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?

Assessing efficiency of businesses, projects and processes, the finance function does not always set an example in terms of best productivity. There is always a room for process optimization in which lean approach can help by focusing on value maximization while minimizing efforts.

Many finance and FP&A leaders are now facing transformational projects trying to find the future shape of the FP&A organization. Comparing FP&A performance metrics (qualitative and quantitative) against the peers and best practices can be very useful when assessing the current state of FP&A, creating a vision of the future state, finding the ways to enhance existing capabilities and identifying opportunities for improvement.