No one disputes that in the modern fast-moving business world, companies have to learn to adapt to changes to win the fierce competition and to not merely survive but thrive. Likewise, the modern FP&A takes an exciting path of transformation to meet the demands of the modern business implementing more dynamic sophisticated tools allowing automation and online collaboration. However, old finance practices are not eliminated in a flash. Many FP&A professionals still live from deadline to deadline without taking a break to reconsider and change. How many have already examined other analytical tools than good old Excel and looked for ways to diminish non-value adding processes?
 

On 13th June 2017, 29 senior finance practitioners from such international and local companies as ABN AMRO, CRH, Diageo, Gemalto, Henkel, Ingram Micro, Naspers, PvH Europe, Regus, Sandoz, Staples Solutions, TIP Trailer Services, Vlisco, etc., gathered to interactively discuss Rolling Forecast Best Practices at the FP&A Board in Amsterdam.

Three leading FP&A thought leaders collaborated to develop the initial FP&A Empowerment: Technology and Trends survey to identify and analyze current and emerging trends relative to: how companies are leveraging technology, the maturity of their analytics solutions, how much time is spent on Business Partnering, the effectiveness and efficiency their Planning Processes, and the willingness of executives to listen and invest in FP&A.

The goal of financial management of maximizing shareholder wealth can be assessed through a variety of measurements.  What this variety of measurements may not assess is potential problems in relationships between businesses and stakeholders.  One way to assess potential problems with these relationships is to look for fractures. This article describes how to identify fractures through FP&A within three elements on the balance sheet.

Too often software evaluations are restricted to features and functions. It’s like evaluating a car by looking at individual components but without seeing if they all work together to meet your needs. So next time you are tempted to view a demonstration, make sure you’re prepared with questions that will help you to assess the true business value of the solution. 

There are so many ways to graph information, and many of them are not just labor-intensive, but cognitively ineffective. But even if you’ve chosen one of the more effective ways of graphing information, also remember that graphs work best when you’re trying to make a single, critically important point. 

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