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.

There’s a lot of buzz nowadays with regards to digitalization and how we all need to be ready for significant changes in our working environment and businesses.

When preparing the implementation of a planning and forecasting system I am often asked if we can just take the existing spreadsheet solution and squeeze this into the new system. Invariably my answer is: Yes, we can do this, but we should not. Why?

Many believe that one of the future roles of Finance, and FP&A, specifically, will be to provide real-time, data-driven decision support for the business. This will transform Finance from a mere ‘cost center’ to a ‘profit center’ function, raising its importance within the organization.

The statistics reveal that 60%-90% of strategy implementations fail and only 14% of executives are satisfied with the execution of a strategy. Why do companies systematically fail to set meaningful and achievable targets that can help close the strategy gap? What should be the role of the FP&A in Strategic Planning?

I like to think of the various EPM/CPM methods as an analogy of musical instruments in an orchestra. An orchestra’s conductor seeks balance and guides the symphony composer’s fluctuations in harmony, rhythm and tone.