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The Importance of FP&A In the Current Economic Environment: How Centri Can Help

The path for your company’s financial projections is uncertain even under the best economic conditions. With the current volatility surrounding the markets and tariffs impacting almost every business, it is challenging to anticipate all variables affecting cash flows. Recession fears have returned, and any coming interest rate reductions are uncertain. These factors all play a role in Financial Planning and Analysis. Engaging professionals to assist with this process can make it much more manageable.

Introduction

Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) is a crucial aspect of any business, providing insights into a company’s financial health and helping to shape its strategic direction. It involves budgeting, forecasting, and analyzing a company’s financial data to provide useful information for decision-making.

FP&A plays a pivotal role in a company’s success. It provides a clear view of the company’s financial status, enabling leaders to make informed decisions. It helps identify trends within KPIs, track performance against goals, and predict future outcomes. By doing so, strong FP&A helps companies stay competitive, profitable, and sustainable in the long run.

Cash flow forecasting, especially with 13-week and 26-week projections, is a key component of FP&A for businesses. It helps anticipate financial needs, manage liquidity, and ensure proper decision-making for sustained operations. The shorter timeframes allow for more accurate predictions, aiding in timely adjustments and risk mitigation.

FP&A has applications across many different use cases. The following examples are common areas where CFOs demand strong FP&A for successful business outcomes:

Capital Planning

Capital planning is a critical component of a company’s strategic planning process. It involves deciding how to allocate resources for future growth and profitability. It also involves an element of tracking progress while also tracking progress along the way.

How Centri can help

Centri can provide guidance by developing models that help businesses evaluate various capital structures, assess investment opportunities under different scenarios, and manage risk. Our team assists in creating a robust capital plan that aligns with the company’s strategic goals and financial capacity. Centri’s models also include budget vs. actual comparisons and a clear executive summary dashboard.

Corporate Development

Corporate development involves planning and executing strategies to achieve organizational objectives. This could include mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestitures/carve-outs, joint ventures, and other strategic partnerships.

How Centri can help

Centri plays a key role in this process. Our team offers valuable insights into market trends, identifies potential M&A targets, and develops financial models to evaluate acquisition targets. We assess accretion/ dilution impacts, estimate potential synergies, and provide guidance on pricing and deal structures. Centri’s expertise ensures that the corporate development activities align with the company’s strategy and maximize shareholder value.

Project Finance

Project finance is a long-term financing method commonly used for infrastructure and industrial projects. It focuses on the project’s cash flow for repayment, with the project’s assets serving as collateral. This approach often requires evaluating risk and return across multiple financial sponsors. Complex payment structures may be necessary when multiple parties are involved.

How Centri can help

Centri can offer significant support by developing models that will help structure financing arrangements, assess financial viability, and manage risks. Our models also calculate potential returns for all stakeholders involved.

Conclusion

FP&A is a critical component of a company’s long-term strategic planning and decision-making. Dynamic, flexible financial models help companies stay agile and proactive in response to changing market conditions, enabling informed, quantitative decisions that maintain competitive advantage. By partnering with Centri, either to be the outsourced solution or an extension of your existing team, you gain an outside, unbiased perspective. Contact us to learn how we can set your company up for success.

This article was originally published on November 30, 2023. It was updated on May 6, 2025.

Gerald Cullins

Partner | Valuation Practice Leader

Jerry is a Partner at Centri Business Consulting and the leader of the firm’s Valuation Practice. He has more than 22 years of valuation experience and has analyzed and valued companies for numerous purposes, participating in a wide variety of industries, including technology, life sciences, energy, retail, and manufacturing.. View Gerald Cullins's Full Bio

Mike Fazzolari

Director | MBA, FMVA, ABV

Mike is a Director at Centri Business Consulting. He has 16 years of professional experience, including valuation, investment banking, financial analysis, and project management, of which 10 years are related to valuation. View Mike Fazzolari's Full Bio