Highly effective financial planning is now recognized by leading finance organizations as critical to the successful execution of business strategy*
It is no longer sufficient to just measure past performance. Budgeting and forecasting has become a critical competency for organizations to effectively plan, manage, and execute on strategy. Finance organizations face new challenges: building financial plans with strong links to strategy initiatives and fostering new collaboration between finance management and business operations.
This study is based on research conducted to understand how finance executives are responding to these new challenges. We examined both established financial planning practices and emerging trends to uncover links between leading practices and overall satisfaction with large organizations' financial planning processes. The research was executed via 200 cross-industry web surveys and four in-depth interviews with organizations whose revenues are greater than $2 billion.
PricewaterhouseCoopers identified five key trends impacting budgeting and forecasting processes:
1. Budgeting and forecasting processes face significant transformation; linkage to strategy is top of mind.
2. Today's process is too granular and not focused on value-added activities.
3. Underlying technologies and applications lack integration.
4. Finance and operations must be more closely aligned.
5. Standardizing processes and systems is a primary focus of improvement efforts.
The full analysis and details of these five trends, supported by survey results, can be found in the complete report.
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