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FP&A LABS
Financial Planning - Controlling - Value Creation
Financial models that CREATE value
Financial models that CREATE value
Imagine reading one report, that in full explains financial and operational performance of your business in a consistent manner across past, current and future, which you can relate to anytime and consider it as the most reliable source of information. Model, where you can find detailed operational explanation of financial numbers, identify trends and relations, create plans, budgets, identify opportunities or risks, evaluate progress, assess variations, simulate impact of planned actions. Have it all reconciled, accurate, readily available, in one place, presented in either aggregated or in detailed way for both quick checks or deep-dive assessment.
While, due to operational overload, many teams struggle to close month on time, deliver accurate actuals or explain changes, (not to mention reliably estimate results in next quarters or years), I believe value created by finance is allocated in 50/40/10 percent into financial planning, financial operations and reporting, respectively.
FP&A Labs mission is to support businesses with accurate, transparent, tailored, timely, error free financial reports and forecasts in Excel or Google Sheets, that create value.
How a financial model can actually create value:
build to reflect your business structure, not utilize one-size fits all confusing templates
provides continuous reconciliation between statutory and management account by adhering to both accounting standards and your common sense business objectives
provides full set of interrelated financial statements including P&L, BS, CF in one consistent layout where all items are interconnected
is easily updatable with incoming actuals at its full extend, in an efficient, error free and consistent manner
due to relation based mechanics effortlessly rolls forecasts to reflect most up to date projections and can be easily remodeled to answer what if questions
presents revenue and costs in a functional manner, that clearly outline each group individual contribution
by including operational data from various sources, explaining accounts therefore unifies financial and operational goals into one
verifies and reconciles all information sources, eliminating disadvantages of silo reporting and best efforts forecasts
follows systematic, financial, mathematical and algorithmic logic throughout all the lines, therefore maintaining consistency and accuracy of complex analysis regardless amount of processed data
efficiently structured and highly automated to eliminate errors and increase processing speed
consists of financial history, actuals and forecasts in one format, explained by operational information to effortlessly analyze performance in any timeframe
allows for reliable forecasts by identifying trends, relations or drivers for different positions
allows to simulate and compare scenarios to quantify opportunities or risks
becomes a guide and a tool to speed up each months' accounts closing
includes budget, forecast, actuals all in one place with readily available variations explanation to allocate time into operational activity
follows best professional standards, establishing trust and credibility with business partners (investors, suppliers, prospect clients, regulatory and supervisory bodies)
summarizes monthly, quarterly, year-to date performance into dashboards and 1-pager essentials to quickly and clearly present most relevant KPIs and their development over time
due to decades of industry practice and accumulated know-how, not only doesn't absorb your teams, but guides them how to improve on current processes
becomes reliable source of financial and operational reality for the company
Achieving all the goals above requires combining knowledge in multiple disciplines such as accounting, finance, investments, risk management, business management, data structuring and processing, technology, programming and also, ability to employ all the above it in an interrelated system. Structured as one financial MasterFile, supported by information collected from various sources such as corporate, accounting, finance, operations, sales, marketing, purchasing, HR, R&D, industries & economy, when fully deployed, your financial model will be so advanced and full of insights about business that you will be discovering its depth for months. Alternatively, you can choose to only monitor or present highlights of your business to counterparties, building trust and reliability as a long term business partner.
Alternatively you will might be considering one of many automated SaaS platforms, bending your data to fit templates, asking your teams to learn processing numbers in the new environment and getting one-version fits all reports. Instead, with FP&A LABS you will get support and guidance on how to use what is currently available in a more effective way.
In such environment, Financial Planning becomes informed and reliable as never before. Periodic forecasting challenge will decrease from company wide tedious, often siloed attempts to quantify and coordinate targets to simply tweaking expectations of already clearly visible trends.
Monthly, mid- or long-term targets will be automatically compared agains newest actuals, having variances explained on every level, while forecast will be rolled into the future to visualize longer term over- or under- performance, ready for your teams' operational optimizations.
Management wise, discussion will become more informed, transparent and efficient. Accountability of teams and their motivation will increase. To help elevate it even higher you can restructure teams around defined business objectives and design incentive structure fitting short and long term objectives.
Lastly, you can consult your plans and get quantification of financial impacts on the business.
If that sounds like something you were looking for, get in touch.
A great financial model is a boring model. One where you clearly can see everything at the first glance and instantly move on to attend your next business objective.
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