Insights from Leading FP&A Professionals

If you work in FP&A, you have probably felt the shift. The job is not just about budgets, month-end packs, and variance analysis anymore. These days, you are expected to make sense of the noise, deliver sharper insights, and do it fast, while helping the business think two or three moves ahead.

We spoke with more than 40 FP&A leaders from tech, manufacturing, services, and retail. What came back was not a theory. It was the gritty, practical stuff they had learned from years of doing the work. Here’s what stood out.

1. Data Integrity – Get This Wrong, and Nothing Else Works

For Philip, Jorge, Kevin, and Ben, fragmented systems, mismatched definitions, and low trust in numbers are the big killers of productivity. The high performers? They have found ways around it.

Some have pulled everything into one clean, central data set, whether that’s through an ERP-linked warehouse, a tight Power BI model, or a well-built EPM platform. Others live by their master data rules, keeping charts of accounts tidy and cost centres mapped correctly.

And they don’t waste people’s time with manual file-wrangling. Teams like Bernard’s and Alessandro’s use scripts and automation to do the boring bits and flag issues early. As Heath put it, finance needs to be the “data conscience” of the business, making sure inputs from sales or operations are as clean as they should be.

Once your data stops fighting you, you can finally give your team the breathing room to work on things that actually move the needle.

2. Winning Back Analyst Time with Automation

Jennie, Alessandro, and Kevin all admitted something that will sound familiar: their teams were burning half their week just pulling and cleaning data.

The ones who fixed it stopped doing the same work twice. They automated recurring reports. They moved as much as they could into dashboards where people can self-serve. Kevin even set up bots to handle repetitive uploads.

Randy’s approach was clever — a simple SharePoint site plugged into Power BI. It gave managers instant access to numbers and cut down those “Can you just send me...” requests. Alessandro and Ben went one step further, creating dedicated reporting hubs so no one in another country is manually building the same thing.

And when you are not buried in spreadsheets, you have got the headspace to show up differently — not just as the numbers person, but as a real partner in decision-making.

3. Becoming More Than “The People Who Send the Numbers”

Abhishek, Matthew, and Chetan all agreed that if FP&A only shows up to deliver reports, you’ll never be seen as a real business partner.

The high performers insert themselves into the conversation early. They show up at operational meetings, not just financial ones. They explain what’s behind the numbers and what it means for the next decision.

Joseph and Sudhir said it’s about knowing what really drives the business, whether that’s lead times in the supply chain, churn in the sales team, or seasonal demand shifts. Jennie and Jerene make a point of staying in touch with sales, marketing, and operations so they can adjust quickly when plans change.

Nowhere is that business partnership tested more than in revenue planning, where optimism, politics, and reality often collide.

4. Revenue Planning That Actually Works

Wesley, Paul, and Bharath were blunt: revenue planning is often manual, political, and way too dependent on guesswork.

Bharath tackled it by building a driver-based model for SaaS revenue, using real cohort data and sales input, not just a flat growth rate. 

Heath and Wesley feed CRM pipeline data straight into forecasts, so the numbers reflect actual deal flow.

Paul, Kevin, and Jerene never settle for a single plan. They model best, base, and downside scenarios so they are ready for whatever happens. 

Leaders like Surindarr and Matthew make sure sales targets are in sync with hiring, production, and fulfilment; otherwise, the plan is just wishful thinking.

Getting the plan right often depends on the tools you have got but tech only helps if people actually use it.

5. Tech Is the Tool, Not the Finish Line

Almost everyone we spoke to agreed: technology can make FP&A faster, but it is not a magic fix.

Kevin and Sudhir warned against jumping into complex platforms too early. Start with tools people know, then move up. Bernard and Jennie have seen more tech projects fail from poor adoption than bad software, so they train often and find internal champions.

AI is on the radar, but in small steps. Joseph, Alessandro, and Abhishek are testing it for forecasting tweaks, spotting anomalies, and drafting commentary, not replacing the whole planning cycle. Philip and Sudhir are investing in system integrations so that data flows seamlessly without manual work.

But even with the best tech in place, it is your people, and their skills, that make or break FP&A’s impact.

6. Building the FP&A Skills You’ll Need Next

Ben, Chetan, and Abhishek see the same skill gaps in most teams: not enough people who can partner with the business, tell a compelling story, and speak “data” fluently.

Ben hires for curiosity first — people who challenge assumptions and ask awkward questions. Matthew runs training to help analysts present in a way that sticks with their audience. Jorge blends technical skills with operational know-how so his models match reality.

And leaders like Alessandro and Joseph are pushing their teams to get comfortable with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning now, before those skills become a basic requirement.

Final Word

The best FP&A teams are not scorekeepers anymore. The are part of the decision-making engine — running on clean data, smart automation, and a deep understanding of what drives the business.

If you are building or reshaping a team, start here:

1. Fix the data.
2. Automate the grunt work.
3. Get into the conversation early.
4. Make revenue plans flexible and grounded in reality.
5. Use tech your people actually want to use.
6. Keep learning the skills that will matter next year, not last year.