Chapter 1: Corporate Finance · Job 2 of 3
FP&A
Financial Planning & Analysis. Plans the budget, then checks how the year is actually going.
What does this person do?
FP&A (short for Financial Planning & Analysis) teams help a company plan its year. They put together the budget, which is a plan for how much money will come in and go out, and then they watch what really happens and update their predictions.
A financial analyst might dig into one question. FP&A looks at the whole company and works with every department.
What a normal week might include
- Helping departments build their yearly budgets
- Updating forecasts as the year goes on
- Explaining why actual results differed from the plan
- Preparing numbers and talking points for executives
Skills that help
- Strong spreadsheet skills
- Translating numbers for people who aren't into finance
- Knowing what matters and what doesn't
- Staying calm around deadlines
How people get into it
FP&A is a popular first job for finance, accounting, and business majors. From analyst, people move up to manager, director, and VP of Finance, and a few become Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Meet the planners
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