Automated and Intelligent Forecasting Framework

Description
Ruthvik Uppaluri is an enterprise systems architect and FP&A strategist who has reshaped the way Dropbox plans, forecasts, and communicates financial performance. In his role as Manager of FP&A Data and Systems, he led the design and implementation of the company’s Automated and Intelligent Forecasting Framework — a scalable platform that unifies line-item vendor forecasting, position-based workforce planning, and free cash flow modeling into a single system used across the enterprise.
This solution didn’t just improve accuracy or speed — it created a new foundation for financial decision-making. The platform serves as the backbone for internal planning, executive forecasting, variance analysis, and public guidance alignment.
Background
Dropbox entered a period of renewed strategic focus in 2022. The company was managing cost structure optimization, shifting product investments, and market expectations tied to cash flow predictability. Internally, the Finance team faced challenges in preparing accurate, timely forecasts across disconnected systems and manual processes. Variance analysis required spreadsheets. Forecasts refreshed only once per day. Executive decision-making was often slowed by fragmented tools and delayed insights — especially during earnings cycles.
Ruthvik proposed a full-scale transformation: one forecasting platform that combined actuals, statistical forecasting logic, and driver-based planning in real time — built from the ground up and integrated directly into how Finance worked.
He personally architected and delivered this framework, which is now used by FP&A, Treasury, and executive leadership to model performance across vendors, headcount, and cash flow with speed and precision.