The Seattle FP&A Board met on May 24th, 2022, to debate what FP&A learned from the Pandemic.

Ron Zanetti, Head Of Finance at WellSaid Labs and FP&A Board Ambassador moderated the discussion. The meeting was sponsored by SAP in partnership with Seattle Search Group and IWG.

Senior finance professionals attended from companies, including Amazon, Boeing, T-Mobile, Genie / Terex Corporation, Seattle Children's Hospital, CBRE, Transdigm and many others.

The main lessons learned are:

• We could respond to remote work in the short term, but in a long time, it became more difficult. There is a need for face-to-face collaboration.
• Increase forecasting cadence to enable companies to "win at the turns."
• Raise cash before the market tanks
• Make sure you understand the balance sheet and break-even point.
• Scenario Planning
   - Build a connection across the organization to achieve good scenarios,
   - Scenarios based on cash flow and balanced sheet provide the foundation for accuracy,
   - Don’t over-rely on averages in scenario planning because you may miss big things
• xP&A: 
   - Processes and work-flows are executed across functions and entities, not just within entities
   - Finance and operations share planning models that support both