FAQ

Does it cost anything to use Proformative?: If you are a corporate finance or accounting (or related) professional, then no. It is a completely free community that is open to all corporate finance and accounting professionals.
Who should use Proformative?: The primary users are anyone in corporate finance, accounting, treasury or related roles at any company big or small, public or private, domestic or international. Other users, albeit with different roles, will be service providers and employers/recruiters.
What are the rules of the road for posting, commenting and content?: You can see the Community Conduct rules for more information, but basically any topic or response to a topic that has some relation to corporate finance, accounting, treasury or related role, and is stated in a professional manner, is “in bounds” and welcome. This may include topics not directly connected to finance and accounting. For example, questions about legal, HR, IT, recruiting, facilities and other activities that commonly fall under the purview of finance and accounting organizations are all encouraged.
What constitutes unwelcome behavior on Proformative?: Certainly anything that would reasonably be considered unprofessional. You can look at the Community Conduct rules for more information. No personal attacks. No flaming, ever. No self-promotion for services, products or even one’s availability when it comes to looking for employment or consulting work is permitted in the main Discussion area – these all have their place in either the Service Provider or Jobs areas of the site.
How do you keep the main Discussion Groups area of the site free from self-promotion?: Every group is moderated and every posting and comment has a button which any user can push to notify the moderator and site admin of abuse. The community benefits from uncluttered communication and the community helps police the forums. The rules are very clear: abuse the system by self-promotion or inappropriate postings and you will be out.
Why does the site use real names and not aliases for the users?: We think it appropriate for professionals to know who they are talking to and for them to use the proper amount of caution and decorum when conversing. Using real names fosters communication, trust and a sense of community for all users.
What about confidential information - should I spill it here?: The answer is ";heck no";. Any confidential information you carry is your's to guard. You should never, ever spill the beans to any group, anywhere, Proformative included.
If I can't disclose confidential information, how am I supposed to carry on any discussions?: The truth is, the vast, vast majority of discussions you find on Proformative have absolutely nothing to do with confidential information. What is confidential with respect to asking for help interpreting 409a, or asking who the best contracts counsel is in your town or about whether anyone has a good NDA form you can borrow? Answer: nothing. The simple fact is that Proformative is a very practical resource for getting work done and the majority of the ";how to do"; component of most F&A professional's day-to-day work has little confidential content. The ";how to do"; of most F&A professional's work is what the Proformative community excels at. That said, if you have an issue that does involve confidential information, simply leave it out of your post/comment. If you have a question about cross-border transactions don't start a discussion entitled, "We are about to buy publicly-traded company XYZ, does anyone have insight into valuation of goodwill from companies in the EU?"; Instead, try something on point, but a bit less revealing such as, "does anyone have insight into valuation of goodwill from companies using IFRS?"; or the like. In other words, use some judgment. If you can't figure any way of saying it without spilling sensitive information then you should look elsewhere for help on that issue.
Can I reprint articles in my postings or comments?: No. Please link to external articles or other documents unless you own the publication rights to said article or document.

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