The purpose of a statement of cash flows is to describe how businesses receive and spend money.  This purpose is seen as an end result of financial planning but this purpose can be seen as a starting point of financial planning.  As a starting point of financial planning, people should think about how to accumulate wealth from the receipt and disbursement of cash.

In this article, I want to make the case for data-driven planning to describe the 7 key FP&A models that every organisation needs to plan, resource and monitor business performance. From a planning and review perspective, there are 7 key things that management needs to know about its business processes, each of which can be assessed in a range of analytical models.

As Finance leaders, we can’t expect the business to view Finance as value-added partners if we can’t put a stop to this often-inaccurate stereotype in advance. So where should we start? The answer lies in better communication along with greater transparent and objective measurements that can be easily understood and used by all.