The document discusses financial planning and analysis (FP&A), which involves reporting results, forecasting, budgeting, and analysis to help a company meet its strategic goals, with the main approaches being top-down, which is quicker but less granular, and bottom-up, which is more time-consuming but provides a basis for financial modeling and variance analysis. Common problems to avoid with forecasts include not revising them frequently enough, compensating managers solely on meeting the budget, having forecasts become an end in themselves rather than a tool, and using bad comparators that don't accurately reflect business changes.
2. • Introduction
• What is Financial Planning & Analysis and Why Should You
Care?
• Approaches for Planning
• Common Problems to avoid
• Stories from my Career
• Worked Example
• Wrap-up and Q&A
Contents
4. What do you understand by
“Financial Planning and
Analysis”?
5. Core responsibilities of the
Corporate FP&A Function:
1. Reporting results, often consolidated across multiple areas of the
business.
2. Producing Board presentations.
3. Forecasting and Budgeting.
4. Ad hoc analysis – financial implications of any kind of decision.
5. Often help in preparation of statutory accounts.
6. Input into Tax, Treasury and other ‘operational finance’ areas.
6. What is Financial Planning &
Analysis and Why Should You
Care?
“Financial” - virtually everything in business has a
financial component or outcome.
“Planning” - working with management to put
together budgets and forecasts.
“Analysis” - helping management understand HOW
and WHY reality is different from the forecasts.
7. What is Financial Planning &
Analysis and Why Should You
Care?
Benefits:
Develop Tactical and Operational plans to fulfil Strategic
Goals.
Foresee problems and put contingency plans in place.
Be able to take advantage of future opportunities.
Evaluate options and make good decisions.
Hold managers accountable for their teams’
performance.
8. What is Financial Planning &
Analysis and Why Should You
Care?
Definition:
Financial planning is a continuous process of directing
and allocating financial resources to meet strategic
goals and objectives.
9. What is Financial Planning &
Analysis and Why Should You
Care?
Informs ongoing Tactical decisions.
Leads to changes in Operational Management.
Primary output: Annual Budget or Plan, Quarterly /
monthly Forecasts
Secondary output: analysis comparing Actual results
to the Budget, Forecast and (usually) Prior Year
Actuals – frequently referred to as the “Management
Accounts”
11. Top Down Approach
Pros:
+ Quickest, easiest way to produce a forecast.
+ Strategic in focus, takes into account Macro-environment.
Cons:
- Least granular.
- Least useful for future analysis.
- Can fail to account for changes in context.
- Reliant on judgement of senior managers.
- Prone to manipulation.
12. Top Down Approach
Process:
1. Gather data from previous years.
2. Calculate KPIs
3. Establish trends and roll them forward.
4. Build in assumptions about Macro-environment.
5. Set goals, e.g. “increase Revenue by 10%” or
“maintain 15% EBITDA”
6. Evaluate investment required to meet goals.
7. Communicate plan.
13. Bottom Up Approach
Pros:
+ Granular, useful for variance analysis
+ Tells you HOW Strategic goals will be achieved.
+ Basis for Financial modelling.
+ Ownership.
Cons:
- Time consuming.
- Quality dependent on skills, quality of data and sophistication of
technology
- “Spurious accuracy”
- Unambitious targets.
14. Bottom Up Approach
Process:
1. Model business based on relevant drivers at
required level of granularity.
2. Gather data from previous years and use to
calibrate/test model.
3. Enter assumptions from Top-Down plan
4. Run Forecast
15. Bottom Up Approach
Process Continued:
5. Compare Bottom-Up Forecast to Top-Down
Forecast.
6. If there is a gap, evaluate measures required to
bridge gap.
7. Revise as required until goals are reached.
8. Run sensitivity analysis.
9. Create Tactical and Operational Plans
10.Monitor progress.
16. First rule of forecasts:
Forecasts are always WRONG, but good ones are
USEFUL.
Second rule of forecasts:
A Forecast is only as good as its underlying
assumptions.
17. Problems to avoid with Forecasts
Not revising them frequently enough
Compensating managers based on meeting or
beating Budget
Becoming an end in themselves
Bad comparators
18. War Stories
Not revising them frequently enough
Compensating managers based on meeting or
beating Budget
Becoming an end in themselves
Bad comparators
Introduction – 10 mins
About me.
What do you understand by “Financial Planning and Analysis”?
Core responsibilities of the Corporate FP&A Function
What is Financial Planning & Analysis and Why Should You Care?
Benefits
Definitions
Approaches – 15 mins
Top Down
Bottom Up
Problems to avoid with Forecasts – 5 mins
Not revising them frequently enough
Compensating managers based on meeting or beating Budget
Becoming an end in themselves
Bad comparators
War Stories – 10 mins
CTC
REL
Worked Example – 45 mins
See printed handouts
Solution
Wrap-up and Q&A – up to 30 mins
Worked in Finance for the last 16 years
History degree from UCL in 2001
MBA from WBS in 2014
Ford Finance Graduate Scheme straight after University - 2001
Ford Motor Company – multiple roles
Jaguar Financial Reporting
Transport Operations Controllers Office
European Treasury Cash Management
European General Auditors Office
Lehman Brothers – 1 year before the bankruptcy – plenty of stories, ask me later! - 2007-8
Lehman Brothers – administration post-bankruptcy with PWC
Aramark – core FP&A role
Contracting:
John Lewis
Dun & Bradstreet
IAG (British Airways)
Serco
L3 Technologies
Advantage Smollan
Consulting:
Business Financial Planning for Start-ups
Financial Modeling using Excel
Class Discussion
Reporting results, often consolidated across multiple areas of the business.
Annual
Quarterly
Monthly
Weekly!
2. Producing Board presentations.
Usually big decks of slides, produced in Powerpoint and printed, then hand-annotated.
Reviewed in staggering detail.
3. Forecasting and Budgeting.
Different companies have different approaches, varying in detail, flexibility, administrative burden
5 year Plan
Annual Budget
Reforecast on a Quarterly or Monthly basis
4. Ad hoc analysis – financial implications of any kind of decision.
Dreaded walk-ups.
Magic spreadsheets
5. Often help in preparation of statutory accounts
FP&A see the top-level numbers and are gatekeepers for the people who know the detail.
6. Input into Tax, Treasury and other ‘operational finance’ areas.
Planning affects everyone
Is a subsidiary finally going to start making a profit? Tax need to know to understand implications and options.
How much cash will the business generate o burn next year? When? Treasury need to know to arrange funding/investments
What is Financial Planning & Analysis and Why Should You Care? – 5 mins
Approaches – 15 mins
Two Main Approaches to Budgeting/Forecasting
Top Down
Bottom Up
These work best in conjunction with each other!
Problems to avoid with Forecasts – 5 mins
Not revising them frequently enough
- Things change, slavish adherence to past assumptions is damaging
- Annual
Compensating managers based on meeting or beating Budget
- Unambitious targets
- Haggling
- Counter-productive decision making
Becoming an end in themselves
- Wastes time
- Leads to inflexibility
Bad comparators
- Previous targets
- Different situations
- Changing policies
War Stories – 10 mins
CTC “Client A”
Having to verify YTD P&L
New P&L Model
Change to Revenue Recognition Policy
REL “Client B”
Proxy numbers
Incomplete records
Inconsistent accounting policies and processes
Estimates
See printed handouts
30 minutes
Solution
15 Minutes