How the Pandemic has Changed Everything, and Nothing, for the Office of the CFO

If you would have asked me six months ago what the biggest challenge facing finance is, the answer would have been easy: disruption. Market volatility, changing regulations, evolving business models, emerging competitors. Finance has to deal with all of it.

Then along came COVID-19, and to say it took the meaning of disruption to another level would be an understatement. If finance found it challenging to inject speed and agility into the planning process before the onset of a global pandemic, the conditions afterward made it nearly impossible to do so.

Today disruption remains a worthy opponent for finance. And if you asked me six months ago how finance could manage the waves of volatility, my answer would have been the same then as it is today. It begins and ends with adequate planning.

Everything is nothing and nothing is everything

It’s almost hard to remember what life was like for the office of the CFO before the pandemic. Since COVID, we know that business operations have been challenging for finance leaders, to say the least. According to the Gartner report, “How to Get the Most Out of Your Cloud FP&A Implementation in Times of Crisis and Opportunity”:

“COVID-19 has disrupted most organizations, negatively affecting business performance and making existing plans unachievable. Organizations must replan and reforecast while increasing forecast frequency in order to produce a new financial plan that matches the new business environment.”

Let’s pause at the phrase “making existing plans unachievable.” In many ways, the current conditions feel like the office of the CFO has been given a brand new set of challenges to navigate. This is largely true: we’re facing problems we’ve never had to solve before.

But then we get to “organizations must replan and reforecast while increasing forecast frequency,” and it becomes clear that what we’re dealing with today isn’t inherently new for the office of the CFO. Replanning, reforecasting, and continuous planning are activities that have become the norm and are set to grow in adoption over the coming years.

So if we knew then, and we know now, that replanning and reforecasting are essential activities to help manage disruption, what continues to hold the office of the CFO back from achieving greater agility? Why are finance organizations still struggling to pivot quickly and adapt to changes?

The answer comes down to two things: the toolset and the action.

First, the toolset

One of the reasons the office of the CFO struggles is because it lacks the right toolset. On-premise solutions are inflexible, slow, and fragmented. Spreadsheets can’t handle the complexities of large data sets and changing business conditions. Neither option is flexible or collaborative enough to meet the needs of today’s dynamic business environment.

Think about it like golf. You wouldn’t show up to 18 holes with just a nine-iron. You’d bring your entire set so you can adjust which club is best for each shot. Par 5? Pull out your driver. On the green? Grab your putter.

The same concept applies to your planning toolset. The office of the CFO needs a flexible, collaborative, cloud-based planning solution that gives them the individual tools they need to adapt to different business conditions.

The Planful platform offers the office of the CFO purpose-built solutions including structured and dynamic planning, reporting, and consolidation, all specifically designed to meet the distinct requirements of FP&A planning. Having all of these tools within a single platform accelerates planning cycles and provides the financial reporting needed to make confident business decisions.

In the report “2020 Strategic Roadmap for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions,” Gartner analysts Robert Anderson and Jon Van Decker note:

“Solutions blending core financial management and FP&A will soon provide new levels of agility and transformational value. Enterprises seeking a unified platform strategy will be increasingly attracted to these solutions.”

Now, the action

The toolset is the first part of the equation. The second is how the office of the CFO puts it to use.

Back to golf. Having the right set of clubs is a start, but it’s the strategy behind your swing that ultimately gets the ball into the hole. You have to evaluate your surroundings, consider any hazards, block out the noise, and continuously plan your next move. Each shot is different from the last.

Your planning process is no different. You can have the best cloud-based financial planning platform, but you can’t get to where you want to go without the right planning process in place. This is where a Continuous Planning process comes in.

Continuous Planning gives the office of the CFO an agile and responsive way to operate, plan, and perform. It’s a vision for finance and business leadership to drive a more continuous, agile planning and decision-making culture. It increases the financial IQ of an organization and, in turn, increases the speed, agility, confidence, and frequency of finance-led decision-making.

Putting the two pieces together

When companies combine the right toolset with the right process, they should be able to get to time-to-value quickly. But for many, time-to-value is part of the struggle. In the same Gartner report, the analysts found that:

“While many organizations have implemented new cloud financial planning and analysis (FP&A) tools, many have not completed all of the phases of their planned implementation. They are struggling to assemble all operational and financial details that are necessary inputs into the planning process.”

At Planful, we understand this struggle. It’s a challenge many of us have faced throughout our own FP&A careers. Most companies simply can’t afford to wait for a drawn-out, months-long implementation project. They need time-to-value quickly.

This is what makes Planful so critical for the office of the CFO, looking for better ways to manage unpredictable business conditions. It can shorten FP&A cycle times, open collaboration channels across the business, and enable the agility needed to respond to market shocks. And it can be rolled out in under 30 days.

Ready to see how Planful can empower confident and agile financial decision-making? Join us for our weekly interactive Continuous Planning demo or learn more about the Planful platform and its solutions here.

Gartner, How to Get the Most Out of Your Cloud FP&A Implementation in Times of Crisis and Opportunity, John Van Decker and Robert Anderson, 5/28/2020
Gartner, 2020 Strategic Roadmap for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions, John Van Decker and Robert Anderson, 2/21/2020