What is financial planning and analysis (FP&A)?

FP&A – also known as financial planning and analysis, is a game changer when it comes to business decision-making. It's all about rounding up, breaking down, and making sense of the financial data. This enables FP&A pros to help businesses spot trends, forecast the future, and whip up some savvy strategic plans.

In this article, we're going to cover the vital concepts of FP&A and see how it can be a real booster for your company's success. Ready to dive in? Let's get going!

Key points at a glance

• Unleash the power of FP&A: Make data-backed, smart business decisions with confidence.
• The FP&A manager: Your expert for financial forecasts, budgets, variance analysis, and “what-if” scenarios.
• Empower your business with cutting-edge software tools: Simplify data gathering, reporting, and budgeting.
• AI and FP&A, a match made in heaven: Harness AI to enhance your financial strategies and boost agility.
• Forget about mundane tasks: More time for you to focus on game-changing strategies and business growth.

What does financial planning and analysis (FP&A) mean?

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A), is essentially the company's very own crystal ball. It's a strategic function that focuses on budgeting, forecasting, and decoding financial trends. FP&A isn't just about crunching numbers; it's about understanding the story behind those numbers, analysing the “what-ifs”, and planning for the “what-next.”

FP&A, at its core, is the guardian of your company's financial health. It pulls together all kinds of data, both financial and non-financial, to give you a holistic picture of where your business is now and where it could be heading.

This function is a key contributor to your company's growth, profitability, and stability. It equips decision-makers with the necessary insights and foresight to make well-informed strategic decisions.

Tasks involved in financial planning and analysis

The specific tasks involved in FP&A can vary depending on the size and complexity of the business. A few common tasks, however, include:

• Budgeting: Think of it as your business's financial blueprint, guiding you on where and how you'll be splashing the cash in the upcoming years.
• Forecasting: It's all about peering into that financial crystal ball, using past data and current trends to predict where your finances are heading.
• Performance reporting: This is keeping score of your business's financial performance, comparing the real deal to what the budget and forecast predicted.
• Financial analysis: It's the financial health check-up of your business, examining data to spot trends, make comparisons, and assess how healthy your finances are.
• Strategic planning: This is the stage where FP&A comes into play, assisting your business in creating and implementing a comprehensive plan for success.

The role of financial planning and analysis manager

At the heart of financial planning and analysis is the FP&A manager or director. This role is integral in directing the financial course of the organization.

The FP&A manager or director is responsible for analysing financial trends and patterns within large datasets. This analysis serves to steer the company towards profitable decisions. Their role includes creating robust financial models and forecasts to help businesses prepare for their future financial needs.

The FP&A manager does not operate in isolation. They work closely with different departments, aligning financial management strategies with the overall goals of the company, and translating this into actionable budgeting advice.

Furthermore, they create financial strategies that are comprehensible to everyone in the organization, not just those in finance roles.

In essence, the FP&A manager is a key player in the overall financial management of the company. He or she serves as a guardian of the organisation's financial health, making sure that the company's financial strategies and decisions are sound. 

FP&A managers are therefore a vital role in driving the financial success and stability of the business.

What steps make up the financial planning and analysis process?

Financial planning and analysis is a very complex and important process for businesses, both large and small. It can be broken down into several main steps:

Data collection, consolidation, and verification

Step one is like a financial treasure hunt, collecting data from all sorts of places like systems for digital accountancy, ERP systems, and other business apps. This process often begins with the thourough analysis of the company’s financial statements.

Once all the pieces are gathered, it's time to put the puzzle together and double-check everything to make sure it's accurate and complete. It's all about the details!

Planning, budgeting and forecasting

Once you've gathered all that precious data, the next stage is creating financial plans and forecasts. This involves crafting predictive models, identifying the major drivers of performance, and developing a range of scenarios to cater for those unpredictable moments.

Then it's onto budgeting – outlining a detailed plan for how the business will utilise its money in the forthcoming year or years. This also involves comprehensive cash flow management to ensure that the company maintains the necessary liquidity for its operations. The budget should stem from your financial plans and forecasts, and it should sync well with the company's strategic objectives.

Performance analysis and monitoring

The final stride in this process is to keep an eye on the actual financial performance of the business, comparing it to your budget and forecasts. This offers a clear picture of where the company is excelling and where it might need to up its game a bit. It's a key part of maintaining financial health and striving for continuous improvement.

Related issues:

• Predictive planning: This is all about peeking into the financial future. FP&A managers use the story that historical data and current trends tell them to foresee financial performance.
• Driver-based planning: Here, the FP&A team pinpoints the key engines of financial performance, then concoct plans to get those drivers purring.
• Multi-scenario planning: FP&A managers don’t just create one future here, but multiple! Each forthcoming scenario comes with its own assumptions about the economy, the market, and how your company is performing. It's like having a plan B, C, and D to be ready for all sorts of outcomes.
• Performance monitoring and analytics: Financial planning and analysis managers keep a keen eye on how your financial performance squares up with the budget and forecasts. It's a top-notch way to figure out what you’re doing well and what needs some tweaking.
• Cost control: Do you have an appetite for control? Balancing your company’s expenses to align with your budget and forecasts isn't just important – it's a cornerstone of FP&A that bolsters your profitability.

Digital transformation and corporate financial planning and analysis

The rapid evolution of technology is reshaping the landscape of corporate financial planning and analysis (FP&A). Here's how powerful tools like data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are reinventing this critical business process.

Spotting hidden patterns with data analysis

Think about it this way – businesses can use data analysis and investment analysis to spot trends, patterns, and connections in financial data that would otherwise need a magnifying glass to see. This kind of deep-dive info helps company’s whip up more accurate forecasts and budgets.

By keeping an eye on customer behaviour, product demand, and economic trends using data analytics, you turn insights into reliable predictions for future sales, expenses, and profits.

Letting AI handle the grunt work

Artificial intelligence isn't a thing of the future any more. It's taking over the grunt work in FP&A today. Tasks like data entry, cleaning up data, and financial modelling are no longer a headache.

By freeing our finance pros to focus on the strategic stuff, such as generating insights and making solid recommendations, we're adding real value to our processes. Plus, AI's knack for automatically pulling data from accounting systems and ERP systems makes it a real hero.

Building better models and forecasts

With AI and data analytics at the helm, your financial models and forecasts have never been more reliable. The corporate landscape is still in the early innings of using these tools in FP&A, but it's catching on fast. These techs aren't just here to stay, they're set to totally transform how businesses do FP&A.

Rethinking forecasting, budgeting and reporting

Not just for glitz and glamour, data analytics and AI also enhance key FP&A processes:

• Forecasting: They help improve the accuracy by identifying trends, patterns, and correlations in financial data.
• Budgeting: They allow you to automate tasks, freeing up our FP&A pros for more strategic work. It also helps your growing company to follow your money saving mindset and cut down costs.
• Financial reporting: They increase the efficiency of reporting by automating tasks like data entry and data validation.

The future of corporate financial planning and analysis in the age of digitalisation

The FP&A landscape isn't what it used to be, and it's not slowing down anytime soon. The waves of digitalisation have reshaped traditional FP&A, with fresh trends marking the new era. Among these, predictive analytics stands out, all about using data to foresee what's next – think sales, expenses, risks, and opportunities.

Embracing these digital shifts is our ticket to success in the evolving corporate landscape. Our relationship with the cloud is getting stronger, with scalable and flexible cloud-based solutions becoming the new norm in this era of digitalisation.

Collaboration, fuelled by digital platforms, is now a key ingredient in the FP&A recipe. More and more, we're teaming up with the sales, marketing, and operations squads to drive informed business decisions.

And then there's data visualisation. As we grapple with ever-increasing data, digitalisation comes to our rescue by making it visual. We're using charts and other tools to tell the financial tale in a way everyone can understand. It's FP&A for the digital era, and we're here for it.

Software tools for financial planning and analysis

In today's fast-paced business environment, having the right tools is a game-changer and helps you to cut down costs in long term. Especially in FP&A, software tools are like the secret ingredient to a successful recipe. They streamline tasks, amplify accuracy, and boost collaboration.

In the United Kingdom, for instance, FP&A professionals are increasingly relying on cloud-based platforms to foster collaboration between departments and enable more agile and data-driven decision-making.

• Automate tasks: Software tools can automate many of the tasks involved in FP&A, such as data entry, data cleansing, and financial modelling. This can free up FP&A professionals to focus on more strategic tasks, such as developing insights and making recommendations.
• Improve accuracy: These tools can also help to improve the accuracy of FP&A data by automating tasks and providing built-in validation rules. This can in turn help to ensure that the data is accurate and complete.
• Facilitate collaboration: Cost control tools can further facilitate collaboration between FP&A professionals and other departments, such as sales, marketing, and operations. This is essential for making informed business decisions.

Get your turboboost with Pleo’s automated expense management software

Think of FP&A as the high-octane fuel for your finance strategy. It dives deep into financial data, revealing key insights to guide business decisions. The journey includes data collection, planning, budgeting, forecasting, and performance tracking. Software tools make this project smoother, automating tasks for improved accuracy and collaboration.

Find out how Pleo’s automated expense management software can help you make your company’s finance strategy more efficient. Experience a turboboost – real-time tracking, streamlined budgeting and detailed reporting. Spend less time on grunt work and more time on strategic moves!