The Face-to-Face Boston FP&A Board was held on June 21 to discuss the key lessons learned from the pandemic.

Everyone in FP&A agrees that agile planning and forecasting are essential in an environment of great uncertainty. FP&A agility is the ability to reforecast on demand. But how can we implement it?

The recent FP&A Trends webinar looked at the main challenges FP&A professionals are facing these days.

This article provides an overview of the topics and cases presented and discussed by the expert panellists at the webinar “Top Five FP&A Challenges and How to Address Them”, as well as the results of our polling questions. 

Many companies are getting back to the office (or never left), some have already decided to remain fully remote, yet others are trying out a hybrid mode. The only thing in common between them is no one is sure of the best set-up yet. 

Are we missing the opportunity to think broader and bolder? Could we use the learnings we gained so far with remote work to address a well-known problem: the lack of FP&A professionals in the job market?

Understanding new KPIs and drivers, their impact and how we can influence them has been a key priority for leading organisations. This, however, requires good understanding and implementation of Driver Based Planning, coupled with key business strategies.

According to the 2021 FP&A Trends Survey, only 12.5% of organisations spend 40% of their time on value-adding activities. Ironically, the feedback I am getting from my stakeholders is that our Business Partners have never needed us more than they need us today. Clearly, as an FP&A community, we all need to be taking action to empower, execute and become laser-focused on moving up the dial from 12.5% to ensure we can support and guide our Business Partners and show up as our best version.

In this digest, you will find our research paper itself; an article about the essence of driver-based modelling and data lineage concepts; a video case study of predictive analytics for planning; and an argument for using technology to effect FP&A transformation.

In this short video, the Head of FP&A and M&A at Lonza, Patric Somlo, shares how his organisation transformed its planning process by using Predictive Analytics.

The business environment is completely different from what it was. In order to survive, organisations have to be agile. In the language of FP&A, it means that dynamic forecasting is a must. 

One of the leading companies that successfully evolved from static to dynamic forecasting is Dollar General Corporation.

At the recent FP&A Trends Webinar, senior finance professionals from diverse backgrounds and experience shared their views on the subject of Skills of the Future and How to Build Best-in-Class FP&A Teams.