main-photo.jpg

Welcome to our financial blog

Here you will find our thoughts about the finance function and its transformation, the secrets of FP&A practices and the most interesting business cases from our professional experience.

If you:

  • possess "financial" mindset and want to follow the latest trends in profession,

  • started your career in finance, want to get some tips and impress your boss,

  • are a startup founder with no financial experience and build financial models on your own,

  • are a business person who wants to find common ground with finance professionals,

  • are curious,

this blog is for you!

FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE

We have launched our channel on youtube.

Check out the first video on how to use one of our profitability tools - the impact of price discounts.

More tips and learning videos to come soon.

Stay tuned

NEW BLOG POST

Your First 90 Days in an FP&A Role: A Tactical Guide to Building Credibility and Impact

So, you've landed an FP&A role. Congratulations! You've just joined the Jedi Order of strategic finance. But before you grab your lightsaber (Excel, obviously), let’s talk about how to make your first 90 days count.

Whether you're transitioning from accounting, starting your first finance job, or moving into a new company as a seasoned pro, the first three months will define how influential you'll be later on.

In FP&A, those 90 days are your one shot at establishing yourself as someone who understands business and makes things better. Get it right, and you’ll be seen as a go-to person who drives decisions. Commit early missteps, and you’ll be seen as back-office analyst forever.

To get your 90-day FP&A plan that doesn’t suck, check out the full article.

We introduce our profitability calculators which serve to help you search for profit maximization, plan profitable sales promotions and negotiate selling conditions with your clients.

You can quickly estimate how sensitive is your profit to variations of prices and costs, and make necessary adjustments to secure the desired level of profit.

To learn more about profit sensitivity, you can read our article - “How (Not) to Lose a Profit in 10 days”.

N1 →

N2 →

 
 
 

We introduce our FP&A maturity assessment model focused on major tasks of the function – strategic planning and budgeting, forecasting, analytics, management reporting, performance management and decision support.

This tool allows to make a high-level assessment of the FP&A maturity and is built around 3 key areas – Processes and functions, Technology and systems, People and skills.

The main goal of the model is to evaluate the capabilities and highlight the opportunities for improvement in various aspects of the FP&A function.

To learn more about FP&A maturity stages, you can read our article - “50 Shades of FP&A Maturity”.

 

Latest insights

Featured
Confessions of an FP&A-holic: 7 Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier
Confessions of an FP&A-holic: 7 Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier

Hi everyone! My name is Anna, and I am an FP&A-holic.

Yes, I said that, I am addicted to financial planning and analysis.

I am excited when all the checks in my financial models are colored green, and I get thrilled out of digging into data and finding insights that lead to better business decisions.

After 15+ years in FP&A, I’ve learned some hard truths — things I wish someone had told me earlier in my career. Whether you're just starting out or are a seasoned FP&A pro, I hope these insights will help you stand out and thrive in this evolving field.

Read More →
FP&A’s Scope: What Is In And What Is Out?
FP&A’s Scope: What Is In And What Is Out?

As FP&A professional, how often do you feel that you do something you shouldn’t?

Having unique access to data about all the activities throughout an organization, it is not uncommon that FP&A teams are often asked to perform tasks which are not necessarily aligned with their core objectives.

No wonder that discussions over understanding the scope of FP&A pop up all the time. It is crucial for us as FP&A pros to navigate the boundaries of our roles and maintain a clear focus on adding value to the company.

So, the scope of FP&A: what is in and what is out?

Read More →
FP&A is a Swiss multi-tool in a pocket of a management team
FP&A is a Swiss multi-tool in a pocket of a management team

With constantly evolving role of the finance function in the organization, these are FP&A practitioners who feel the most pressure to be jack-of-all-trades. Growing variety and complexity of tasks force them to develop skills, both hard and soft, to keep up with all requirements and expectations.

There is a specific product on the market I could associate FP&A with, and this is a Swiss multi-tool.

So, if FP&A were a Swiss multi-tool, how could we sell it?

Read More →
How to put finance business partnering puzzle together?
How to put finance business partnering puzzle together?

Finance business partnering is not a new concept and has been around for a while. Well, not just for a while, for more than 60 years. Since then, finance community could not come up with one single definition of finance business partnering. It’s still unclear whether it’s a job title, or a role, or the way of working, etc.

Indeed, the concept is not the easiest one to define, but its benefits for the companies are intuitively obvious and well known.

Read More →

Latest hands-on

Featured
Your First 90 Days in an FP&A Role: A Tactical Guide to Building Credibility and Impact
Your First 90 Days in an FP&A Role: A Tactical Guide to Building Credibility and Impact

Whether you're transitioning to FP&A from accounting, starting your first finance job, or moving into a new company as a seasoned pro, the first three months will define how influential you'll be later on.

In FP&A, those 90 days are your one shot at establishing yourself as someone who understands business and makes things better. Get it right, and you’ll be seen as a go-to person who drives decisions. Commit early missteps, and you’ll be seen as back-office analyst forever.

Read More →
Let’s Be Ritualistic: 8 Essential FP&A Rituals to Boost Efficiency and Strategic Impact
Let’s Be Ritualistic: 8 Essential FP&A Rituals to Boost Efficiency and Strategic Impact

We all know that FP&A life can feel like an endless loop of manipulating data, building forecasts and budgets, meeting deadlines. It's easy to get stuck in a rut, crunching numbers without any inspiration.

But what if there was a way to break this cycle and unlock a new level of your finance team efficiency? I’m talking about the FP&A rituals.

Read More →
8 Questions FP&A Leaders Should Ask Themselves
8 Questions FP&A Leaders Should Ask Themselves

The FP&A landscape will continue to evolve in 2025 and years to come. Technology, market volatility, and shift in business priorities require us to adapt faster than ever.

To stay relevant and effective, FP&A leaders need to constantly evaluate FP&A processes, adapt to new challenges, and think ahead. The questions we ask ourselves today will shape the future and the role of our teams tomorrow.

Read More →
Consulting Frameworks in the Toolkit of FP&A: Porter’s Five Forces
Consulting Frameworks in the Toolkit of FP&A: Porter’s Five Forces

Some companies thrive and gain huge profits, while others can’t survive and go broke. Could Darwin’s tenet “survival of the fittest” explain this phenomenon?

Processes which take place on the competitive markets can be compared to natural selection. To avoid becoming victims of this selection companies should have a deep understanding of the environment they perform their activities in as well as the factors driving or constraining profitability.

Read More →

Who we are

 
DSC_2564-3.jpg

Anna Oblakova

Financial analyst with 15 years of experience in finance and strategic planning

 
DSC_2541.jpg

Marina Gorodnicheva

Financial analyst with 15 years of experience in business analysis and finance

 
 

Contact us

admin@fpandaclub.com