoken on advanced accounting, reporting, and system-specific best practice topics at a multitude of major software conferences.
As an FP&A practitioner and educator, I see a lot of financial professionals struggle in their careers. They start out with a good education, find an organization with the culture and values that align with theirs, but over time, things break down. Unsure of how to align themselves with where the direction of the profession is going, they become siloed in their current role. They face endless pressures that include intense workloads, limited time to upskill, unclear processes and standards, constant time pressures and other challenges on a daily basis. It’s a source of constant frustration and I see it everywhere. If it’s too chronic, people get stressed or burned out and leave to find something else.
I see similar challenges with FP&A Directors and financial leadership—even CFOs. They want uniformity in approaches and consistent processes that their entire financial team engages in and promotes. They want to increase the value that their financial team provides the entire organization—to become better business partners. FP&A should no longer be seen as a cost center support function.
This is why I love doing the FP&A development work I do for some of the most influential companies around the world. I am able to work closely with financial leaders and professionals to solve these problems within their organizations so they can enjoy their work and contribute in a more unified, empowered manner.
Yes, there are skills that need to be developed to strengthen FP&A teams and their leaders. That’s the easy part. At the end of the day, it’s really how we adjust our mindset and use our creativity to bring about solutions and efficiencies within the financial arm of the company.
Organizational success comes from people and how they provide value through their skills, intellect and eagerness to serve and make a difference. I’m committed to each person I help improve their performance, whether a CFO of a Fortune 500 company or a newly employed FP&A professional. It’s why I share so many real-life stories in my programs—the successes, mistakes and oversight, even outright failure. I want to help people see themselves excelling and growing into better professionals—people who realize the work they do will grow their career and positively impact the organization.
Dedicated to transforming FP&A, Carl Seidman designed Seidman Financial to address the undeveloped skill gaps and processes in FP&A through these three (3) pillars:
- Equip FP&A leadership with the right platforms and resources for developing their financial processes and teams
- Provide culture-based, customizable development programs designed to capitalize on identified business opportunities
- Deliver a potent FP&A intelligence-centric curriculum that is consumable and actionable with ongoing follow up and feedback
Carl Seidman is a trusted business advisor specializing in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), business strategy, and finance transformation. He coaches and advises FP&A professionals at Fortune 500 corporations and middle-market companies, helping establish best practices, processes, and sustainable business models.
Rob Caluori is driven by a deep passion for data, information, and analytics. He has been with the Westchester Library System for 18 years, serving as Chief Financial Officer since 2020 and previously as Director of Information Technology for a decade. In addition to his work in library leadership, Rob is a Senior Adjunct Instructor at Mercy University and an active community volunteer, serving as Treasurer for New York District 20 Little League, which supports 13 local leagues in Westchester County.
Rob holds degrees from Mercy University (B.S. in Information Systems and Technology), Pace University (M.S. in Information Systems), SUNY Albany (M.S. in Information Science), and Long Island University (A.C.S. in Public Library Administration). He is also a New York State Licensed Librarian.
*CPE Credit Eligibility: to earn CPE credit, attendees must participate in the entire virtual conference and satisfy all attendance and engagement verification requirements. Partial credit is not available. In order to validate attendance and engagement, participants must authenticate through Zoom.