For your business to thrive and prosper, you need a functional business strategy. This strategic combination will benefit significantly from financial planning and analysis.
An experienced and reliable analyst can provide accurate and detailed statement analyses that give your business both short- and long-term advantages. You can then effectively use this data to improve your business strategy.
What is financial planning and analysis?
A company’s financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting process is determined by the information gathered by financial planning and analysis (FP&A) professionals. It’s their job to collect, prepare and analyze financial data, and to create reports that provide data-driven answers and solutions to business questions and problems.
A forward-thinking FP&A strategy examines what’s currently happening in the business, why it’s happening, and potential future outcomes. To help improve business strategy, you may employ tools and techniques such as cash flow analysis, common-size statement analysis, comparative statement analysis, cost-volume-profit analysis, fund flow analysis, networking capital analysis, and trend analysis.
Your company’s past and current financial health offers a viable indication of its long-term growth potential. In turn, the growth of your business depends on the accurate analysis of financial statements. Therefore, the insights gathered by accountants are of high importance to a company that is determined to succeed.
Strategic planning, implementation, and performance monitoring processes rely heavily on integral information that indicates the company’s financial position, goals, performance, and resources.
To gain an understanding of the financial situation of a company or organization, you must review financial statements. The financial statement analysis may include an examination of balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows, and any additional supplementary notes.
A short-term analysis considers the company’s ability to pay short-term debts or liquidity. The company’s ability to pay long-term debts, or solvency, is considered via long-term analysis.
Employees, executives, or government agencies with access to the internal accounting records of a business can conduct short- or long-term financial analyses. Access to published financial statements also allows individuals, creditors, investors, and credit or government agencies to perform financial analysis externally.
Financial planning and analysis methods
Strategic management, which involves setting goals and analyzing how to reach them, can help your business grow exponentially. Using different financial analysis tools and methods can help you determine which strategies have greater chances for success.
To comply with business laws and regulations, a company must follow standard accounting practices, meet the needs of stakeholders and other parties, and also conduct accurate financial statement analysis.
Financial statement analysis provides vital data that allows internal and external stakeholders to make informed investment decisions. This analysis also offers lending institutions an unbiased view of your company’s financial health. Corporate governance matters also rely on an accurate accounting depiction of the business.
To support strategic financial planning, you should use coordinated, integrated metrics to measure business performance against goals. These financial metrics help with strategic financial planning and analysis decision-making in asset management, risk management, tax optimization, and all financing decisions.
