Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Capital Planning Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Capital Planning Manager owns the company’s capital planning and CAPEX governance processes, delivering long-range capital budgets, near-term capital forecasts, investment prioritization, and financial analysis to support strategic investment decisions. This role partners with FP&A, Accounting, Project Management, Operations, Procurement and Executive Leadership to optimize capital allocation, ensure compliance with accounting and control policies, and provide actionable insights that maximize return on invested capital.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Financial Analyst – Capital / FP&A
Capital Budget Analyst / CAPEX Analyst
Project Controls or Project Finance Analyst

Advancement To:

Director, Capital Planning or Director, Corporate FP&A
Head of Enterprise Planning & Analysis
VP of Finance / CFO (for larger companies)

Lateral Moves:

Treasury Manager
Asset Management or Fixed Asset Accounting Lead
Project Controls / Capital Programs Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead the annual capital planning process end‑to‑end: solicit and consolidate requests, evaluate business cases, model multi-year funding needs, and produce the approved CAPEX budget aligned to strategic priorities.
Build and maintain a dynamic 3–10 year capital plan (long-range plan) and rolling 12–24 month forecast, incorporating scenario modeling, risk analysis, and contingency assumptions to support executive decision making.
Evaluate capital requests using standardized business case templates; perform ROI, NPV, IRR, payback, and cost‑benefit analyses to quantify value and prioritize investments.
Develop detailed capital expenditure (CAPEX) forecasting models and cash flow projections that feed corporate liquidity and financing plans.
Implement and manage capital governance frameworks and approval workflows (capital committees), ensuring consistent capital request intake, prioritization, and board/executive reporting.
Partner with Accounting and Tax to ensure capitalization criteria, depreciation policies, tax treatment and fixed asset tagging meet GAAP and regulatory requirements.
Maintain the capital tracking and reporting cadence: monthly CAPEX vs. budget analysis, variance explanation, forecasts-to-actuals reconciliation and executive-level dashboards.
Work with Project Management and PMO to track project budgets, change orders, milestone spend profiles, slippage, and reforecast impacts on the capital plan.
Own capital master data and fixed asset roll-forward in ERP systems (SAP, Oracle EBS, Workday Financials), ensuring accurate coding, capital project assignments and audit readiness.
Lead cash flow management for capital programs, sequencing spend to maximize working capital and financing efficiency across business units.
Design and maintain capital planning tools and templates (Excel models, Anaplan, Hyperion, Adaptive Insights), drive automation and data integrations to reduce manual effort.
Provide sensitivity and scenario analysis (uptick/downtick, inflation, supply chain delays) to quantify impacts on CAPEX and operating budgets for stakeholder decisions.
Prepare and present clear, compelling capital investment presentations to senior leadership and the capital approval committee, translating technical analysis into business impact.
Establish and monitor internal controls, SOX controls and segregation of duties related to capital approvals, project spend, and fixed asset accounting.
Support internal and external audit requests for capital projects, providing reconciliations, schedules and supporting documentation for capitalization and spend approvals.
Coordinate with Procurement and Legal on major capital contracts, vendor selection, milestone payments and contract terms that affect capital spend and financial commitments.
Drive continuous improvement of capital processes: streamline intake, improve prioritization criteria, and adopt best practices in capital allocation and portfolio management.
Mentor and develop junior capital analysts; establish clear playbooks, training materials and operating procedures for capital planning activities.
Reconcile monthly capital actuals to project budgets and general ledger, identify and explain significant variances and recommend corrective actions.
Integrate capital planning with strategic planning and M&A diligence: assess impacts of acquisitions/divestitures on the capital plan, integration capex and lifecycle replacement needs.
Monitor and report on asset health and lifecycle data to prioritize replacement vs. repair decisions, aligning technical asset management inputs with financial planning.
Maintain compliance with industry‑specific capital regulations (e.g., regulated utilities, healthcare, telecom) and incorporate regulatory funding constraints into planning.
Coordinate cross-functional capital prioritization workshops and facilitate trade-off discussions between operating needs, regulatory requirements and financial limits.
Drive adoption of KPIs and dashboards (CAPEX burn rate, forecast accuracy, project ROI, slippage) and provide actionable insights that improve capital discipline.

Secondary Functions

Support ad‑hoc financial modeling and “what‑if” scenarios requested by business leaders and the CFO’s office.
Assist FP&A with integrating capital forecasts into P&L, balance sheet and cash flow projections for monthly close and board reporting.
Contribute to the capital planning roadmap by evaluating new planning tools, data sources (IoT/asset telemetry) and process automation opportunities.
Collaborate with business units to translate operational asset replacement plans and capacity expansion needs into financial requirements and timelines.
Participate in cross-functional project steering committees to ensure financial governance and alignment to approved capital spending profiles.
Provide training and guidance to operating managers on how to build business cases and navigate the capital request and approval process.
Help support capital tax credit and grants claim processes by preparing supporting documentation for capital expenditures.
Maintain documentation of capital policies, thresholds, exceptions and approval authorities, and support updates to corporate policy manuals.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Capital budgeting & long‑range capital planning expertise (multi‑year CAPEX planning)
Advanced financial modeling: NPV, IRR, payback, scenario and sensitivity analysis
Forecasting, cash flow modeling and CAPEX cash management
Fixed asset accounting and GAAP capitalization/ depreciation knowledge
Experience with ERP and financial consolidation systems: SAP, Oracle EBS, NetSuite, Workday Financials
Familiarity with planning tools: Anaplan, Hyperion, Adaptive Insights, Planful or equivalent
Excel (advanced formulas, Power Query, macros), SQL basics for data extraction
Dashboarding and visualization: Power BI, Tableau or similar
Strong month-end close and reconciliation discipline for capital spend and ledger integration
Knowledge of internal controls, SOX compliance and audit-ready documentation practices
Project finance and project controls integration (budget vs. actual tracking, change control)
Tax and regulatory understanding related to capital spend (depreciation methods, tax credits)

Soft Skills

Executive-level communication and presentation skills; able to translate complex analysis into clear recommendations
Cross-functional stakeholder management and facilitation of prioritization decisions
Strategic thinker with strong commercial judgment and ability to align capital to business strategy
Detail-oriented with strong organizational skills and drive for process improvement
Influential leader and team developer — coaches analysts and drives adoption of best practices
Problem-solver, proactive, able to manage ambiguity and competing priorities
Negotiation and vendor engagement skills for capital contracts and procurement coordination
High integrity and strong compliance mindset — enforces controls and audit readiness
Resilient and adaptable — manages shifting priorities in capital programs and economic cycles
Collaborative mindset and ability to build partnerships across Finance, Operations, IT and Legal

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related quantitative discipline.

Preferred Education:

MBA, Master’s in Finance, or relevant professional designation (CPA, CFA) is preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Finance
Accounting
Engineering (Industrial, Civil, Electrical for asset-heavy industries)
Business Administration
Economics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5–10 years of progressive experience in capital planning, FP&A, corporate finance, project finance, or fixed asset accounting.

Preferred:

7+ years of direct capital planning, capital budgeting and CAPEX governance experience, preferably in large or asset-heavy organizations (manufacturing, utilities, healthcare, telecom).
Proven experience implementing capital planning tools (Anaplan, Hyperion) and working with ERP systems (SAP/Oracle).
Track record of presenting to senior leadership and managing cross-functional capital approval committees.
Experience with SOX controls, internal/external audit support and maintaining audit-ready fixed asset records.