1. 10 Ways to Enhance FP&A and Business
Collaboration
Nilly Essaides, Director & Practice Lead, The Association for Financial
Professionals
Increasingly, finance executives find that they add the most value when they work closely with
their business partners to help them make smarter decisions. However, this relationship is not
always automatic or seamless. Some financial planning and analysis (FP&A) leaders report that
they need to work hard on creating a strong partnership with operational and departmental heads.
During two AFP FP&A roundtables in New York and Chicago in early 2016, over three dozen
participants offered advice on how to improve the link between FP&A and the business. The
roundtables, sponsored by Peloton, provided a great forum for practitioners to share best
practices.
1. Integrate tactical and strategic processes. One practitioner at a media company explained
that she’s merged the day-to-day work with the strategic partnering to make sure both become an
ongoing part of the relationship with business units.
2. Change the “budget guy” or “FP&A police” perception. A lot has to do with changing
managers’ perception of what FP&A is all about, according Philip Peck, vice president of

2. finance transformation at Peloton. That means FP&A needs to bring value to the operations, not
just say “no” to investment requests.
3. Learn the business. It’s very important to build FP&A’s credibility by showing the business
leaders that FP&A understands the business, explained the CFO of a nonprofit organization.
“Make sure you understand the business. It’s not just about numbers,” he said.
4. Separate budget variance analysis from FP&A. At one global financial institution, the
monthly task of comparing the budget to actuals has been shifted to accounting, freeing up more
FP&A time to focus on building the partnership with the business. “Accounting should be able to
speak to the business and handle the first line of questions,” said the above CFO. Granted, a lot
depends on how the company is structured, another participant noted. Her company runs an SSC
model, where accounting staff has little understanding of how the budget has been put together.
5. Be consistent and over-deliver. “Consistency in delivering the message and delivering results
is very important,” said the FP&A executive at another firm. Added Peck: “Establish trust and
credibility by delivering on promises. It’s important to provide accurate data and information on
a timely basis, and be flexible in terms of working with the business to accommodate their
specific business needs and requirements.” According to another practitioner, just delivering on
promises may not be enough—it’s also important to consistently over-deliver, especially on the
first time around. He noted that if business managers are impressed with the value they get,
they’re more likely to ask for FP&A help in the future.
6. Actively seek out opportunities for partnering. According to Peck, FP&A needs to put
itself in the business leaders’ shoes, anticipate their needs, and creatively look for ways to add
value by providing insights and unique perspectives, improving the efficiency of key activities
and introducing frameworks, models and structure to enable these business leaders to better plan,
manage and run their operational areas.
7. Evangelize the profession. A good way of building FP&A credibility with business partners
is to educate them on what FP&A does and how it can help them improve their own
performance. An FP&A professional at an online company said she went on a roadshow,
meeting with business leaders to outline the role of FP&A and how it can drive results. “Since
then, people have come to us,” she said. “It helped change the culture.”
8. Institutionalize the process. One roundtable participant revealed that he’s tried a variety of
ways to ensure he’s tightly linked to the operations. First, he offered the business different
analyses that helped them reach profitable conclusions—and made sure not to take credit for it.
He then moved to identifying senior sponsors and focused on specific projects. Two other
executives have managed to bake the finance/business collaboration into the core processes, by
doing the following:
 Creating a multifunctional team. At one food-processing organization, each project is
headed by a cross-functional team that includes HR, IT and finance—not just the
business unit. They meet every Monday and report to the CFO monthly. “I have a great
degree of confidence in the process,” the CFO said.

3.  Making a SOX requirement. At another manufacturing organization, finance’s sign-off
is part of the requirements under SOX control, so if it’s not there, they have to explain
why it’s not, according to the assistant vice president of FP&A.
9. Embed finance in the business. Some companies approach this challenge by embedding
FP&A professionals in BUs and functions. “While they report to me, they are part of that team,”
said the finance eecutive.
10. Build the relationship from scratch. “I get to know the executive leader or the number 2 or
3. It’s important to identify the influencer,” another practitioner said. “This softer approach can
be instrumental in getting FP&A in the room.” It can take time, he acknowledged, and can start
with simple, short conversations, building up to business discussions. “Ask questions about the
business: how do you think about your go-to market strategy? How to you approach running a
new campaign?” he suggested.