The traditional financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software was developed for businesses to deal with day-to-day affairs, where economic factors remain predictable. If the economy slows, business demand may fall at a set figure, or when competitors get better sales figures, an influx of new consumers is expected. However, for the most part, this is a paradigm in which most things are quite foreseeable.
But now and again, something genuinely unexpected occurs. When the COVID-19 crisis erupted in early 2020, it was a significant and unexpected shock for almost every company in the world. The demand curve changed quickly. Many workers were laid off due to health concerns, school closures, and a new reality in which some services were no longer needed while others were in high demand.
Let’s look at some top reasons finance executives now use advanced FP&A software to help them achieve business goals.
Unpredictable markets call for an integrated approach
Traditional FP&A software was developed with the premise that financial plans will remain as is. However, the pandemic has shown us that anything could change at any given time.
This is why today’s FP&A professionals now require advanced financial planning and analysis like Performance Canvas Financials (PCF).
Looking back over the last year, the conventional approach to FP&A appears to be completely unsuitable in the present economic context. It asks for a fixed yearly budget with strict projections and sales objectives and well-defined capital investment and cash flow strategies with minimum fluctuation. The COVID-19 issue has woken up company leaders worldwide to the need for a new approach to financial planning and analysis. As we re-examine and reimagine those procedures, the need for more effective financial forecasting techniques and tools becomes more evident than ever.
FP&A Software helps them respond to issues quickly
Budgets and projections are generated annually and stay set for the most part in the framework of a typical financial planning paradigm. Many businesses have implemented quarterly adjustments to provide flexibility to the process, allowing for more responsiveness throughout the year. Even that, however, can be too inflexible since it does not give the agility and fast reaction that organizations require in today’s volatile economic climate.
All of that changes with continuous planning, which revisits financial planning at considerably shorter intervals. This enables company executives to revise their projections based on the most recent data and then address any possible difficulties or concerns. Continuous planning necessitates real-time insight into what is going on in the business. It also asks for the organization’s reporting and analytical capabilities to be streamlined and optimized. You can gather, organize, and analyze information considerably more efficiently with an integrated set of FP&A tools than with the typical off-the-shelf solutions known to most ERP and CRM software users.
Helps Their Companies Become More Future-Ready
Because continuous financial planning is a new reality, it necessitates a culture shift as well. The company must adapt to a new method of doing business, continuously monitoring and changing to achieve better commercial results. The finest FP&A solutions offer an integrated framework for assessing real-time company performance alongside existing plans and making modifications to compensate for present conditions and expectations. If management favors continuous strategic planning, the proper FP&A technologies provide the pragmatic processes required to make that transition a success.
PCF: Advanced FP&A Financial Software for FP&A Professionals
The current economic situation necessitates contingency preparation. To keep ahead of the competition, organizations can no longer afford prolonged implementation timeframes for innovative technologies.
It is a time when businesses must be ready to implement a new solution as soon as feasible and with little training for their employees.
Performance Canvas Financials in the Cloud provides self-service budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting, and consolidation on a single platform that is easy to use and maintain by the FP&A team themselves.
PCF provides companies with robust system integration capabilities to help them better respond to any market changes on the go through a seamless flow of information across the organization.
Book a free demo with our team and see it work for yourself.
