FP&A Stories - 🎯 The box where your 1k variance belongs
Hello Reader 👋Last week I was in Switzerland for Holcim, and I came back really happy with the training. The participants were motivated, the organisation was great, and I ended the day eating a fondue with some friends, which is probably the best way to close a workshop. One thing stayed with me from the presentations, though. There was a lot of information and almost every number got mentioned, when maybe two or three of them really needed to be discussed in the meeting. Selecting is hard because leaving something out feels like hiding it for finance peeps. That’s why this week I want to talk about the prioritisation matrix I use with finance teams to decide what makes it into the meeting and what stays out. So take a coffee, sit down and read FP&A Stories just like 16k other readers 🎯 How to choose what goes in your monthly presentationWhy leaving things out feels so riskyIn finance, completeness feels like quality. We were trained to explain every euro of the variance, so when a number doesn’t make it into the presentation, it feels like we’re hiding something from management. I suspect this comes from our accounting education where debit must equal credit 😁 I saw where this leads when I arrived in a Head of FP&A position during my freelance years. A 1k variance took exactly the same space on the page as a 350k one, and when everything gets the same space, your audience has to do the selection themselves. Two axes, four boxesThe tool I use has two axes. Impact is how much a finding changes the result or a decision, and control is whether the people in the room can actually act on it. That gives you four boxes: 1️⃣ Strategic priority is high impact and high control, so it becomes your message, because it’s where your audience can decide something. 2️⃣ Risk mitigation is high impact with low control. They need to know about it, so you come with the mitigation. 3️⃣ Delegate or monitor is low impact and within their control, which means the teams handle it and one line is enough. 4️⃣ Ignore is low impact and low control, and it simply stays out of the meeting, like that 1k currency effect. The video walks through a real example for each box, shows how to present your strategic priorities from the business side, and covers what to do when someone asks about a point you left out. I also tell you the first thing I changed when I arrived in that Head of FP&A position. ▶️ Watch the video: click here Final Thought After the fondue, I kept thinking about those presentations. The participants had done the full analysis and knew their numbers very well, which is probably exactly why they wanted to show all of it. Selecting is the moment where your analysis turns into an opinion, and that feels uncomfortable because an opinion can be challenged. Your management team invited you to the meeting for that opinion, and the full analysis stays in the appendix for anyone who wants to dig. Think of the last number you kept in a presentation only because you were afraid someone would ask about it. Did anyone ask? Hit reply and tell me. I read every message and reply to all of them. That's a wrap for this week See you next week! P.S. After 17 years in FP&A, Consulting and Leadership, I’ve coached and trained finance teams across industries, from consulting and manufacturing to tech, media, and global logistics. If you want to sharpen your own storytelling skills or bring this work into your team, here are a 3 ways can work together:
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