In order to help businesses navigate challenges in financial planning during these uncertain times, each week we’re bringing you curated information and materials to help you respond. This week’s articles highlight news in financial planning as well as what experts are saying on the matter:
1. CFODIVE: Real-Time Planning Helps CFOs Answer Pandemic-Critical ‘What If’ Questions
To forecast today, think in short time horizons, identify how COVID-19 changes your business drivers, use large amounts of quality data to weigh “what if” scenarios, and create agile processes.
2. CFO.Com: Better Scenario Planning Positions Companies to Benefit From Disruption
If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that corporate scenario planning may need to account for events that executives may have never even dreamed about. While many people may have planned for a variety of systemic shocks, how many could have predicted a global pandemic shutting down workplaces, closing national borders, and throwing the economy immediately into a deep decline?
3. Deloitte: Retool FP&A for the Recovery Economy
Finding the right financial model for your business needs is very difficult, but not impossible. Budgeting and forecasting lay the foundation for an organization’s fiscal health. Neglect them, and your financial forecast will be a gloomy one. Use these best practices to strike the right balance between an aggressive and cautious budget.
4. Workday Adaptive Planning: Why Planning Data Should Extend Beyond Finance
As disruption from the global COVID-19 pandemic continues, businesses are assessing their ability to pivot quickly when market conditions change. And in many cases, their business agility is being put to the ultimate stress test. These extraordinary moments are a reminder that “business as usual” won’t guarantee the agility needed to survive and thrive in an unpredictable environment.
5.Deloitte: How to Execute Annual Financial Planning During COVID-19
Never has the process of prediction been so crucial. In response, CFOs and FP&A leaders should look to take immediate action to mitigate uncertainty during the current cycle, while enhancing processes over time to develop a more dynamic, effective financial planning organization into the future.
Thanks for checking in this week! We’ll be back next Thursday with more updates in financial planning. In the meantime, subscribe to our blog to get our posts directly in your inbox.