For most marketing managers doing the annual budget is a bore or waste of time. With most transactional services outsourced and financial management centralised in the home country of the company, local financials spend more and more time with planning, budgeting and forecasting.

FP&A has an impact on the organisational structure, enhanced by the possibilities of new technologies. Where previously companies are classified as having a centralised, decentralised or matrix structure, the future promises to be less clear, more diverse yet potentially very agile!

A rolling forecast is not only about seeing the future unravel, but a constant evaluation of the management team to see if they are able to adjust their operations on time. Without it, any form of strategic planning becomes useless. Below you find a real-life case. Step-by-step each question will be briefly discussed. It is about a foreign business unit, which was part of a large European corporation, on the brink of a crisis.

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) is gaining more and more attention from business leaders. Its focus is the future of the business. The FP&A professionals who work as Finance Business Partners understand basic accounting and reporting, yet their strength is in being from different ‘walks of life’.