Imagine you have 3 minutes to explain to a six year old what FP&A is and what  place it takes in a business ecosystem. Tough, isn’t it? What are things that a six year old would understand? For example, animals, right?

Over the last month, the Brexit weather becomes more overcast, with the House of Commons vote on Theresa May’s deal suspended due to evident lack of support from MPs. Almost every day has seen a storm, with the deal being attacked from all sides and the EU leadership maintaining a hard line.

In 1992 a professor named Robert Kaplan and a consultant named David Norton created a measurement system called The Balanced Scorecard.  A reason for creating The Balanced Scorecard was to go beyond financial statements in measuring what businesses do in order to improve performance.

We live in a Digital World today, with nearly everything interconnected with each other. Yet many individuals, companies and organisations seek their own ways and explore how to leverage data in the area of Financial Planning and Analysis.

Spreadsheets are a great tool to build and maintain ad-hoc calculations, quickly draft a business plan and create good-looking reports. But when it comes to planning and budgeting in a complex business environment the flexibility of spreadsheets is often quick to become an obstacle instead of an asset in your planning process.

The Global Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning FP&A Committee was created in March 2018 with the aim to see how the latest developments in those technologies can influence modern Financial Planning and Analytics. On the 14^th of November, the Committee held its third meeting.