The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Tag Archives: FP&A
FP&A Trends: Top Seven Lessons Learned from the Pandemic
July 1, 2022
“Being able to plan on request, being able to look at the different scenarios in real-time as and when they happened, what would be the outcome of those different scenarios, how do we then resource these different scenarios, what new KPI’s or Drivers have the pandemic thrown in the mix, how do we include that in our planning and decision making. Some organisations even changed their model completely. To do all of this, you need technology that is Agile.”
FP&A Trends: Tips and Hints On Implementing Driver-Based Models
June 28, 2022
“The first step in building a driver-based model is the decomposition of the business model. The easiest way would be to start with Income Statement (revenues and costs); however, we should not forget about the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow effects.”
CFO Dive: FP&A in Spreadsheets: When ‘that’s how it’s always been done’ Doesn’t Cut It Anymore
June 16, 2022
“But spreadsheets on their own are indeed broken – or at the very least, they add to the likelihood that something will eventually break. Try as we might to ignore their shortcomings, without fail we’re confronted with the limitations of spreadsheets on a regular basis. And at a certain point, the burden of managing and maintaining spreadsheets outweighs the mild benefits of sticking with the status quo.”
FP&A Trends: An Annual Plan Is A Map. A Rolling Forecast is A GPS.
June 15, 2022
“The only way for companies to navigate forward and still achieve existing goals — including simple survival — would be exploring multiple potential changes and building various scenarios to prepare a range of decision-making paths through newly uncertain terrain.”
Accounting Today: FP&A is the MVP of Your Organization
June 3, 2022
“The budget increases are especially good news as FP&A and corporate performance responsibilities continue to grow. Additional resources are needed to help FP&A teams partner with business unit leaders to develop models that include strategic and operational objectives, what-if scenarios, business drivers and key performance indicators.
Yet, even with an expanded and more visible role, in year three of the pandemic, 91% of the survey respondents have automated less than 75% of their FP&A processes. This is problematic for a number of reasons, including the challenges of manually managing data inputs from other teams from human capital management to product development, sales and more.”
FP&A Trends: Financial Planning and Analysis: Relevant, Reliable and Agile
May 10, 2022
“Scenario Planning is key, but it needs to be predicated on the right business drivers, run at the right frequency, and address the right business questions.”
FP&A Trends: Practical Cash Flow Modelling – A Technological Perspective
May 3, 2022
“A spreadsheet is not a database, it is a personal productivity tool. Data, structure and business rules are all mixed together in an insecure environment that is prone to corruption. In my view, even the most sophisticated cash flow spreadsheet is no more than a prototype.”
CFO Dive: CFOs Cling to Spreadsheets Despite Their Limits as FP&A Tool
April 18, 2022
“The biggest complaint among spreadsheet users is the time required by manual processes to complete even basic tasks, such as budget preparation.
“With so much time spent on manual processes, the analysis part of Financial Planning and Analysis gets lost,” the report says.
It takes between four weeks and three months for the typical organization to complete its annual budget, after which more time is spent correcting mistakes and updating data.”
FP&A Trends: The Evolving Role of Zero-Based Budgeting
April 14, 2022
“What is new in ZBB?
- ZBB is not a cost-cutting exercise. It is part of every line of the planning process.
- It is also a method to identify key drivers, so it is linked to driver-based planning.
- It is a rethinking of the traditional budgeting process.
- It is improving Business Partnering due to collaborations and the use of modern technology.”
