FP&A has a branding problem. Tell someone you work in Accounting and they have a general idea what you do. Tell them you’re in Sales and they definitely have an idea what you do. Tell someone you work in Financial Planning & Analysis and there is usually a small pause. Then: “So…finance?” Yes. Technically. That […]
I have never understood why companies spend enormous amounts of time building sophisticated forecasts and then use essentially the same forecasting method for everything in them. Revenue? Historical growth plus an adjustment. Travel? Historical growth plus an adjustment. Software? Historical growth plus an adjustment. Headcount? Last year plus the people we think we’re hiring. Coffee? […]
I have trust issues with scenario models. Not because I don’t like scenarios. I do. I’ve built plenty of them. I’ve also sat in meetings where we had so many scenarios that I started to suspect we were using Excel to avoid making a decision. You know the meeting I’m talking about. Base case. Upside […]
I don’t think a company wakes up one morning and suddenly needs FP&A. There usually isn’t a ceremony. Nobody cuts a ribbon. What happens instead is that the CEO asks a question that used to take ten minutes to answer, and three days later Finance is still working on it. Someone wants to know what […]
“FP&A consultant” is one of those job descriptions that can mean almost anything. Build a forecast. Fix a model. Help with the budget. Prepare something for the board. Figure out why margins are falling. Untangle a reporting process that apparently requires three people, six spreadsheets and one person who absolutely cannot take vacation. All technically […]
I have a strong opinion about building an FP&A function from scratch: Don’t start by hiring FP&A people. I realize this is an inconvenient opening for an article about building an FP&A function. But I’ve seen companies decide they need FP&A and immediately jump to the org chart. We need a Director. Maybe two analysts. […]
I’ve been in finance long enough to remember when FP&A was the last to be invited to the big meetings—if we were invited at all. We were the spreadsheet people. The ones who showed up late in the process to confirm what everyone else already decided. That version of FP&A is dying. And in 2025, […]
It happened last Thursday. Around 3:47 PM. Somewhere between the third slide on “AI-powered FP&A automation” and the host’s pitch for a trial subscription, a CFO stood up from their Herman Miller chair, stared blankly out the window like a prophet seeing the void, and declared: “We’re done here. Strategic finance: mission accomplished.” No one […]
I’ll say it: most finance teams are built to report on the business, not to drive it. That’s the one thing I’d change. Too many functions are still structured like it’s 2003—hierarchies built to deliver variance reports and close books, not to influence what actually happens next. I’ve worked inside these teams. I’ve consulted for […]
Let’s skip the pleasantries. If you’re in strategic finance and still fumbling around with basic formulas, you’re wasting time, missing insights, and burning credibility. I’ve seen it firsthand: high-performing FP&A teams with broken models, inconsistent logic, and bloated files that barely run. The fix? It’s not another dashboarding tool or AI-powered platform. It’s mastering the […]
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