In anticipation of turning the pandemic corner, companies are contemplating the return to the office or some form of the “Next Normal” working model. So how will your FP&A team find optimal ways of working in this new and evolving landscape?  

In this uncertain environment organisational agility often faces a huge barrier: unaligned top-down and bottom-up planning processes.

For many organisations, the Strategy Gap is a major obstacle that systematically prevents businesses from truly maximising their Strategic Planning efforts and sustainably creating value for their organisation. 

There are many terms connected with FP&A, such as “unstructured analysis,” “predictive analytics,” and “machine learning". Often very little detail on how they can be used in everyday life. Sure, there is an odd example such as how the sales of one product in a supermarket are related to another based on their location. But what do these technologies actually do, and how can they help management in today’s fast-moving, complex business environment?

FP&A Predictive Analytics and Scenario Planning represent a truly powerful force for dealing with uncertainty, complexity, and risk. Watch the full recording of the UK&Ireland Board to learn more about the key factors that are needed for the successful implementation of Predictive Planning and Scenario Planning.

There are innumerable excellent stories to be told in FP&A, many of which can facilitate the decision-making process. At this time of advanced analytics, flexible dashboarding and effective data visualization, FP&A storytelling has become both an art and a science.

In the current highly uncertain business environment, an FP&A business partner needs to be equipped with defined skills and competencies that bridge technical acumen, technology, and influence. The organisation also has to evolve its model to allow the business partners to grow into a digitised FP&A business partner.

Organisations are operating in the world of ‘unknown unknowns’. As they strive to adapt, Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) has become increasingly important. FP&A teams must be agile and analytical. They have had to develop whole new ‘playbooks’ in order to overcome challenging changes, taking on roles that are not typical for traditional management accounting.

Although traditional budgets have evolved over the years, they can hardly meet the challenges of the modern economic and business environment.