5 Actions your FP&A Team Should Take Now

With that behind you, now is the perfect time to step back and evaluate your solutions, models, and processes. Are they equipped to handle the demands of the coming year? Taking stock now allows you to identify areas for improvement and ensure your FP&A team is ready to capitalize on opportunities while navigating any challenges that lie ahead. At Kainos, we’ve partnered with more than 1000 FP&A teams to help them optimize financial processes and performance. As the year begins, we recommend prioritizing the following key areas for improvement. 

Refresh your models 

Your FP&A team should regularly update your financial models to keep pace with the evolving needs of the business, especially if your planning system was implemented years ago. Outdated models can result in inaccurate forecasts, misaligned budgets, and misguided decision-making. To address this, your team should conduct a thorough review of existing models to identify gaps or assumptions that no longer reflect business realities, such as changes to your chart of accounts, revenue streams, cost structures, or other business dynamics. Coming out of budgeting season, you likely have a clear sense of which models are due for a refresh. Collaboration with stakeholders across departments is essential to ensure the models address all your functional needs. By re-aligning financial models with the organization’s current and future goals, your team can deliver more accurate insights and better guidance. If your team relies on Workday Adaptive Planning but struggles with outdated models, now is a great time to schedule a Health Check. 

Audit your data quality 

Data quality is an ongoing issue that can have significant financial consequences. FP&A teams should audit data quality by implementing processes to validate, monitor, and correct discrepancies in the data they rely on for budgeting, planning and reporting. This starts with establishing a single source of truth by integrating data from financial, operational, and HR systems into one platform. This reduces inconsistencies caused by silos. Regular data audits should be performed to identify missing, outdated, or incorrect entries, using automated validation rules and exception reporting to flag anomalies. Naturally, this becomes a time-consuming process when working with outdated planning systems. FP&A teams can also employ variance analysis to compare data across periods or sources, quickly identifying outliers that require investigation. Teams using Workday Adaptive Planning benefit from AI-driven anomaly detection, which identifies any data that falls outside the norm. Furthermore, the system learns based on user feedback, so data accuracy will continue to improve. Ultimately, your team will save time, reduce risk, and gain confidence when your planning solution includes robust data quality functionality already built in. 

Leverage integrations 

Let’s be honest—manually uploading data is time-consuming and error-prone, making it more trouble than it’s worth. If your team is still doing manual uploads of data into your budgeting and planning system, this is the year you need to integrate and automate those processes! With the abundance of native integrations, iPaaS tools, and third-party connectors available today, there’s little justification for relying on manual data uploads. By integrating data across finance, HR, and operational systems, you will have a single source of truth resulting in more accurate budgets, forecasts and reports. You will also eliminate one of the least enjoyable aspects of your job! 

Try advanced scenario planning 

By combining traditional scenario modeling with AI, your FP&A team can analyze vast amounts of historical and real-time data to generate predictive insights and uncover trends that might otherwise go unnoticed. While organizations that rely on spreadsheets won’t have this option, those that use Workday Adaptive Planning get the benefit of AI-driven features that enable teams to quickly create and compare multiple scenarios, automatically highlighting risks, opportunities, and anomalies across potential outcomes. With intelligent forecasting and dynamic scenario updates, teams can model complex situations—like shifts in market demand or supply chain disruptions—with greater speed and accuracy. For organizations operating in fast-paced markets, this capability is essential for staying competitive in 2025. 

Make the most of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

Our final recommendation focuses on what you might have guessed (and already briefly touched on)—AI. Despite all the hype, true AI capabilities are revolutionizing the planning solution landscape. For FP&A teams using Workday Adaptive Planning, there are many reasons to be excited. Workday has rolled out cutting-edge AI and machine learning capabilities designed to streamline and enhance your planning processes. These features include intelligent forecasting, anomaly detection, and advanced scenario modeling, all of which leverage historical and real-time data to provide deeper insights and reduce manual effort. With AI-driven recommendations, FP&A teams can identify trends and risks faster, improve forecast accuracy, and optimize resource allocation. If your current planning solution falls short on AI capabilities, we recommend scheduling a demo of Workday Adaptive Planning to explore how it could transform your planning processes. 

As 2025 begins, FP&A teams have a window of opportunity to assess their solutions, models, and processes for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. By addressing critical areas such as model obsolescence, data quality, system integrations, advanced scenario planning, and AI adoption, your team can enhance its agility, accuracy, and overall impact. These focus areas aren’t just about catching up—they’re about staying ahead, equipping your organization to navigate uncertainty and capitalize on opportunities.  

At Kainos, we’re dedicated to helping FP&A teams transform their planning processes with Workday Adaptive Planning. If your solutions, models, and processes are limiting your potential, let’s connect to set your team up for success in 2025 and beyond.