One day in November, a worried operations manager for a transport company was preparing for a meeting with the group’s financial director. He’d been ordered to explain the overspending on his region’s fuel account for the first 10 months of the financial year. The variance was huge and the MD had hit the roof! There were many reasons for the variance.

Language is important and the words we use are critical if we don’t want to be misunderstood. Being explicit and specific in the words and sentences we use, will leave less to interpretation and is critical in order to be effective.  In this article I analyse three common phrases I hear regularly in the organisations I work with, what I suggest they really mean and how to break through the ambiguity of them.

These notes were made during the meeting of the FP&A Board on 6th February 2020 in London.  They are a mixture of comments made by attendees and thoughts of those who presented case studies. These notes are the copyright of the FP&A Board and are for the attendees of the FP&A Board and their business colleagues. They are not to be used in publications unless authorized by the FP&A Board.

Change was the other name of 2019 and the area of corporate finance was no different to experience massive fast-paced change. We saw many topics which were “great discussions” in the past now being implemented... these changes are going to stay and will intensify further in the year of 2020 & beyond.

Many certifications and schooling opportunities exist for upgrading our FP&A abilities, and these opportunities continue to increase.  We will focus on some of the formal programs and degrees available that allow one to upskills their abilities and demonstrate a Growth Mindset”. Listed below are some of the different educational opportunities available today that can help us upskill ourselves as we strive to become better FP&A practitioners.

The expanding role of the modern FP&A requires more than even a deeper understanding of the technological issues, in order to leverage the digital transformation. In the meantime, the Enterprise Software market has never been so hot, and 2019 was an eventful year for the industry. To understand the challenges facing the FP&A teams, let’s break down by market segment and cast an eye over some of 2019’s main enterprise software news.

Zurich FP&A Board was held for the 10th time on January 30th 2020. It was the largest event so far, with 38 senior finance practitioners discussing keys to effective FP&A storytelling and sharing best practices. Participants were welcomed in Page Executives / Michael Page office. The meeting was sponsored by CCH Tagetik.

The process and tools designed with good intent many many years ago when the world was much simpler, the competitive landscape was more stable and where the scarce resource was financial capital, end up favouring the present to too high a degree at the expense of the future. In other words, it is likely to lead to incrementalism rather than boldness.

To most FP&A professionals and accountants there is confusion and a lack of consensus on how to allocate costs to products and service lines. I refer to this as “a mystery in a box to accountants”. To solve this mystery here are three lectures to accounting students from a skilled and experienced accountant – me – that explains the problem and how to solve it. For those who have already graduated from college and may even have a CPA, I encourage you to sit in the back of the lecture hall and audit these classes.

On 28th January 2020, more than 35 senior finance professionals gathered in the heart of Geneva to discuss “Best Practices in FP&A Storytelling”. This was followed two days later by a similar event by the Zurich FP&A Board.