Hi everyone! My name is Anna, and I am an FP&A-holic.

Yes, I said that, I am addicted to financial planning and analysis.

I am excited when all the checks in my financial models are colored green, and I get thrilled out of digging into data and finding insights that lead to better business decisions.

After 15+ years in FP&A, I’ve learned some hard truths — things I wish someone had told me earlier in my career. Whether you're just starting out or are a seasoned FP&A pro, I hope these insights will help you stand out and thrive in this evolving field.

As FP&A professional, how often do you feel that you do something you shouldn’t?

Having unique access to data about all the activities throughout an organization, it is not uncommon that FP&A teams are often asked to perform tasks which are not necessarily aligned with their core objectives.

No wonder that discussions over understanding the scope of FP&A pop up all the time. It is crucial for us as FP&A pros to navigate the boundaries of our roles and maintain a clear focus on adding value to the company.

So, the scope of FP&A: what is in and what is out?

With constantly evolving role of the finance function in the organization, these are FP&A practitioners who feel the most pressure to be jack-of-all-trades. Growing variety and complexity of tasks force them to develop skills, both hard and soft, to keep up with all requirements and expectations.

There is a specific product on the market I could associate FP&A with, and this is a Swiss multi-tool.

So, if FP&A were a Swiss multi-tool, how could we sell it?

Finance business partnering is not a new concept and has been around for a while. Well, not just for a while, for more than 60 years. Since then, finance community could not come up with one single definition of finance business partnering. It’s still unclear whether it’s a job title, or a role, or the way of working, etc.

Indeed, the concept is not the easiest one to define, but its benefits for the companies are intuitively obvious and well known.

FP&A is the sexiest job in finance… While this may seem like an overstatement, FP&A positions are becoming incredibly popular and sought-after.

Moving into FP&A from other fields of finance, such as accounting and audit, has recently become very trendy. Internet is full of advice, courses and trainings focused on this transition.

So, what is so special about the FP&A role that it attracts that much attention and has almost become a buzzword within the finance community?

Hurricanes are among the most violent storms on our planet producing strong winds, heavy rains and floodings.

Budgeting is a type of short-term planning the goal of which is to transform strategic objectives into operational plan by allocating available resources.

Though one is a natural phenomenon and the other is a business process, budgets and hurricanes have more in common than it may be noticed at first sight.