Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Management

1FINANCIAL PLANNING & ANALYSIS AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Performance Management (PM) are critical functions to the success of any enterprise. In this chapter, we will define what we believe productive FP&A and PM functions should include, and we will preview the contents of the remainder of the book. We will use the terms FP&A and PM interchangeably to encompass these two related and overlapping disciplines.

THE PROBLEM WITH TRADITIONAL MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

Traditional financial reports have several limitations. First, they typically are prepared after the close of the accounting period, on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Once these reports are prepared and distributed, managers attempting to use them for performance monitoring are looking in the rearview mirror. The report may tell them where they have been, but it will not be helpful in keeping the car on the road! A financial report for March, for example, may indicate that inventories increased above expected levels. While management can review causes of the increase and take corrective actions in April, they were unable to avoid the problem and are left with the unfavorable impact on working capital and cash flows.

A related limitation with traditional accounting reports is that their content is typically focused on “lagging” financial measures, such as gross margins, days sales outstanding (DSO), and so forth. Effective managers identify ...