“Control” is an interesting word in the management vocabulary. It is a word many managers struggle with defining. Beyond “cost control”, most are quite vague when it comes to other definitions.

The first Paris FP&A Board will take place on 28th May 2019 to debate the popular subject of the global trends in modern Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A). 

The Paris FP&A Board was established on the 28^th of May 2019 as an educational and networking platform for the local FP&A community.

Since then, a diverse group of members, representing leading global and local companies such as Engie, The Coca-Cola,  Renault, Atos, Carrefour, Cargill, Univar Solutions, Schneider Electric, General Electric, Este Lauder Companies France, Air France-KLM, and many others joined this think-tank. Together, we explore the best way to address the challenges in the FP&A community in the 21st century.

During the meetings, we guide the development and promotion of best practices in global FP&A, identify and support new trends, skillsets and innovations. The speakers from GE Renewable Energy, CWT, TD Synnex, Gewiss France, and others presented their insights and case studies.

The 23rd London FP&A Board will take place on the 16th of May 2019 to debate the subject of "Long-Range and Strategic Planning: evolution of the process".

In February 2019, the International FP&A Board held two meetings in Switzerland. The ninth Geneva FP&A Board and the eighth Zurich FP&A Board gathered more than 30 senior finance professionals each.

Following on from the success of the 21^st London FP&A Board, we had the pleasure of attending the 8^th London FP&A Circle which shares the latest professional trends and developments with the UK FP&A community, open exclusively by invitation to senior and mid-level finance practitioners.

This year FP&A Trends Group is planning a number of compelling webinars about best practices in modern FP&A. The first one in 2019 will be devoted to an interesting subject — "FP&A Transformation through Effective Organisational Structure".

The International FP&A Board held a meeting in Dubai on 6^th February in the wonderful H-Hotel in Sheikh Zayed Road. The topic of the discussion was “Rolling Forecast: 7 Factors for Success”.

Advanced analytics is fast becoming a core enterprise competency. Organizations slow to develop it risk falling behind competitors. Companies need quick and reliable insight into the current and future performance of their processes as well as the evolving needs of customers. Advanced analytics is no longer the purview of companies like Google or Amazon. It’s a critical competitive differentiator.

The purpose of a balance sheet is to describe the resources that a business has and how those resources were acquired.  This purpose is seen as an end result of financial planning but this purpose can be seen as a starting point of financial planning.