Ensuring Your FP&A Team Is Efficient And Effective
Do you need a finance function transformation?
Many organisations do not utilize their FP&A teams to optimal effect. A recent survey found the average finance department spent only 26% of its time on driving actions and insights, wasting time, money and skills. Further, even when key actionable data is provided, nearly half (44%) of companies do not use it in their strategic decision-making process.
FP&A leaders need to address these issues if their teams are going to be effective values within the organization. If decisions in your organization aren’t data driven or if your executive team is not relying on your FP&A team data your FP&A function is failing. The success of your team depends on their work being deeply influential in the strategic decision making process.
Key components of an effective FP&A team
The optimal FP&A team leverages the right people, carrying out the streamlined processes, using the best available technology.
First you need efficiency – this creates the time to provide effectiveness and thus value for your business.
Improving the efficiency of FP&A teams
It is crucial to avoid duplication of work and keep up to date with new technologies. You should aim for your systems to be sufficiently efficient that you only have to spend 20% of your time generating data, so you can spend 80% using that data to provide valuable insights for the business.
Most importantly, once you have freed up time by optimizing the efficiency of your processes, you have the time to ask yourself a key question: how do I add value to the business?
Invest in the right technological skills
One way is to leverage the correct technology to ensure you and your team are ever more efficient, continuing to free up to deliver data insights.
An important tip is to learn the technology you need for your specific requirements based on your role and your business. That means what is needed for your business processes – which may not need to be the most advanced machine learning or automation, but tools to make your data generation more efficient and therefore your insight analysis more effective. That might involve SaaS-based software or even just advanced Excel and PowerPivot skills.
Demonstrate effectiveness as a finance business partner
Look to be an effective finance business partner by walking in the shoes of people you are supporting. You can help key decision makers make the best decisions by providing extensive and valuable data and analysis. Such insight – especially when it provides quick wins to benefit the bottom line – demonstrates your core value to the business.
By doing this, you build credibility to allow you to make a financial case for resources to continue to improve your technology as well as grow and upskill your team. Furthermore, you grow yourself as a strategic partner with insight into the business and enhance the reputation and value of your FP&A team.
This is also crucial in order to improve your efficiency and effectiveness, as you can invest this organisational knowledge back into your finance team’s strategy. By gaining a better idea of the business’ needs, now and in the future, you can continue to keep your financial processes optimised to meet those requirements, creating a virtuous circle of success.
For a peek into the evolving role of the Finance Business Partner, watch or listen to this CFO Talk with Jesper Hybholt Sorensen titles, The Analytics Business Partner.
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