Extended Planning & Analysis before it was Named XP&A

The excerpts below were written by Jim Crofton, one of the co-founders at KeenVision, back in 2013. He was describing the way we operated early in our careers in our Corporate Finance days (we worked for the same technology company in the 1980’2 and 1990’s).  Little did we know, the way Jim and I grew up in Finance with a heavy focus in Operation Planning would be labeled ‘Extended Planning and Analysis’.

From Jim…

The Founders at KeenVision spent their formative career years in cultures that demanded a Finance team that was tightly integrated with Business operations. Finance was a part of the team and held a “seat at the table” when decisions were made. Of course, this involvement was earned – as line managers found over time that Finance was a tool they could use to meet their objectives.

In working with client organizations, we see many that fail to play this role. How does your team shape up?

• Is your team part of the decision-making process, or ‘the last to know’?
• Do your peers come to you with business issues, or avoid contact with the Finance Team?
• To what extent does the line management seek your advice – on financial issues? On non-financial issues?

Jim went on to provide recommendations on how to connect and integrate the Finance team with the operating business partners.  This alignment allowed Finance to work to develop extended planning practices…. even back in the 80’s and 90’s.

Cloud based planning platforms like OneStream and Planful have tremendous capability to interconnect operational planning with the financial planning process in each business.  Reach out and let’s talk about how this is done.

By: Mark Davidson, Managing Partner