In this article, we will move to the bottom line of P&L considering how finance can guide management in resource allocation and drive business profitability.

Rolling Forecast is an essential tool for financial planning and analysis (FP&A), with the potential to radically transform corporates’ traditional budgeting process.
 

Using P&L as a map for the journey (see image 1 below), the first three articles explored three initial steps focusing on the pre-P&L analysis and price management. In this article, we will move via net sales to marginality and look at how finance can take initiative and lead the effort to increase both sales and business profitability.

As was famously proclaimed by Pericles, the powerful politician of ancient Greece: "The key is not to predict the future but to be prepared for it". Agile FP&A can help organisations to move through uncertainty and come up with a plan of action.

In this article, I will share several challenges and dilemmas in building a strong FP&A department and also describe how they can be overcome. I‘ve gone through this process in 3 different companies as a Head of FP&A, so I can give my observation and say what are the crucial conditions to make the FP&A department successful and to minimise the ambiguity. 

Nearly all enterprises strive to significantly grow sales and income in their multiple-year business plan, yet not all of them will achieve this goal. This blog digs into the traps of the dream machine Long-Term-Planning (LTP) and how the FP&A function can support quantifying the expectations in a different way.