Intelligent Financial Planning with Board

00:00:00Change is happening faster than ever.

00:00:02It's no wonder finance team leaders find themselves in positions of ever-

00:00:05increasing responsibility,

00:00:07pressured to drive more value and efficiency in a high stakes business

00:00:11environment.

00:00:12Financial planning and analysis leaders play a crucial role in determining and

00:00:16driving financial health and resilience by performing, budgeting, forecasting,

00:00:20and analysis to support faster, smarter business decisions.

00:00:25Despite these increased expectations,

00:00:27too many FP&A teams still rely on outdated tools and manual processes,

00:00:32spending more time in spreadsheets and less time leading proactive planning

00:00:36decisions.

00:00:37There's a better way, introducing Intelligent Financial Planning only from Board.

00:00:43In this demo,

00:00:44we'll show you how today's and tomorrow's FP&A leaders can reposition their

00:00:48business for agility, efficiency, and sustainable growth. Let's get started.

00:00:53Our FP&A application's home screen gives me access to every part of my

00:00:57financial planning process,

00:00:59from multi-year strategic planning to monthly forecasting and reporting.

00:01:03It also enables me to synchronize financial planning with enterprise-wide

00:01:07operational planning processes to drive better financial outcomes.

00:01:11Strategic planning starts with the definition of a baseline for the financial

00:01:14performance of my business in the coming years.

00:01:17It can be configured without coding to define the desired drivers as well as the

00:01:21time range.

00:01:32Next,

00:01:33we'll create strategic goals and initiatives aligned to the timeframe of the

00:01:37strategic plans. These can be conveniently visualized on a Gantt chart.

00:01:42Board natively supports the creation of multiple scenarios that can be fine

00:01:45tuned and compared with what-if analysis capabilities.

00:01:48This allows me to explore multiple options and assumptions for the strategic

00:01:52plan. Once a scenario has been chosen,

00:01:55I can use it to seed my yearly budget with cascading targets for revenue and

00:01:59profitability.

00:02:00Let's take a look at revenue planning. Board can support multiple models offering

00:02:04flexibility for different industries and types of business. In this example,

00:02:08I can see the 669 million target inherited from strategic planning and the

00:02:13variance. With my current budget,

00:02:16I can use different drivers to precede my budget. For example,

00:02:19previous year default percentage growth, as well as predictive models.

00:02:23Using the quick layout mode, I can also change the view of my budget.

00:02:27For example, I might want to move from a regional view to a product view.

00:02:34Now,

00:02:35let's leverage the latest AI and ML algorithms to generate a predictive plan for

00:02:39a demand volume that is based on historical data as well as external drivers.

00:02:43That might impact my budget, like promotion, weather forecasts,

00:02:46or holiday calendars.

00:02:50Once I'm happy with the budget of demand,

00:02:52I can complete the revenue plan by fine tuning the profitability of my product

00:02:56families, modeling the cost of goods sold with a standard costing approach.

00:03:00The entire planning process is governed by an approval workflow.

00:03:04As a sales manager, I can submit my revenue plan for approval.

00:03:13As an approver, I can easily approve, reject,

00:03:16and even comment to request specific revisions.

00:03:22The submission status of a budget or a forecast can be monitored in real time.

00:03:26From the workflow monitor, it covers all the main FP&A areas,

00:03:30from revenue planning to headcount planning,

00:03:32OpEx capital planning and allocation.

00:03:36When it comes to revenue planning,

00:03:37I can clearly see three sales managers' plans have been submitted for approval.

00:03:42One has been approved, one has been rejected,

00:03:44while the third one is still pending approval. Next up,

00:03:48let's do some OpEx Planning. Board allows me to quickly initiate my OpEx budget

00:03:52by using different drivers.

00:03:54The budget baseline for each department can be reviewed at a glance in the main

00:03:57view. Specific accounts can be locked for data entry,

00:04:02and this means their budget is estimated through a driver-based approach.

00:04:15Telephone costs, for example,

00:04:16are estimated at standard cost per FTE multiplied by the monthly FTE,

00:04:25similarly to what we have seen for revenue planning.

00:04:27OpEx budget is also subject to a review and approval process.

00:04:31This screen allows budget owners to submit the OpEx budget for specific

00:04:34departments. Approvers can then field those requests, add comments,

00:04:38and even attachments.

00:04:41After going through some of the main income statement areas,

00:04:44it's now time to look at the creation of a balance sheet statement.

00:04:47In this screen,

00:04:48I can control my main balance sheet drivers and formulate assumptions around

00:04:52available cash,

00:04:53ROI, and payment terms to simulate different types of financial impacts.

00:04:58In this example,

00:04:58we are simulating a longer account receivables collection over the first period

00:05:02of the budget.

00:05:04The impacts of these changes are visible in real time in my full balance sheet

00:05:07and cash cashflow statement.

00:05:17Finally,

00:05:18let's look at re-forecasting and how we can rapidly generate rolling forecasts

00:05:22and scenario plans. In this screen,

00:05:25I can seamlessly manage multiple versions of my forecast and seed them using my

00:05:29budget or previous forecast version to instantly establish a baseline.

00:05:33I can then make assumptions and change accounts to model my forecast.

00:05:39I can also create multiple scenarios for each version of my forecast to stress

00:05:43test operational and financial drivers, modeling their impacts in real time.

00:05:47In this instance, I'm simulating an additional scenario for my forecast

00:05:50with increased DSO and reduced APO.

00:05:54This immediately recalculates my income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow.

00:05:58Comparing the new scenario against my baseline,

00:06:01I can definitely see tangible impacts on profitability and liquidity.

00:06:10Now that's Intelligent Financial Planning. Only from Board.

00:06:13Learn more www.board.com and request your personalized

00:06:19FP&A demo today.