Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams play a crucial role in companies by performing budgeting, forecasting, and analysis that support major corporate decisions of the CFO, CEO, and the Board of Directors.

According to the Corporate Finance Institute, FP&A professionals oversee a broad array of financial affairs, including income, expenses, taxes, capital expenditures, investments, and financial statements. Financial analysts are charged with examining, analysing, and evaluating the entirety of a corporation’s financial activities, and mapping out the company’s financial future.

Very few, if any, companies can be consistently profitable and grow without careful financial planning and cash flow management. The job of managing a corporation’s cash flow typically falls to its FP&A team and its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Joining on this episode of PodChats for FutureCFO is Chris Ortega, CEO of Fresh FP&A, a consultancy focused on finance transformation & scale solutions for businesses.

1. What is the new value proposition for modern finance organization? 

2. What are the key factors contributing to this evolution? 

3. What about the FP&A team, how have things changed?

4. You said the new FP&A is a storyteller, where do you see the biggest gaps for FP&A professionals for the future?

5. There is this trend in some functional areas for outsourcing. Your organisation offers CFO capabilities as a service. Given that FP&A requires intimate understanding of the business and the organisation, is outsourcing FP&A even worth considering? And when does it make sense to do so?

6. Speaking of skillsets, do you think certifications still bring a lot of value to the role?

7. If you were to look into a crystal ball, where is FP&A 3 – 5 years from now?