FINANCE (FP&a) MISSION examples
FP&A project and temp services
PROBLEM: You lack sufficient headcount for any project, whether because an employee went AWOL, just had a kid, got sick, or any other reason. Perhaps your existing team doesn’t have the training or skills to do the job. Another possibility is some “one-off” project (such as a financial software implementation like WorkDay Adaptive) came down the pike.
SOLUTION: In partnership with our client, we survey your existing business decision--making process around investment and capital allocation. With an eye towards shareholder value creation, we recommend metrics underpinned by sound financial theory, including discount cash flow, IRR, customer LTV, and payback period. We can additionally help educate internal business partners on application of ROI metrics and potentially create “rules of thumb” or other heuristics to enable rapid line manager decision-making and prioritization.
financial model construction and optimization
PROBLEM: Your internal financial forecast model isn’t producing accurate forecasts and the team is struggling to explain to business partners, in great detail, exactly why and with speed to provide the insights needed to make your team look like heroes.
SOLUTION: Our operators meet with your internal business partners and develop a ground-up understanding of the drivers of your business (examples: new customers added, churn, existing customer growth, growth by business motion/business line, by channel, age of customer, etc.) We can optimize your existing model or start completely from scratch. We can create new summary charts or optimize existing charts and create output and reports to your specifications and drive automation of charts for future periods.
ROI GOAL SETTING AND ANALYSIS
PROBLEM: The organization isn’t aligned on how to evaluate its investments or prioritize them, or there is no consistent method to evaluate different programs/businesses in such a way to ensure the business overall. Line managers aren’t armed with the tools needed to make decisions on the fly, encumbering finance (and the organization) with a slow, inconsistent, and unpopular process for approving incremental spending.
SOLUTION: Our versatile, highly educated staff has skills and experience to take on almost any FP&A project. Just drop us in — we’ll find our way. Finance Operators plan, plan some more, and then improvise!
ANNUAL PLAN DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENTATION
PROBLEM: It’s the first time you’ve attempted an annual operating plan. Or you’ve already completed one ore annual planning process and your team has gotten crushed by the incremental work of the process or you are not satisfied with the output. The iterative process of negotiating goals is rife with internal conflict, and FP&A is a convenient scapegoat when the business doesn’t deliver. (“We didn’t sign up for that!'“)
SOLUTION: Finance operators begin with a quick review of prior year plans and process and gather feedback on what went well and what was sub-optimal. We first gather input on expenses from each business and requested resources and programs for the coming year. Armed with that information and the ROI goals we set with you, we return with recommendations on goals for each business and drive broad alignment in the organization. Let us be the “fall guy'“ for driving accountability in your organization.