As financial professionals we Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) professionals spend a lot of timing learning - learning the basics of accounting and finance, learning the business and learning about the impacts business decisions have on budgets and forecasts.

Each function has strategic insight that can benefit senior management with their unique perspective. While this is true, there are only so many seats at the table, and each organization functions differently.

Business partnering is something everyone is talking about right now. The premise is that the more low-value finance tasks are automated, the more time finance practitioners have to work with their “customers” in the business. The only problem is that many business leaders are far from satisfied with finance’s performance to date as a valued business partner.

FP&A in a small sized business is different than in a large, corporate firm. While one can argue that we all face a lack of time and resources, there often is no dedicated FP&A function in a smaller enterprise. FP&A team members in a smaller firm are wearing many more hats than FP&A. Again, we don’t have too many people that report to us (if any) that are analysts. 

The great thing about being in FP&A is that we get to observe in real life and hear stories about many interactions, good and bad, between many colleagues across the business.

At a high level, the best-performing organisations take a more rigorous approach to FP&A.  They have tightly integrated all the components of FP&A, merged operational and financial planning, and have a deep understanding of how operational metrics drive their financial results.