The challenges in corporate financial planning today

In the current climate of business management, the role of CFOs has become increasingly significant. They not only own and manage financial data but also hold key performance management information. CFOs have a say in financial processes, such as planning, budgeting, forecasting and consolidation, which are inherently linked with each other to generate actionable insight for strategic decision-making.

The finance department is still the key player in the planning process. Because businesses face a lot of pressure to improve their corporate planning, it is essential that finance executives use an effective and flexible financial planning solution to aid their jobs as experts in the field. Some of the pressures businesses face are:

• Regulatory compliance, with, for example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and International Accounting Standards, which have increased requirements for transparency and timeliness
• Growing needs across the organisation for more detailed information
• Reconciliation problems between management and statutory accounts
• Inflexibility in the planning process, which prevents the incorporation of organisational changes in an easy, timely and accurate manner
• Desire to gain an ROI in Accounting, Financial and ERP systems
• Need to better manage and control the business amid the current economic downturn and increased global competition

Businesses cannot afford to overlook an ineffective planning process. They should take the time to review their approach and identify whether the following issues are present:

• Poor visibility into current results
• Lack of understanding of performance trends
• Poor speed and accuracy of monthly financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting
• Limited or no reporting on non-financial measures
• Lack of integrated software
• Islands of information
• Lack of time to create the annual plan
• Lack of alignment between company strategy and planning process
• Limited or no ability to produce business models and test the impact of proposed changes
• Limited or no ability for business users to view and analyse performance reports at will

If your company is facing one or more than one of the above problems while planning, check out the “Better results through better planning” whitepaper to find out more.