Financial planning and analysis is an increasingly valuable
skill in the finance profession. Chief financial officers, chief
executives and even boards rely on FP&A professionals to help
guide their organizations. Despite its popularity and growing
importance, the FP&A profession lacks a uniform set of
principles and standards of practice. As a result, FP&A
professionals and employers are grappling with undefined job
performance competencies and standards of practice, varied
organizational reporting structures and inconsistent
visibility.
To better define the skills needed for the FP&A profession,
the Association for Financial Professionals will introduce a
certification for FP&A professionals by the end of this year.
In the meantime, to better define the challenges the FP&A
profession faces, AFP and Kforce Finance & Accounting have
co-authored a white paper,
Financial Planning and Analysis: The Benefits of Certification for
FP&A Professionals.
"As we continue to receive great interest in our FP&A
certification, we are quite fairly being asked about the process
for determining the need and the scope of this certification," said
Brian Kalish, AFP's Director, Finance Practice Lead. "To address
this inquiry, we teamed-up with our partners at Kforce to explain
the genesis of the certification, to explain the research that went
into determining the scope of the certification, and the timeline
going forward."
Kalish has enjoyed extensive contact with the FP&A community over the
past few years, and founded a newsletter
for FP&A professionals. The monthly publication now boasts
over 10,000 subscribers in every state and over 110 countries. "As
I interact with the FP&A community both here and abroad, I
continue to be overwhelmed by the level of enthusiasm for the
certification and all of our efforts on the FP&A front," he
said. "The number of volunteers, the number of session proposals
for our Annual Conference, and the number of one-on-one meetings we
have scheduled continues to amaze."
David Gorbach, Senior Director of FP&A, PMI Mortgage
Insurance Co., likens the current state of FP&A to the old
apprenticeship system. "People get hired and learn a particular
skill for a particular company in a particular situation rather
than having a standardized approach," he said. "[The latter] would
allow them to follow a defined course of study and then use that to
get into FP&A and continue on in their career development."
Learn more about the FP&A certification process here.