Financial planning and analysis teams are not averse to crunching numbers.
However, CFOs today increasingly need Financial Planning and Accounting (FP&A) teams to leverage data into strategic insight for real-time decision-making.
During a recent webinar on FP&A Trends, Daniel Franken, Finance Director at Trouw Nutrition, Gabby Bryner, Senior Director of Finance at Dyno Nobel, and Oliver Sullivin, Senior Growth Director, FP&A at Unit4, discussed how FP&A is evolving to meet that challenge.
Sullivin used an analogy to illustrate this evolution: “If FP&A is the bridge between data and decision-making, then data integration is the foundation that makes the bridge solid.”
Making FP&A Faster and Smarter
Financial planning and analysis teams help CFOs move beyond accounting into strategic insight. Where accountants focus on historical data, FP&A teams use data to create projections, plans, and strategies that inform decision-making.
Still, FP&A teams are often over-reliant on manual legacy tools, like spreadsheets, which are insecure and susceptible to human error. These challenges bog any accountant down before they are ever able to share data with FP&A colleagues. Cloud-based FP&A software has transformed this relationship radically.
Unit4, for example, provides cloud-based FP&A software that integrates data across business functions, ensuring that FP&A teams are using the latest numbers to produce faster, more accurate insights. Its advanced modeling capability ensure teams can quickly simulate business scenarios to understand how changes in cost, demand, or prices impact the company’s finances.
Filling the FP&A Capability Gap
During the webinar, Franken explained five essential roles within high-performing FP&A teams:
- The Analyst – who manages reporting and produces insights;
- The Architect – who connects finance and technology to ensure data flows;
- The Data Scientist – who utilizes AI and machine learning to produce robust analytics;
- The Storyteller – who translate data into narratives for decision-making;
- The Influencer – who engages stakeholders to make decisions.
He noted that these roles do not make for a good organization chart. Rather, they should be thought of as different hats finance professionals wear at the office.
A live audience poll conducted during the webinar, which included more than 350 registrants from 56 countries, found that more than one-third of respondents believed the data scientist role represented the biggest FP&A capability gap, higher than any other role.
Sullivin, later explained how businesses address that gap with technology: “User-friendly predictive analytics built into FP&A platforms democratize advanced capabilities, enabling finance professionals to benefit from AI without a PhD in statistics.”
A Key Differentiator for FP&A Teams
Bryner Presented a case study that described the business impact of new tariffs, a scenario that many FP&A teams are getting accustomed.
She noted, business leaders need to understand what tariffs mean, and how it will impact finances, when governments announce new rates at little-to-no notice.
Well-structured FP&A teams are typically prepared to respond. In these increasingly common scenarios, Bryner explained how FP&A teams can mobilize organizations by examining business-critical questions regarding contracts, earnings, cash-flow, customer behavior, sourcing, and costs across procurement, commercial, manufacturing, and marketing divisions.
Yet, a live audience poll conducted during the webinar found that only 45% of respondents believed their FP&A team was “moderately involved” in strategic decision-making. Only 20% reported that their team had a high level of involvement.
Together, it suggests FP&A teams may not yet have tools needed to deliver real-time insights.
FP&A teams working with manual tools or legacy systems may find themselves stuck collecting data when their leadership teams need to act. Technology is a game-changer.
Teams that have cloud-based FP&A software, however, find they can move at the speed of the boardroom. As Sullivan concluded, data integration creates “a foundation of trust, speed, and accessibility”, which “empowers finance to elevate its role.”
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Data integration is the foundation of strategic FP&A. To move beyond reporting past performance, CFOs can leverage Unit4’s cloud-based FP&A tools to unify data across divisions and markets, enabling financial planning that is more efficient and effective.
Technology bridges capability gaps on FP&A teams. Unit4’s cloud platform, embedded with AI and predictive analytics, empowers finance professionals to produce advanced modelling and scenario analysis, even if they do not have an advanced degree in statistics.
Speed matters. Unit4’s cloud-based system provides a competitive advantage for businesses facing volatile markets, allowing FP&A teams to respond to new tariffs, cost changes, or demand shifts at boardroom speed, de-risking the decision-making process.
