I hope to show the analytical power that is now available to the FP&A practitioner and how it can drive business change in a structured manner; a method that involves considerably less effort than I had to apply all those years ago.

Digitized FP&A Business Partnering is now the latest trend that is going well beyond just Finance involving the entire organization to move FP&A and planning to the next level.

Traditional FP&A systems are typically focused on one aspect of the management process.  For example, setting a budget, collecting a forecast, or delivering results in the form of a report pack.

Over the past 20 years, there have been concerted efforts to combine these processes into a single system – after all, what’s the point of a budget if you can’t report against it or collect a forecast to see if year-end goals are going to be achieved?

Utilising modern technology like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions in their Rolling Forecasts has enabled large, multinational companies to achieve real-time, continuous forecasts with 90% accuracy and in some cases, even higher. 

The financial planning and analysis (FP&A) storyteller has emerged as one of the five critical roles within the FP&A function. In a data-driven world, the volume of data that exists is exponentially increasing. Equally, the time available for managers to process insights from this data is decreasing. Therefore, the requirement that these insights be taken and used to drive leadership decisions has never been greater.

The New Normal means that planning is no longer an extrapolation of the past. Similarly, business drivers that worked last year may no longer be relevant for the future. The reality is that organizations face multiple possible futures. Each one can be triggered by a crisis or an unforeseen event that will require the company to adjust or even change course.

So how should FP&A adapt to this New Normal?