Please keep all your "How do I break into FP&A" questions here.

Hey everyone!

So i want to go into fp&a but my role is credit analyst / credit underwriting. I am in my early careers and i want to know if that is doable and what are the transferable skills from being a credit analyst to fp&a?

Thank you!

Hi all,

I don’t quite know what to do. I’m close to quitting my job. I am relatively new to this org and was thrown into the fire upon joining. My hiring manager quit within my first month. My new manager is super hands off and I’m putting out fires with my team constantly. Had virtually no onboarding and am managing things that weren’t clearly explained in interviews. I’ve had a direct leave and trying to piece things together.

I’ve started seeing a therapist and taking some anti anxiety medication. This job is just not the right fit for me. I have a few irons in the fire for next opportunities but they may or may not happen and wouldn’t be until next year. I have one interview coming up but I don’t know how I will do.

I’m super stressed as we’re starting the budget process now and I don’t know what I don’t know. Ugh

I’m expecting an offer from a PE-backed external company. It would be a 20% bump. I am concerned about the WLB at PE-backed companies based on what I’ve read here.

Does anyone have experience leveraging an external offer solely for a compensation increase? How bad of an idea is it?

For instance, Engineering wants $5M over 3 months to build Projects X and Y.  Do you presume that 100% goes to X and Y?  Do you account for the overhead of unplanned work?

I realize that IBM Planning Analytics is a legacy tool but I'm curious if its sort of like Oracle EPM in that there are still a lot of orgs using it or has it faded hard?

I'm curious if its relevant in the current FP&A landscape.

Hi, do we have people working in Dubai here? How much are you guys making and YOE? I have 4YOE (2 in FP&A) making 18k AED

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance as I plan a career shift from audit to financial analysis. I’ve got over 7 years of audit experience working at firms like KPMG and a mid-sized regional firm, with exposure to a variety of industries (Not-for-Profit, Tech, Healthcare, and more). While I’m confident in my analytical skills and understanding of financial reporting standards, I know that making this switch requires a different skill set, especially in financial modeling and analysis.

1. Getting Interviews:

I’ve been applying for financial analyst roles, but I feel like my resume is getting overlooked because of my audit-heavy background. Any tips on how to showcase my transferable skills and land more interviews?

2. Practicing Financial Modeling:

I have a decent understanding of Excel but haven’t had much hands-on experience with financial modeling. What’s the best way to get practical experience in this area? Are there any specific resources, templates, or exercises that you’d recommend?

3. Other Skills to Focus On:

Beyond financial modeling, what other skills should I develop to be competitive in financial analysis roles? Are there any tools or software (like Power BI, Tableau, etc.) that are essential?

Thanks in advance for any advice or resources!

Did you rotate into a new role at your company, get promoted, get an external role with a cold application, get recruited or referred to a company? Etc.

I'm working on an Excel file - it has dates on it.

I'm trying to copy one formatted cell and paste it onto an adjacent formatted cell but I can't because every time I try to click the adjacent cell, Excel pops up the SUPER HELPFUL dialog box that says "Create Event?"

Office has become like your dog when you come home from vacation for a week and it's just jumping all over you and you're trying to walk from the kitchen to the living room and the dog is literally underfoot for every single step.

Get out of the way!

Sigh - thank you for listening to my rant :)

A while back I posted that I was building an Excel addin to trace precedents of formulas, but it wasn't yet ready for use.

I received overwhelming positive feedback from r/FPandA , and so after making it ready, now it's live and free to use!

I called the tool Tracy, since it's to trace formula faster than "trace precedents".

I hope it can help the FP&A community navigate complex models faster.

https://tracy.getmodulate.com

Happy Tracying!

https://i.redd.it/kfibnwisx3yd1.gif

Causal just announced they've been acquired by Lucanet

source: https://www.causal.app/blog/causal-joins-the-lucanet-group

I think this is interesting as many people see Causal as a challenger with room to grow into an upmarket offering.

Does anyone have any experience working with a tool that got acquired? Did you find the service or product stopped innovating or got worse? I spoke to some SMB users of Finmark that said the rate of new features plummeted after they were acquired by Bill.com. Curious to see what happens!

I’m in the middle of implementing netsuite and was wanting to see what excel add-ins people were using to pullout data in this channel. Eventually we’ll get a more formal FP&A software but I chose to add another body and an add-in this next year instead. I’ve done internet searches and talked to our 3rd party implementation team and neither are giving me much.

Hey everyone, I am researching my next Insights Paper for FP&A Trends Group, and would love to get your inputs. The title is still in a state of flux, but it will be something around the more innovative methods currently being used. Please do share any examples that you have seen.

PS - my last paper was called 'Mastering Data in FP&A', and has now been published on Board's website. Happy to share the link.

Hello all! I have received a pretty solid return offer as a Financial Analyst in a F50 company after interning. That being said I am an accounting major and was thinking of going to get my Masters in Accounting. I would need the masters for the 150 hour requirement to start the exam. Is kicking the offer down the road the best career choice?

Does anyone know of or have any information on a DOD Skillbridge program in the FP&A field? It is a program within the DOD that allows service members to intern with companies for the last 6 months of their contract. Companies must be approved to participate. There is an official website to search companies but I haven’t come across anything FP&A related but the website isn’t the best.

Just curious if anyone in here has either participated in this program or knows of their company offering something of the sorts.

Currently looking to get into the field but just not having much luck finding a good avenue in besides just leaving the military cold turkey. I don’t like not having a good game plan. Currently working an Business Admin degree and will finish next summer.

Hello. I am looking for some recommendations on financial software for forecasting. I'm looking for basic: the three financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement), as well as demand planning and labor planning. I work at a mid sized retail company with online and physical stores. Any help is very much appreciated, the google search results were overwhelming!

I've been reading Robert Half's Salary Guide for 2025 and wondering if it is accurate or on the high side. For my city, Denver, it says $100K-$135K for a SFA depending on experience. However, on Linkedin, I see most SFA roles listed have ranges that are between $90K and $115K mostly. Can anyone in Denver or a similar city comment to the accuracy of the Robert Half Salary Guide? I'm trying to gauge what my expectations should be for my next raise, as I have 6 YOE, am a high performer with possible promotion this year to FP&A Manager (no directs), and am still on the lower end of the Robert Half scale. My company is smaller (100 Employees), so I wouldn't expect the top of the range, but do feel I might be below market.

Hi all,

My company (Series E, ~$50-200M Revenue, Medium complex business) is evaluating FP&A tools and we've narrowed it down to one (Workday Adaptive). I've never done an implementation before and I'm trying to understand if its common to ask implementation consultants to do a proof of concept first? We are looking at 3 Implementation providers; Kainos, Capitalize, and Qbix.

Has anyone done this before while evaluating implementation consultants? What does this involve?

Do we come up with the final output we are looking for and they propose the timeline? What is the time/money investment?

If anyone has any advice on how to evaluate implementation consultants that would be helpful too!

Thanks!

So, I’m a FA with around a little over 2.5 years of experience at a F500 company. I did plenty of different interviews but now have received two different offers (both have same salary):

Offer 1: FA position in Supply Chain/Logistics at another F500 company

Offer 2: SFA position at a not for profit that provides services

Am just wondering what to do as the salary for both are the exact same but I feel like the experience in supply chain will be much more transferable and the work will be easier to leverage in interviews for future roles. However, on the other side they are offering a senior financial analyst title which would benefit me as well (even though the work I do there may be harder to leverage moving forwards).

Looking for advice on which offer I should take. Thanks.

I’m trying to meet new people at work. Mostly finance but also from other non finance functions. Is it okay to just send a meeting invite saying hey let’s connect over lunch, I’m new and would love to connect?

Both my manager and director have indicated that I’m ready to go from FA -> SFA during our next merit cycle. Personally, I think they may just be saying that cause we’ve had lots of turnover and they don’t want me to leave.

But let’s just say it does happen. What kind of % increase should I expect? I have 2 YOE and the company is in the manufacturing sector. I work in a HCOL area but corporate (where my bosses work) is in a MCOL area.

These three areas critical for an FP&A professional to succeed in the role. For those who faced challenges how did you get better?

I recently accepted a financial analyst offer from another company. A day after I informed my manager of my planned departure, he called me in for a meeting and after inquiring about the compensation offered by the other company, he offered to match it.

I'm generally indifferent between the two companies. My only reason for leaving was pay.

My sense is that I should still leave anyways. I've read that once a company finds out you're exploring other opportunities, they'll never treat you the same again.

Thoughts from anyone who's been in a similar position?

Pretty stuck currently when deciding between options for an internship next summer. I can return to the F50 ag/manufacturing company I am at now as a Financial Analyst intern, or I can go to a F100 tech/manufacturing company as an intern in their FLDP program. The pay is .50 less for the FLDP, outside of that not sure which way to lean. What is the best choice for setting up future success?

Hi all, me (30f) looking for FPnA or finance analyst roles. I have 6 years of professional experience and am highly skilled in excel/data visualization. Could someone please suggest how to find open roles in finance domain apart from regular job portals. I’m recently laid off and need to find a job ASAP.

For the purposes of CPA PERT in Canada, is cash crunch after cash crunch the worst way to achieve Level 2 in the technical competency FN2?

What could be worse than this?

Consider FN2 itself.

Evaluate the entity’s cash flow and working capital. Make recommendations on the entity's cash flow. Make recommendations on the entity's working capital, also.

Plus any of:

Evaluate the entity’s investment portfolio. Make recommendations here.

Or Evaluate decisions related to distribution of profits. Make recommendations here.

Or Evaluate the entity’s cost of capital. Make recommendations here.

Or Evaluate sources of financing and decisions affecting capital structure. Make recommendations here.

[The various OR clauses have been re-arranged for the purposes of this opinion post.]

The first three clauses are irrelevant during a cash crunch. A cash crunch is when you have to decide whether to pay a vendor - to make a payment to a supplier - or to ensure employees are paid ("make payroll").

During an extended cash crunch, you make your vendors themselves a source of financing by not paying them and extending the accounts payable turnover ratio.

I remember all the cheque / check run stress than an old boss of mine had during the Great Recession and its aftermath. While she did her job as the controller, I remember all the discussions about not paying certain vendors.

As a result, I was scared away from cash management altogether.

Looking for some resources to investigate the possibilities of moving our excel based modelling into a more automated/streamlined dataflow model. Any stories, best resources, how you do it examples of how you have gone from copy paste excel modeling into utilising the M365 environment for your financial models.

Looking for online resources, how to's. I'm in the FP&A manager space taking the modeling off the CFO plate, but want to be able to scale this effectively.

I recently had a performance review with the VP of Finance and my manager. I'm currently a Senior Financial Analyst approaching my second year with the company. The workplace culture emphasizes a "get it done" mindset, with a strong focus on self-sufficiency.

Typically, I’m expected to navigate projects independently, locating resources like file paths without much initial guidance. Asking questions, especially those perceived as obvious, can be met with frustration from my manager.

While I don’t need constant oversight or hand-holding, I would appreciate more timely and constructive feedback rather than waiting months, which often creates a tense environment during reviews.

For clarity, I'm not on a performance review improvement plan.

Should I be searching for a new job or try to improve here?