In this Digest issue, we will explore the illusions of control in modern business and the possible benefits of data science. We will look at how you can ensure successful FP&A collaboration with all departments and we will explain the different planning methods available and their differences.

This article will focus on is the modeling of a company as a whole, its consolidated future financial positions, incomes, growth and risks, as opposed to the detailed budgeting of one specific aspect of a company’s business, such as how to increase contract to sales conversion rate. 

This article summarises the research conducted in Turkey’s top 500 industrial companies. The aim of the research was to test the criticisms towards Traditional Budgeting and to understand if Better and Beyond Budgeting approaches are desirable in the current environment.

One of the characteristics people use to describe me is well-read which is appropriate because I enjoy reading material that covers a variety of fields.  One of the fields I cover is sports because it provides connections to finance. While covering sports I found material that represents a connection to budgets and the connection is the leadership style of a football manager, Jurgen Klopp.

A Deloitte survey of 600 global finance leaders, as highlighted in CFO.COM, found that: "companies spent nearly half their time creating and updating reports, and just a fraction of that time devoted to uncovering insights in the data — insights that could prove vital to the business”. 

All functions have operational deliverables, with perhaps a very few exceptions like a Corporate Strategy function. Given this “daily business” that has to be conducted, it is logical that risk rears its considerable head when attempting change. The greater the change impact and ambition, the bigger the risk has to be taken into account on how to guarantee “business continuity”. FP&A is not exempt from this. 

In this article, I will explain to you what I learned about Cash this year and what you can use to improve your cash management. Like most of the Finance Managers, I bring a specific focus on reaching our targets and report on how well (or bad) we do in comparison with these targets.

There are different interpretations of FP&A business partnering. In my opinion, it represents a relationship between FP&A and other departments in which all of the parties involved professionally deliver what is required and provide support to each other, with the ultimate aim of creating value for the organisation. For the partnership to work in the long run, there should be a benefit for everyone involved. This is why it is important to have a clear idea about expected outcomes. 

The business environment is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable. The last month can be a striking example: the world has experienced so many “black swans” as never before.

Last month we warned that the record level of the UK’s well- being needed to be re-visited once the impact of the coronavirus had been assessed… and look at what has happened since! The outbreak has dominated the media and infected business confidence around the world. It is still early days in the development of the virus, but already the Accountagility Index (AAX) has lost 41 basis points this month.