CFO Dive: FP&A in Spreadsheets: When ‘that’s how it’s always been done’ Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

“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.”

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FP&A Trends: An Annual Plan Is A Map. A Rolling Forecast is A GPS.

“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.”

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CFO Magazine: Supply Chain Turmoil: Applying the Lessons

“Improved planning and forecasting, if an organization undertakes the effort, will come in handy as lead times return to normal levels and suppliers return to realistic production schedules. It will also help if consumer and business-to-business demand wither due to persistent price inflation.”

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FP&A Trends: What Skills Should FP&A Develop by 2030

“The term Financial Planning and Analysis is evolving to the broader concept of Scenario Planning, with a rolling planning window opposed to a fixed annual 12-month focus; planning will be a single integrated strategic financial and operational model with on-demand frequency versus 3–5-year corporate plans. The Scenario Planning approach is also highly technological with automated and advanced analytical systems that allow an output within 1 to 3 hours, versus the old planning model driven by manual Excel spreadsheets that would require weeks or even months to consolidate. Finally, the new approach to planning allows multiple scenarios with supporting documentation that facilitates decision-making.”

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FP&A Trends: Continuous Planning To Dynamic Business Environment

“Continuous Planning replaces the traditional static and calendar-driven process. It is a dynamic and open-ended planning approach that responds to internal and external events as they occur. In addition, the use of technology facilitates planning agility and flexibility through real-time analytics and automation.

To be successful in continuous planning, a dynamic mindset is necessary.  Compared to traditional planning, where the goal set-up process is done only once, continuous planning allows organisations to achieve more of their targets.”

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CFO Magazine: Opinion: Zero-Based Budgeting Emphasizes Growth, Cost-Cutting

“The real power of ZBB is not in achieving cost-cutting benchmarks; it lies in combining digital budgeting tools with greater cost accountability and a process that links budgeting discipline to future growth.”

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CFO Journal: Reimagine the Future of Internal Controls

“Organizations can leverage the recent rapid acceleration of digital transformations to automate and monitor many controls operations. Automation can help alleviate some of the pressure on internal controls functions, reduce costs, drive efficiency, and promote effective management of risks and opportunities. Automation combined with powerful analytics can also create transparency into key risks, business objectives, and controls in a visualized fashion, building confidence, intelligence, and performance—three important elements of an effective FoC strategy.”

Read More at the Wall Street Journal >

CFO Magazine: Cycle Time to Complete the Annual Budget: Metric of the Month

“Based on data from more than 3,900 organizations in our Open Standards Benchmarking survey for Planning and Management Accounting, APQC finds that top performers complete the annual budget in 25 days or less — half the time it takes organizations in the 75th percentile.”

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FP&A Trends: The Winning Formula of Integrated FP&A

According to FP&A Trends, these 4 areas need to be strong in the foundation of Integrated FP&A in order to be winning:

1. Data
2. Technology
3. Culture
4. Talent

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