Effective financial planning and analysis has never been more important. The pandemic magnified the shortcomings of FP&A as it’s always been done: a reliance on spreadsheets, no real time updates, multiple data sources, lack of granularity and limited rolling forecasts.

A growing number of companies recognize this. In a recent poll, 56 percent of organizations said they plan to introduce or modernize software for financial planning and forecasting. Three-quarters intend to use specialist software for corporate planning, simulations and scenario analysis. Companies that invest in technology said it frees up finance teams to spend more time on areas that drive business value. Benefits include:

• Streamlining/automating currency consolidation
• Data reliability, with one version of the truth 
• Effective risk management
• Groupwide gains in efficiency and control.

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