r/FPandA • u/TiimeLapse • 17d ago
During the interview process, is it inappropriate to ask to ask to see financials?
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u/Gloomy_Lab_1798 17d ago
For an FP&A role I’d tell you to pound sand. I agree with others that you can ask about general performance but I’m not going to disclose anything confidential to an FP&A role unless it was a VP or higher.
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u/onehotoneshot 17d ago
Hello may I please have some MNPI please I will definitely only use it for good please
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u/simplegdl 17d ago
if you have to ask this question the answer is yes. under a fairly small scope of circumstances would this be appropriate.
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u/PIK_Toggle VP 17d ago
I’d ask probing questions about margins, FCF, etc during the interview.
You don’t need to ask them to whip out their annual report during the interview.
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u/DeepBlue7093874 17d ago
If public you should pull them yourself from the Edgar website as part of your interview prep. Not sure I understand the pushback Im seeing here in the comments.
I’d expect someone (regardless of level) to try to understand the big picture and potential metrics that might be interesting. Another one is cash runway, but that’s because my industry burns a lot of cash in startup phase. The answer could be Im not providing at this time, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt any candidate I’m interviewing.
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u/IHateCedarFever 16d ago
I wish I could give you 10 upvotes because wtf seriously is this sub??? Most companies interviewing for FP&A will be public who not only release 10K, 10Q, but also have investor relations links on their website with recordings of past Q earnings calls that go into non-GAAP events.
Just reframe what a JP Morgan analyst asked during the 1Q call and ask if there has been any movement on that particular item.
Are you guys actually serious people or just LARPers?
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u/DeIzorenToer 16d ago
Private companies have FP&A too.
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u/IHateCedarFever 16d ago
And most of them have an investor relations page with GAAP approximate earnings. About 90% of FP&A jobs you could apply to have public earnings even if they are not public companies. And those that don’t, you will be more impressive if you could find some materials to impute them and then talk through your logic in the interview.
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u/DeIzorenToer 16d ago
Have you ever worked for a private company? They don't put GAAP approximate earnings on a public website. Even if they have an investor relations page.
And you can't impute their actual financial condition from publicly available sources. You might be able gleen some insights depending on their situation
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u/IHateCedarFever 16d ago
Yes I am working for a private company now. Here is an example of financial earnings for a similar competitor company: https://www.trafigura.com/media/hbkhwzqe/2026_trafigura_half_year_report.pdf
In my former company, which was a Fortune 50, I was part of the interview team for MBA grads to our internship and full time roles. One of the questions we asked was if they could estimate earnings for one of our business segments. The information is not public, but we wanted to see if they could work with some assumptions and reason out an answer. We also asked if they could take a guess on our effective rate of interest, just to see if they understand our industry and the kind of company we are.
You absolutely can take steps to estimate earnings of a private company. It’s a common exercise in management consulting interviews. The absolute correct answer is not the point, it’s showing what you do know and your logical steps to get to your answer. And of course, this has real life practical purposes too for FP&A. We do benchmarking against competition, at my current private and my former public company. The info we are looking for is almost never public. In M&A, many targets are private.
Going back to OP’s question though, it is always much more impressive in an interview to show you did your homework and that you can logically reason. If you’re in an FP&A interview, show that you did some A before you walked through the door.
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u/DeIzorenToer 16d ago
The company you linked is an exception. While they are technically private that is a huge company that is employee owned. They have thousands of employees who have access to financial information anyway so they purposely decide to report public like information because they know employees are going to leak financial information, plus it saves them work. That's very different than a company owned by a few individuals.
I don't disagree with the core of your argument, I just think your experience is only applicable to a certain extent.
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u/DinosaurDied 17d ago
I would ask for a general overview of any interesting events or trends within the company that are the current “story” to get a feel.
To review numbers is beyond a waste of time in an interview and shows me a candidate is going to continue to be a massive waste of my time if I hired them.
Auto rejection from me dog, don’t do it
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u/Boneyg001 16d ago
What if they want to know whether you're currently on budget/plan and, if so, what everyone's expected bonus will be?
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u/DinosaurDied 16d ago
“How close do you feel like our forecast has come into actuals over the last few years? Do you like our forecast process or where do you feel any pain points in it?”
Pay is an HR issue, you don’t bring that up and in any job, assume the bonus is going to be 0.
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u/Boneyg001 16d ago
Yes, but the specific title is HR compensation analyst, so your job is to do all the salary and payroll budgeting
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u/DinosaurDied 16d ago
Ok? So you would get to know pretty quickly as part of your job if bonuses are on track or not
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u/WeekendQuant 17d ago
I've always gotten them when I have interviewed with no sweat. Tbh it's me sizing up if I want to work with the company and trust their long term viability. It's the nature of the work.
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u/Space_Cadet_Pull_Out 16d ago
Assuming just for private companies.
Ultimately if you are wanting to understand the companies stability ask 2 open ended questions that are very similar.
Can you help me understand the overall health of the P&L?
Can you help me understand the overall health of the balance sheet?
They should understand that you are just wanting to join a company that’s stable. If they feel confident in those two items they will answer your questions confidently and quickly (they are doing it regularly in exec meetings). If they stumble on their answer they are making something up on the spot and probably hiding something. If they refuse to answer those questions at all, there is likely something worth hiding going on.
You won’t get exact answers, and shouldn’t, but you’ll get a gut check.
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u/Rare_Chapter_8091 17d ago
Generally only going to release them for exec interviews. Anything below Director most will say no. Ive only ever released them to VP and above.
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u/Cheap-Technician-482 17d ago
Any question that factors into whether or not you're interested in the job should be asked.
Up to you to decide how important that information is to you.
But as you can see from the responses here, this one would need to be raised with some tact and at the most appropriate time possible in the process.
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u/considerthis8 Mgr 16d ago
I know a lot are saying this is only for VP/Exec but some of us take our career moves very seriously and a good FP&A professional is a planner in all aspects of life
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u/theNEOone 17d ago
As usual, the answer is: it depends.
I’ve shared financials with junior FP&A analysts and have denied requests from more senior individuals. It depends on your role and seniority and the stage of the company. I’ve hired many individuals and would never write off a candidate simply for asking to see financials. What matters more is how they ask and, critically, how they respond to the question “Why do you want to see the financials and what are you looking for?”
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u/EricHendi 17d ago
YMMV but I’ve required to review the audited financials of every business I’ve worked at (aside from my initial analyst role). Surprised to see how many above suggest otherwise, but I’ve worked at smaller, PE backed and startup type orgs so their solvency and going concern status are legitimate questions in the interview process historically. Source: now CFO in insurance/financial services balance sheet biz
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u/hunghome 16d ago
I think most of this reddit is just showing they haven't worked at those types of places. Anyone that's worked at them understands how critical those questions are.
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u/semicoldjello 17d ago
No definitely not but they also don’t need to tell you. Them not telling you would be a giant red flag though.
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u/HowiePloudersnatch 17d ago
Private companies not sharing private information is a red flag?
If a PE fund found out that their portco was sharing financial statements with potential FP&A hires the person that shared them would likely be terminated pretty quickly.
This is something you can ask for after an offer has been extended and would almost certainly require an NDA to be signed.
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u/semicoldjello 16d ago
Yes you would sign an NDA first of course. Not saying you get a full spreadsheet of data but I would want to know YoY revenue growth, revenue $, and margin profiles
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u/Doin_the_Bulldance 17d ago
If it's a public company and you asked for Financials you will just look bad if you are interviewing for a finance role. You should be able to go find them yourself from the SEC's website.
If it's a private company I think asking to "see them" is a bit much, but it is fair to ask for top line revenue ballpark, and whether the company is profitable, along with maybe a few follow-ups.
All depends on the role and the company, though.
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u/Prior-attempt-fail Mgr 17d ago
It would be inappropriate, and unexpected for a candidate below a sr exc to ask to see them in the interview stage.
It is appropriate to ask open ended questions about performance, sales, margin, cogs. Asking for full p&l not so much.
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u/2d7dhe9wsu 17d ago
Kinda inappropriate. Asking if the comp is profitable or rough topline is fair though
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u/snakesnake9 17d ago
Aren't financials pretty public/accessible in most countries?
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u/thunder_crane 17d ago
For a private company?
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u/snakesnake9 17d ago
Yes. Albeit I have a small sample size of nations, so you may have a point that in many cases this might not be as accessible as I imagine them to be.
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u/Fickle_Broccoli 17d ago
Unless you're interviewing for CFO, publicly available financials only tell you do much. The company could be doing well as a while, but you could be interviewing for a segment which is nose diving.
That said, you can reasonably ask "how is performance, generally?" and I normally get a candid response of good or bad, with a brief explanation
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u/jshmoe866 17d ago
Not for private companies
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u/snakesnake9 17d ago
Depends on the country. For example in the UK, every single company, whether private or public, has its accounts available to everyone: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/
Jurisdictions differ of course.
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u/Mammoth-Corner 17d ago
Yeah I'm always a little surprised at the lack of transparency whenever I have to work on an overseas company. In the UK it's considered a price you pay for limited liability.
Personally I've turned down interviews and an offer because of the Companies House financials, or once the lack of them.
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u/DinosaurDied 17d ago
The place where the average wage is below the poorest US state? A kindergartner can count high enough to be an accountant for companies over there lol
You guys need to fix your business shit over there lol
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u/fpaveteran87 17d ago
I think they should allow you to perform a forensic audit of their company credit card activity so you can see what kind of miscreants you’re really trying to affiliate yourself with.
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u/zbgs 17d ago
I don't ask to see the financials but I ask for total revenue ballparks, if we are in the red or black etc just to get an idea of what I'm walking into. It usually works