With current world markets in a state of flux, and supply chains under immense pressure on a global scale, it’s more critical than ever to ensure that you have the capability to quickly and accurately plan and revise your forecasts, income, and expenses within your business.
However, it seems that around the world, the uptake of financial planning and analytics (FP&A) solutions within businesses has been slow, for lack of a better descriptor.
The FSN 2019 Future of Financial Systems Global Survey states that only 31% of finance leaders have systems that provide a quick and dependable platform for decision making, and just 23% of Finance systems allow organizations to respond quickly to market changes. That’s a dismal set of numbers, and we know that in South Africa, we likely contribute to the lowering of the average with our slow technology uptake.
Legacy corporate performance management and outdated, fragmented, and inconsistent spreadsheets run rampant, and it’s only in recent years that FP&A solutions have seen the light in South African business.
Predicting your performance: Your status
If you’re one of the few businesses in South Africa who can accurately predict your performance, you are a needle, and the haystack is the plethora of under-tech-ed companies who cannot.
Are you one of the global 29% who has implemented a finance system which allows you to accurately predict performance? You may not be, but you could be part of the 63% of international finance leaders who believe that built-in analytics tools are critical for future finance systems. If you are, the below list is for you, to help to justify your FP&A implementation.
Justifying your FP&A implementation: In short
What does an FP&A implementation give the business that you don’t already have? A cure for the financial headache is what. Don’t believe us? Here’s the list.
1. AGILITY
A full view of your operational and financial balance sheet across your organisation is critical to make decisions on the fly – as we’ve all had to do in 2020. With a single-view solution, this becomes a user-friendly, accurate, confidence-building experience which allows you to better understand and respond to changing environments.
2. CONFIDENCE IN PREDICTIONS
Deploying predictive models across all of your scenarios and forecasts can be done simply and easily, and the data given is verifiable, from a single source.
3. ACCELERATED PLANNING CYCLES
We all know the age-old timewaster of collecting data across spreadsheets, applications, and often, employees’ desks. With the FP&A implementation complete, the time spent hauling data is saved, and the time spent analysing and proactively modelling data can be increased tenfold.
4. A UNIFIED APPROACH
A single repository for all of your financial and operational planning data is critical for big-picture planning and controlling the minutiae of the financial components of your business. Because you need to be able to easily access accurate and relevant data, consolidating your financial planning and analytics data onto one platform is key to faster, more proactive (and less reactive) decision making. This allows you to plan, budget and forecast across your entire organisation.
5. STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MODELING
Developing strategic plans and methodologies on the fly has become a second job to a majority of finance and operational professionals in recent times. Now, it’s time to take a load off their backs and implement the FP&A solution that allows financial and detailed operational plans and data to be accessed when required, with up-to-date numbers for quick modelling and planning.
6. DYNAMIC CALCULATIONS
With real-time data comes the dynamic calculation capability that allows you to see what is happening, when it happens, without having to use hindsight instead of foresight. Dynamically calculate the impact of scenarios on your P&L, balance sheet and cash flow plans
7. ADVANCED PLANNING TECHNIQUES
Rolling forecasts, driver-based planning, scenario modelling and predictive analytics help you to stay on top of the past, current, and future status of your organisation’s finance and operational health.
8. INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANNING
Collaborate with their business partners, identify opportunities and risks, and guide better decision making by monitoring both the big picture company health and performance at a business driver level. Set your organisation’s strategy and optimise your business plans based on the current and future numbers as presented by a unified view.
9. DRIVER-BASED PLANNING
Gaining visibility of financial performance while enabling your teams to manage operational and financial processes and strategies at a granular level, and use the extensive power of operational analytics to see how your sales, production, price, insurance or tax changes affect your profitability and future plans.
Interested to know more? Contact Cortell for a consultation today.