Financial Services
FP&A Advisory
Forecasting, budgeting, KPI frameworks, and reporting.
Overview
A forecast is only useful if someone can say out loud which assumption it rests on, and what happens when that assumption is wrong.
Most companies do not lack numbers. They lack a forecast anyone is willing to defend, a budget the operating team recognizes as their own, and a small set of measures that actually indicate whether the quarter is working. What exists instead is usually a spreadsheet inherited from a predecessor, extended each year, understood in full by one person.
FP&A advisory engagements rebuild that layer. The firm constructs the driver-based model, establishes the planning calendar, defines the measures that matter for the specific business, and produces the reporting package the board or the lender receives. Forecasts are built as scenarios with stated assumptions. The value is in knowing which assumption is load-bearing, not in the precision of a single number.
This is advisory and consulting work. Nothing produced in an engagement is a projection of investment results, a guarantee of future performance, or a recommendation regarding securities.
Scope of work
Scoped in writing before the engagement begins.
01
Driver-based forecasting
A model built on the handful of operating drivers that actually move the result, with assumptions stated on the face of the model rather than buried in a cell.
02
Budgeting cycle design
A planning calendar with defined inputs, owners, and review gates, so the annual budget is a process the operating team runs rather than an exercise finance performs at them.
03
KPI framework
A short, deliberate set of measures tied to the business model, each with a definition, a source, and an owner. Fewer measures, more consistently reported.
04
Board and lender reporting
A recurring package built for the audience that receives it: covenant support, variance explanation, and a narrative that matches the numbers.
05
Variance and scenario analysis
Plan-to-actual analysis that identifies cause rather than restating the difference, plus scenario ranges around the assumptions most likely to break.
06
Model review and repair
Independent review of an existing model, covering structure, formula integrity, and circularity, with the fixes made rather than merely listed.
Typical Situations
When to engage
The forecast keeps missing
Plan-to-actual variance is persistent and unexplained, and the conversation each month is about the spreadsheet rather than the business.
A new stakeholder arrived
A lender, an institutional investor, or a new board has raised the standard of planning and reporting the company is expected to meet.
The model outgrew its author
The planning model is understood by one person, has grown by accretion for years, and no longer supports the decisions being asked of it.
If the planning cycle costs more than the decisions it informs, it is worth rebuilding.
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