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The Planning and Forecasting Blueprint

Adaptable planning across the organization

  • 10 principles to take planning and forecasting to the next level
  • How can forecasting be measured?
  • What does a simple plan need?
  • What happens when reality diverges?
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Foreword

Name a corporate process you think is the biggest time waster leading to little to no impact? I bet many of you would name the budgeting process or more widely speaking planning and forecasting. We spend insane amounts of time on the process yet every time we’re done it’s already outdated! There must be a better way…

To find a better way, I asked our community of finance, accounting, and FP&A professionals for their insights. The result? “The Planning and Forecasting Blueprint”! It consists of ten principles such as “Always align your plan to your strategy” and “Always thoroughly document your assumptions”.

It is meant as a guide for all you planners out there to do things differently. It contains simple, practical, and actionable steps to change your planning and forecasting process. Not least it is meant to nudge you in the direction of creating a more collaborative process that expands beyond the finance silo.

In a world of constant change the planning and forecasting process is only gaining more importance yet if we keep responding to this in the ways of old, we’ll soon have a nightmare on our hands. Building a new process based on these ten principles will give your company a competitive advantage over those who refuse to change. Are YOU ready to change?

Anders Liu-Lindberg
Business Partnering Institute

Table of contents
  • Foreword
  • The 10 core principles of planning and forecasting
  • The 10 core principles
  • 1. Why planning should always be aligned with strategy
  • 2. Why documenting your assumptions is the most important part of planning
  • 3. Without an effective feedback loop your plan will fail
  • 4. Why you should blow up your budget process
  • 5. Accuracy is an outcome of good planning
  • 6. The planning department is not the whole company – but the whole company better be planning!
  • 7. A simple plan is the best way to achieve your target
  • 8. Re-forecasting your finances should never take more than a week
  • 9. Never plan without preparing multiple scenarios
  • 10. Great planners always plan with contingencies
  • How to use The Planning and Forecasting Blueprint
  • Where now?