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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) Analyst

💰 $70,000 - $120,000

FinanceFP&AAccountingAnalytics

🎯 Role Definition

The Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) Analyst is a strategic finance professional responsible for building robust financial models, producing timely management reporting, enabling data-driven decision making and partnering with business leaders to drive profitability, efficiency, and growth. This role combines advanced quantitative skills, strong commercial insight, and excellent communication to translate financial data into clear strategic recommendations.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Financial Analyst or Financial Reporting Analyst
  • Staff Accountant or General Ledger Accountant
  • Business Analyst, Commercial Analyst or Data Analyst

Advancement To:

  • Senior FP&A Analyst
  • FP&A Manager / Finance Manager
  • Director of FP&A or Head of Financial Planning
  • VP Finance or Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Corporate Strategy or Strategic Finance
  • Treasury or Corporate Development (M&A)
  • Accounting / Financial Reporting
  • Business Operations / Product Finance

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the development, maintenance and continuous improvement of monthly, quarterly and annual financial forecasts and budgets — build assumptions, update drivers, reconcile variances, and communicate changes to senior leadership to support rolling forecasts and strategic planning cycles.
  • Design, build and validate complex financial models (including revenue drivers, expense curves, scenario analysis, DCF/NPV, unit economics and sensitivity testing) to evaluate new initiatives, pricing strategies, capital requests and strategic investments.
  • Prepare and deliver clear, executive-ready management reporting packages and dashboards for the C-suite and business unit leaders, including P&L, balance sheet, cash flow reconciliations, KPI tracking and detailed variance explanations vs. budget and forecast.
  • Drive detailed variance analysis on revenue, gross margin, operating expenses and headcount — quantify root causes, identify trends, propose corrective actions and track the impact of management decisions.
  • Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Product, HR and Operations to translate business plans into financial outcomes, provide monthly business reviews, and enable fact-based decision making across the organization.
  • Manage monthly close and reporting activities for FP&A deliverables, ensuring timely consolidation of actuals, alignment with accounting records, and reconciliation of differences between GAAP results and internal performance measures.
  • Own the short- and long-term cash flow forecasting process, optimize working capital assumptions, model funding scenarios and provide cadence reports to treasury and senior finance leaders.
  • Support strategic planning and annual budgeting processes by facilitating budget submissions, reviewing departmental plans, challenging assumptions, and consolidating a comprehensive corporate budget aligned with company objectives.
  • Build and maintain scalable reporting solutions and self-service dashboards using BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to automate repetitive reporting, reduce manual effort and increase the speed of insights to stakeholders.
  • Lead scenario and sensitivity analyses for business planning, including best/worst/base case modeling, break-even analysis and what-if comparisons to quantify downside risk and upside opportunity.
  • Provide financial analysis and due diligence support for M&A, partnerships, and strategic investments — modeling synergies, integrating target financials, and producing transaction-level P&L and cash flow projections.
  • Conduct pricing analyses, margin optimization studies and product profitability assessments to identify improvement opportunities, inform pricing strategies and enhance gross profit contribution by segment or SKU.
  • Develop and maintain driver-based forecast models that align operational metrics (e.g., bookings, churn, ARPU, utilization) with financial outcomes to improve forecast accuracy and traceability.
  • Own headcount planning and labor cost modeling — incorporate hiring plans, salary bands, benefits, and contractor usage into long-range cost forecasts and scenario plans.
  • Drive month-end management reporting and board materials preparation including narrative commentary, actionable insights, and visualization of key financial metrics for board and investor updates.
  • Implement process improvements and automation initiatives (VBA, Python, SQL) to streamline data consolidation, reduce cycle time, and improve the integrity of financial outputs.
  • Ensure alignment between FP&A outputs and accounting GAAP/IFRS standards where necessary; coordinate with accounting for variance reconciliation and audit support.
  • Establish, monitor and refine financial KPIs and dashboards to measure performance against strategic objectives, and partner with business owners to set targets and remedial actions.
  • Execute ad-hoc financial and commercial analyses requested by senior leadership — from product launch economics to campaign ROI assessments — delivering timely, data-backed recommendations.
  • Mentor and coach junior analysts, enforce best practices in modeling and reporting standards, and contribute to building an FP&A center of excellence in methods, documentation and tooling.
  • Manage the integration and enhancement of FP&A systems (Anaplan, Adaptive Insights, Hyperion, or native ERP planning modules) to support improved planning cycles and scenario management.
  • Lead cross-functional reviews during forecasting and budgeting windows, reconcile differing assumptions, and drive consensus to finalize corporate financial plans and targets.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory financial analysis for adoptions such as pricing pilots, channel tests, and promotional campaigns.
  • Contribute to the organization’s financial systems roadmap and participate in selection, configuration and testing of FP&A tools and ERP modules.
  • Collaborate with IT and Data Engineering teams to ensure data governance, consistent master data definitions and reliable sources of truth for finance reporting.
  • Provide training and documentation for business stakeholders on how to interpret FP&A reports and self-service dashboards.
  • Participate in cross-functional project teams (ERP implementations, cost transformation, subscription billing changes) to provide financial perspective and ensure project financials align to corporate plans.
  • Support internal and external audit processes by providing timely schedules, reconciliations and commentary for FP&A-focused inquiries.
  • Assist in the creation of investor relations materials and support fundraising or investor due diligence processes as required.
  • Maintain an up-to-date library of financial models, templates and scenario playbooks for rapid reuse across the finance organization.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced financial modeling: driver-based forecasting, DCF, scenario & sensitivity analyses, unit economics and NPV calculations.
  • Budgeting & forecasting software: hands-on experience with Anaplan, Adaptive Insights, Hyperion, Planful or similar FP&A platforms.
  • Advanced Excel expertise: pivot tables, advanced formulas, Power Query, Power Pivot, VBA/macros for automation.
  • Business Intelligence & dashboarding: Power BI, Tableau, Looker or Qlik — design interactive dashboards and KPIs for executives.
  • SQL and data queries: extract, transform and validate data from data warehouses; write complex joins, aggregations and window functions.
  • ERP familiarity: exposure to NetSuite, Oracle EBS/Cloud, SAP or other general ledger systems and chart-of-accounts structures.
  • Accounting fundamentals: GAAP/IFRS concepts, basic journal entries, month-end close flows and reconciliations.
  • Cash flow modeling & working capital optimization techniques.
  • Familiarity with Python or R for automation, statistical analysis or time-series forecasting (preferred).
  • Experience with consolidation and reporting processes, intercompany eliminations and multi-entity financials.
  • Scenario planning and strategic financial planning methodologies.
  • Data visualization best practices and storytelling with numbers.

Soft Skills

  • Strong business partnering and stakeholder management — influence cross-functional leaders and synthesize competing priorities into aligned financial plans.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication — craft executive summaries, board decks and present financial narratives to non-finance audiences.
  • Analytical and critical thinking — break down complex problems, identify root causes and propose practical recommendations.
  • Attention to detail and high level of accuracy in financial deliverables and model assumptions.
  • Project management — manage multiple deadlines, lead planning cycles and coordinate cross-functional inputs.
  • Adaptability and continuous improvement mindset — drive automation, standardization and simplification.
  • Leadership and mentoring — train junior staff and elevate team capabilities.
  • Commercial acumen — understand go-to-market mechanics, pricing levers and revenue recognition impacts.
  • Time management and prioritization under tight month-end and quarterly close pressures.
  • Confidentiality and integrity when handling sensitive financial and strategic information.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree, MBA, or professional designation (CPA, CFA) preferred for senior roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Economics
  • Business Administration
  • Data Analytics / Applied Mathematics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years in FP&A, financial analysis, corporate finance, or related roles.

Preferred: 3–7 years with demonstrated ownership of budgeting/forecasting cycles, financial modeling, cross-functional partnership, and experience with FP&A tooling (Anaplan, Adaptive, Power BI/Tableau). Industry-specific experience (SaaS, e-commerce, manufacturing, healthcare) is often desirable depending on the hiring organization.

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