u/Few_Nobody_3078

What % of your FP&A team’s time is spent analyzing vs. preparing data?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Across several FP&A roles, I’ve noticed that a surprising amount of time isn’t spent on forecasting, business partnering, or decision support.

It’s spent on:

Exporting reports from multiple systems
Cleaning ERP extracts
Reconciling mismatched dimensions
Updating mapping tables
Fixing broken formulas
Chasing data owners
Rebuilding the same monthly files

By the time the data is finally ready, half the week is gone.
One of the biggest opportunities I see for FP&A over the next few years is automating the repetitive pieces of the process.

Things like:
Power Query for data preparation
Automated ERP extracts
Standardized mapping tables
API connections
Automated variance reporting
Exception-based reporting instead of manual reviews
The goal isn’t to eliminate FP&A.

The goal is to spend more time answering:
“What does this mean for the business?”
instead of:
“Why did this refresh fail?”
Curious what others are seeing.
What percentage of your team’s time is spent on data preparation versus actual analysis?

One thing I’ve noticed after building and managing 13-week cash flow forecasts across different companies is that the real value isn’t the forecast itself.

The value is the conversation.

A weekly cash forecast forces organizations to answer uncomfortable questions:

Are collections actually occurring when sales says they will?

Which vendors are mission-critical versus simply “always paid”?
How much runway do we truly have if revenue slows?

What decisions need to be made this week instead of next month?
What surprises me is how many companies still treat the process as a manual spreadsheet exercise.

Finance teams spend hours every week:
Exporting ERP reports
Cleaning data
Copying and pasting into Excel
Updating formulas
Chasing department owners for assumptions

Then repeat the entire process seven days later.

My view is that the future of FP&A isn’t building more complex models.
It’s automating the repetitive work so finance can focus on decision-making.

Imagine a process where:
ERP data refreshes automatically.
AP/AR aging updates automatically.
Actuals roll into the forecast automatically.
Variances are highlighted automatically.

The CFO only reviews exceptions and decisions.
The finance team’s time should be spent answering “What should we do?” rather than “Why is the VLOOKUP broken?”

Curious how others are approaching this.
How much of your 13-week cash flow process is automated today?