Dear colleagues,

The difference between decision support and decision explanation is often a matter of timing.

A forecast may have taken several days to rebuild, yet capacity is already committed, a commercial response is under way, or management has moved on to the next question. Finance is no longer shaping the choice. It is catching up with it.

This is why I keep coming back to one conclusion from our 2026 FP&A Trends Survey: FP&A is running out of time. Our findings show that 44% of organisations can plan with high confidence for no more than three months, while only 18% can produce a forecast within two working days. Most annual budgets still take between one and three months to complete.

I see the same pressure in FP&A Board discussions across different markets. The challenge is how quickly Finance can absorb a change, understand its implications and enter the conversation while management still has options.

This issue looks at what that requires in practice: planning rhythms that respond to change, scenarios tied to clear triggers and actions, and earlier FP&A involvement while strategic choices are still open.

Because even good analysis has limited value once the window to act has closed.

Warm regards,

Larysa Melnychuk

CEO and Founder at FP&A Trends Group

For the tenth year, the FP&A Trends Survey benchmarks how Finance is performing and what continues to hold FP&A teams back. Based on 475 finance professionals, the 2026 findings expose persistent gaps in planning speed, data quality, integration and decision readiness.

Read the 2026 Survey → 

A planning cycle can be well governed and still be too slow for the decisions it is meant to support. Pieter van Loosbroek argues that target setting, resource allocation and business steering should not all run on the same annual rhythm, with rolling forecasts and scenarios taking over where management needs a more responsive view.

Read the case for separating planning purposes → 

A scenario has little value if management has not agreed what would trigger action. Andreas Seufert shifts the discussion from generating more scenarios to building decision preparedness: clear signals, owners and responses before conditions force the choice.

Read how scenarios become decision-ready → 

By the time Finance is explaining the board pack, the most important choices may already have been narrowed. Steve Legg makes the case for FP&A moving upstream, while assumptions are still open, alternatives are still viable and management can still change direction.

Read why influence has to start earlier → 

Our webinars are free and educational. Join live when you can, or register and we will send you the recording to watch in your own time.

The upcoming session takes the timing question into execution: how planning, data and technology can shorten the path from a new signal to coordinated management action.

Decision intelligence depends on more than faster analysis. The session focuses on how Finance connects planning, data and technology so teams can interpret change faster and respond with greater consistency.

Register now →