Optimizing Financial Planning and Analysis Processes

A major Canadian bank was seeking to improve the efficiency of its Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) function across multiple departments. Fragmented processes, inconsistent reporting standards, and a lack of centralized visibility into team efforts made it challenging to assess where automation could add the most value.

We were brought in to lead the discovery phase of this transformation initiative. Our role was to provide a clear picture of the current FP&A landscape, including who was involved, how much time was spent on which activities, and where redundancies or inefficiencies existed.

We began by mapping the end-to-end FP&A processes, identifying all teams involved and the specific reporting responsibilities of each. We created a centralized repository of all recurring reports and designed a custom form to capture key data points—such as the time investment required for each report and the frequency of updates. This allowed us to assess the actual resource load tied to FP&A activities.

Based on the insights gathered, we identified key inefficiencies and recommended automation solutions to improve efficiency and reduce manual workload. These included automating data pulls from financial systems, implementing centralized dashboards to streamline reporting, and using workflow automation tools to coordinate recurring planning and forecasting cycles across teams.