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.

Gartner forecasted that by 2024, 70% of new financial planning and analysis projects (FP&A) will become extended planning and analysis (xP&A) projects, expanding their scope beyond the finance domain.

In his presentation, Alessandro Cardito, Global Consumer Beauty FP&A Director at Coty, outlines three main short-term priorities that FP&A should keep in mind.