Modern FP&A is almost unrecognisable when compared to what we had just 20 years ago, and that is a testament to just how far this industry has come in a very short space of time. This dramatic transformation in how FP&A teams operate reflects a broader revolution in financial planning and analysis. It’s a story of how technological advancement has not only changed the tools we use, but fundamentally shifted the role of FP&A from historical record-keeping to forward-looking strategic partnership.
Let’s look back and then forward to understand the evolution of FP&A and where we might be heading over the next decade.
Where we came from
The year is 1985. An FP&A analyst arrives at their desk, greeted by towering stacks of paper reports and a hefty binder of last quarter’s variance analyses. They boot up their computer, waiting several minutes for Lotus 1-2-3 to load, ready to spend the next three days manually consolidating departmental budgets into the company’s master spreadsheet. Each number must be verified, each formula checked, and any changes require painstaking updates across multiple worksheets. When the CFO requests an urgent scenario analysis for a potential acquisition, it means nights of overtime and a scramble to gather historical data from the archives.
—
In this era, everything was done manually and this greatly limited the capabilities of FP&A practitioners. The constraints meant that almost all the focus was on historical reporting and variance analysis – all of which was completed with quite a rigid structure in order to maintain consistency. As a result, it was difficult to create accurate forecasts that could handle any level of complexity, and managers were forced to make difficult decisions based on intuition rather than data. The data collection processes on their own were so time-consuming that there was an active disincentive against bringing more data to the fore.
Where we are
The year is 2024. Today’s FP&A professional starts their morning by glancing at a dynamic Apliqo dashboard that has already processed overnight sales data from across the globe. With a few clicks, they can drill down into any anomalies flagged by the system. The integrated planning platform automatically consolidates inputs from hundreds of business units in real time. When the CFO messages about acquisition scenarios, they can generate multiple options within minutes, complete with data-driven market analysis and risk assessments. The afternoon is spent in strategic discussions with business partners, interpreting insights and recommending actions rather than wrestling with spreadsheets.
—
The current state of the industry is exciting because improvements in technology have drastically expanded how capable FP&A teams can be. Forecasts have shifted from rigid time periods that quickly become out of date and instead can be calculated on a rolling basis at any point in time. Real-time reporting has become a reality and that informs agile decision-making across the organisation. Data sources can now be integrated from anywhere, allowing for a single unified source of truth to be created.
These improvements have revolutionised what FP&A means and what it can accomplish – but we certainly won’t stop here. The next era is fast approaching and here at Apliqo, we’re dedicated to ensuring that our suite of solutions is the best fit for where FP&A is going in the future.
Where we’re going
The year is 2030. The FP&A director starts her morning by reviewing the real-time alerts from the Apliqo platform. The system has detected early warning signals in the supply chain through a combination of internal data, weather patterns, and real-time supplier analytics. Before she’s even finished her coffee, the in-built AI has generated three potential mitigation strategies, complete with impact assessments across all business units.
In her virtual workspace, she seamlessly transitions between financial and operational data streams. Gone are the days of static reporting cycles – the company now operates on a continuous planning model where forecasts adjust automatically based on real-time market conditions. When reviewing the latest strategic initiatives, she can instantly visualise how each decision might affect not just financial metrics, but also sustainability goals, employee satisfaction scores, and customer lifetime value.
The majority of her day is spent in strategic discussions with business partners, where augmented reality displays allow team members from across the globe to collaborate as if they were in the same room. They’re analysing complex business scenarios where AI handles the numerical heavy lifting, leaving the team free to focus on nuanced decision-making that combines human judgment with data-driven insights. Traditional budgeting meetings have been replaced by dynamic resource allocation sessions, where investment decisions are made in real time based on constantly updated market conditions and performance metrics.
—
This is a vision of where we might be in the coming decade. Yet it’s important to understand that despite all this technological advancement, the core of FP&A remains fundamentally human. While artificial intelligence could one day handle the computational complexity and pattern recognition, it’s the FP&A team’s business acumen, strategic thinking, and stakeholder management that turn this flood of information into actionable business strategy.
We are incredibly excited to be on this journey and can’t wait to see what the future of FP&A looks like.
