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FP&A: Calculating the Total Cost of Ownership Buyers everywhere face pressure to deliver cost savings for their organizations. The problem is that too many eyes become focused on stated vendor cost rather than Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
May 10, 2013
Case Study: FP&A Group Overcomes Hurdles in Switch to SaaS Many mid-sized companies are reluctant to switch to SaaS. The Doe Run Company decided to switch anyway -- here's why.
May 06, 2013
May 2013 FP&A Newsletter The May issue of FP&A Newsletter looks at advanced spreadsheet functions, switching to SaaS, a case study from Microsoft, and more.
May 02, 2013
Advanced Spreadsheet Functions for FP&A Professionals Many FP&A professionals spend the majority of their day manually grinding through spreadsheets, wasting time on data manipulation instead of focusing on analysis. Certain advanced spreadsheet functions can help reduce time spent collecting and managing data and redirect that time to more productive ends.
May 01, 2013
Up Close: FP&A in Banking Many aspects of FP&A are fundamental across industries and markets. To the extent that the business models of industries differ, however, so too does the analysis. In traditional banking, two unique aspects of the business require significant analytical attention: the interest margin and asset quality.
Apr 30, 2013
London FP&A Club’s Second Meeting Journeys Beyond Budgeting LONDON -- Members of the newly-formed London FP&A Club gathered April 17 for their second event in the City of London. More than 20 finance professionals were present to hear Dr. Peter Bunce, director of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, discuss the beyond-budgeting approach to financial planning and analysis. News about the forthcoming FP&A certification program also was unveiled.
Apr 22, 2013
This Week in Corporate Finance: Lukewarm Outlook? This was another week where the equity markets touched new or multi-year highs, the bond market sold off a bit, and the economic outlook is lukewarm at best. Time will tell if we have finally moved to a period of determining how fast the U.S. economy is growing, rather than asking: is the U.S. economy growing?
Apr 15, 2013
AFP EconWatch: Producer Prices Decline A sharp drop in the price of energy goods led to the first decline in producer prices in three months during March.
Apr 15, 2013
AFP EconWatch: U.S. Economy Stumbles The U.S. economy created fewer jobs in March than it had in any previous month since last summer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that non-farm payrolls expanded by a seasonally adjusted 88,000 workers last month, the first time the economy failed to create at least 100,000 jobs since it added 87,000 workers last June.
Apr 08, 2013
This Week in Corporate Finance: U.S. Payrolls Weaker than Expected The see-saw which is the U.S. economy continued again last week as a weaker-than-expected payrolls report put a bit of a damper on the recent positive narrative we had been witnessing. Concerns about the economy not being as robust as previously thought caused money to move in a classic “risk-off” trade and U.S. Treasury securities were the beneficiaries at the expense of the equity market.
Apr 08, 2013
Mobility and FP&A There is growing speculation that mobile computing will have a major impact on the way organizations plan and manage resources. Surely, the implications for FP&A professionals are fascinating to contemplate.
Apr 05, 2013
Survey: Canadian CFOs Less Optimistic than American Peers In a stark contrast to previous quarters, Canadian CFOs’ optimism in first quarter 2013 was fairly modest compared to that of their U.S. counterparts. According to a new survey, Canadian CFOs’ net optimism recovered only slightly, going from -6 in Q4 2012 to +7 in Q1 2013, while U.S. CFOs' optimism went from -11 to +32.
Apr 04, 2013
April 2013 FP&A Newsletter This month’s lead article is a wrap-up of the Pacific Northwest FP&A Summit, an event co-sponsored by AFP and Microsoft and held at Microsoft’s Executive Meeting Center in Redmond, Washington. Over 40 FP&A professionals attended. Also this issue, read why learning VBA makes sense, the importance of mobility and FP&A, and more.
Apr 04, 2013
FP&A Professionals Convene at Summit Hosted by Microsoft Over 40 senior FP&A professionals gathered March 25 at Microsoft’s Executive Meeting Center for the Pacific Northwest FP&A Summit, an event co-sponsored by AFP and Microsoft. The large showing and overall message from the meeting was clear: FP&A executives are eager for opportunities to meet each other, connect, network and exchange best practices.
Apr 02, 2013
EconWatch: Consumer Spending Increases Consumers appear to have brushed off concerns about federal budget spending cuts, at least for now, if their spending behavior is any indication.
Apr 01, 2013
This Week in Corporate Finance: Guarded Optimism as Q2 Begins Welcome to the end of the first quarter and a hopeful beginning of a healthy and prosperous second quarter. While we continue to experience some headwinds coming out of Europe, the mood here is one of guarded optimism.
Apr 01, 2013
This Week in Corporate Finance: Cyprus Shake-Up We spent most of the week going back-and-forth as to whether Cyprus could be another Greece. The debt and equity markets rallied and fell depending on the latest news out of Nicosia. The general feeling at week’s end was that while this was probably not going to be a major disruption to the world financial markets.
Mar 25, 2013
EconWatch: FOMC Votes to Stay the Course The Federal Open Market Committee voted last week to stay the course with its aggressive accommodative policies even though it acknowledged a rebound in economic activity.
Mar 25, 2013
Treasury, Finance Executives Find Success at Nonprofits At nonprofits, personal fit is every bit as important as professional pedigree. Still, nonprofits may have different philosophical missions than corporations, but operations are no less dependent on sound fiscal policy.
Mar 22, 2013
Best Practices: Driver-Based Forecasting Current annual budgeting, in most companies, is a time-consuming task that lasts anywhere from six to nine months (or even more), and the budget is usually not accurate by the time the budgeted year begins. Forecasting is an ongoing core management process, not an annual event.
Mar 19, 2013
Bottom Line: Understanding Today's Consumer Among the risks that have the biggest impact on the ability of financial professionals to forecast corporate earnings, the AFP 2013 Risk Management Survey identified consumer behavior/satisfaction as being right near the top. The message is clear: even subtle changes in consumer preferences, fickle clients and changing tastes can dramatically affect your business.
Mar 19, 2013
AFP EconWatch: March 18, 2013 In this week's edition: manufacturing picked up some steam in February as output grew for the third time over the past four months.
Mar 18, 2013
Case Study: FP&A Group Switches to SaaS Like many organizations, the Doe Run Company recently installed software as a service (SaaS) to replace its spreadsheet-based planning and forecasting process. Most mid-sized business shy away from high-end enterprise planning solutions, but Doe Run reached a point where it had to switch to something else.
Mar 15, 2013
Case Study: Microsoft’s Treasury Mines Big Data and FP&A Data overload, or big data, can quickly turn from a blessing into a curse if you do not have the capability to mine it for useful information. This is where FP&A procedures and business intelligence data mining tools can come to the aid of a treasury team seeking useful information from the huge data volumes common in business today.
Mar 13, 2013
AFP EconWatch: March 11, 2013 For the third time over the past four months, non-farm payrolls grew by at least 200,000 workers. Data featured this week includes employment, factory orders, international trade and the Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business.
Mar 11, 2013

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