Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) is gaining more and more attention from business leaders. Its focus is the future of the business. The FP&A professionals who work as Finance Business Partners understand basic accounting and reporting, yet their strength is in being from different ‘walks of life’.

An undisputed fact: data is the key to unlocking the potential of your business. It contains the insights to drive growth, generate efficiency and put you ahead of the competition. It is increasingly evident that using data to influence decision making in every aspect of your company will result in greater success. However, many businesses, both large and small, are intimidated by data.

It goes without saying that every successful business needs to be in full control of their finances - both income and expenses. To thrive in the current economic climate, businesses must make effective use of all the data their business produces.

‘Business Analytics’ is often portrayed as the latest miracle cure for managers wanting to improve corporate performance. But like most IT-based capabilities, the hype is often in the realms of fantasy, which can never be realised. However, analytics is a capability that can bring tremendous value to those organisations who understand how and when it can be applied.

‘Let’s speak the same language’, was once said at the Amsterdam FP&A Board. Do you know what your FP&A Colleagues meant with this expression? And do you also find it challenging finding a common language within various departments of your company?

On 16th May 2017, 35 senior finance practitioners joined the fourth meeting of the Geneva FP&A Board. The representatives from such leading companies as Duracell, DXC, General Mills, Honeywell, Medtronic, Newell Brands, Nissan, PepsiCo, Procter and Gamble, The Economist, Tesco PLC, etc., gathered to discuss the latest trends in FP&A Business Partnering

On 20th April 2017, 20 FP&A professionals from such companies as Barclays, Coats, the Economist Group, Kraft Heinz, NetApp, Starbucks Coffee Company, Visa, etc., participated in the 16th London FP&A Board meeting.

Rolling Forecast can become the path leading to better company’s profitability and improved operating performance. This is a popular process in the FP&A world.  Many companies tackle the idea of taking it. 

One of the more important qualities of FP&A practitioners is curiosity. Curiosity, a strong desire to know or learn something, is affected by the types of questions asked. It is the types of questions that determine how much FP&A practitioners want to know or learn. One type of question is “what.”  The purpose of asking “what” is to acquire information. Acquiring information can be in the form of financial numbers like revenues, expenses, and cash flows. Acquiring information can be in the form of non-financial numbers like the amount of time companies receive or make payments. Acquiring information can be in the form of qualitative data like comments from customers, names of products, or types of services provided. Asking “what” helps FP&A practitioners know about the environments where they work but knowing is not enough. FP&A practitioners need to ask questions that help them learn about the environments where they work.

The role of planning is to help manage what can be controlled (i.e. the organisation’s business processes, the resources it applies to those processes, and the volume and quality of work done in those processes) to produce outcomes that will achieve organisational objectives, within an uncontrollable and unknowable external environment.