The American economist and politician, Phil Gramm once said: “Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get there.”

If these words ring true for you, this digest should help to point you in the right direction. With budgeting season upon us, we have decided to make this the theme of the issue.

While profitability is an easy concept to grasp, it is notoriously difficult to manage, especially in rapidly changing market conditions. How can we manage profitability in times of uncertainty? One answer is by using the profitability analysis framework.

Capital Expense (Capex) plays a major role in the free cash flow situation of most companies. For this reason, it deserves specific attention within corporate processes. This blog reviews how to plan the right Capex level to sustain future enterprise development, design a request and approval process, and control the level of spend.

Senior representatives from Deutsche Bahn Regio AG, Takeda, TE Connectivity, Unit4 and Robert Half, shared their actionable insights on the subject of Building Winning Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) Teams.

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.