About Mike’s F9 Finance

Helping automate finance so you can work less and live more

Hey There, Welcome To Mike’s F9 Finance!

Mission Statement

At F9 Finance, my mission is simple. I help finance professionals automate the work that steals their nights so they can do great work and still have a life outside of spreadsheets.

I have lived the grind. Midnight closes. Last-minute FP&A fire drills. Excel formulas breaking right before a meeting. For a long time, that pace felt normal. Early in my career, staying late and powering through weekends worked. I was young, single, and could afford to treat exhaustion like a temporary inconvenience.

That stops working when life changes.

When kids enter the picture, late nights are no longer a flex. They are a tradeoff. Time does not magically stretch just because work demands it. That was the moment I realized something important. A finance career should not require constant sacrifice just to keep up.

That is why I built F9 Finance. I teach practical finance automation that turns repetitive, time-sucking tasks into systems that run on their own. Using tools like Power Query, Power Pivot, Power BI, workflow automation, and AI, I help finance pros eliminate busywork, protect their evenings, and still show up strong in front of leadership.

No buzzwords. No hustle culture. No grind-harder nonsense.

Just real, usable automation strategies you can apply immediately to work less, reduce stress, and move your career forward without missing dinner.

My Story

In 2020, when the world slowed down for a moment, I finally had time to think. After more than a decade in corporate finance and FP&A, something became obvious. The problem was not the people. It was the way finance work had been designed.

Manual processes were everywhere. Spreadsheets were fragile. Data pipelines broke constantly. Meetings filled calendars without solving real problems. Late nights were treated as proof of commitment. Burnout was just part of the job.

Earlier in my career, I played along. I could stay late. I could give up weekends. I could grind through chaos because there was nothing waiting for me at home that demanded my attention more than work did.

That changed when I had kids.

Suddenly, the endless grind stopped being sustainable. Missing dinners and bedtimes was no longer a temporary inconvenience. It was a cost. And it was one I was no longer willing to pay for work that could be done better, faster, and smarter.

I had lived the pain firsthand. Sleepless nights chasing why a cash flow model would not reconcile. Entire weekends swallowed by budget templates. That familiar moment when Excel throws a circular reference error and you wonder if it is mocking you personally.

What frustrated me most was realizing how much of that work was unnecessary.

So I started building automations. Small ones at first, then full systems. Reporting that used to take days dropped to hours. Commentary that once consumed entire evenings could be drafted in minutes. The quality improved, the stress dropped, and my time finally felt like my own again.

That experience became F9 Finance.

Not another generic finance blog or a collection of buzzwords, but a place that tells the truth about finance work and shows a better way to do it. A way where you are valued for judgment and insight, not how many hours you sit in front of a spreadsheet.

Today, F9 Finance exists to help finance professionals stop being spreadsheet firefighters, build systems that hold up under pressure, and reclaim the time and energy that work quietly takes from their lives.

Because success should not require constant sacrifice. And your career should not come at the expense of the people who matter most.

Meet The Team

Meet our crew: a bunch of finance nerds who’ve traded in their corporate cloaks for a chance to make finance fun. With a decade (or more) of battles in the finance trenches under our belts, we’re here to share the war stories and the peace treaties of the finance world.

Mike Dion

Chief Finance Nerd

Mike shares his expertise from over a decade in FP&A, Corporate Finance, and Small Business Finance.

Editorial Vibe

Expertise? Check. Only the crème de la crème here, with enough experience to fill a ledger or two.
Quality? Absolutely. We’re talking triple-checked, sleep-on-it-then-check-again kind of quality.
Trust? Built on a foundation of “we’ve been there, done that,” and always keeping it real.

Who Owns F9 Finance

The F9 Finance website and domain are owned and operated by Michael Dion DBA F9 Finance, a registered Florida sole proprietorship. The corporate address is 7901 4th St N Ste 300, St. Petersburg, FL 33702. The corporate email is [email protected].

My Responsibility

I owe you real, trustworthy finance content. That means:

No gimmicks.
No jargon-filled fluff.
Just practical advice you can apply in FP&A, corporate finance, financial reporting, and automation projects today.

I use affiliate links occasionally—but only for tools I’d personally bet my job on. Your trust > quick commission.

Books I Have Written

The Financial Storyteller’s Playbook – How to tell better finance stories that drive business decisions

Get Started With AI Prompting for Finance – A practical guide to applying AI tools like ChatGPT in finance

Where I Have Been Featured

My work has been featured across the finance world. Here are just some of the places you can find me:

Connect With Me

Want to stop drowning in spreadsheets? Here’s where to find me:

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter for sharp, sarcastic finance automation insights.
🎥 Watch my YouTube channel for tutorials on Power BI, Power Query, AI in finance, and automation hacks.

This isn’t just my platform, it’s a community. So bring your ideas, questions, and dad jokes. Together, we’ll make finance not just more efficient, but more human.

Missed another dinner? Let’s fix that.