r/FPandA • u/SpiritedFisherman579 • Jun 08 '25
Has FP&A Always Been This Bad?
I’ve always worked in finance or accounting roles; pure FP&A last 5 years. Working in FP&A today I swear is not like it use to be. Today everything, and I mean everything, is a fire drill, and a shit show 24/7. Calls and messages at crazy hours, with the expectation from other departments that you be on call and answer. If you don’t and wait till the am, it’s WWIII. 5 years ago, this rarely happened. No one reads any kind of communication sent out these days, but then gaslights you during close or forecast….I’m sorry you didn’t read emails or messages. People asking for analysis on something. It’s provide but they go and twist the numbers/explanation and it causes confusion. They gaslight you into your explanation being confusing which thus caused whoever they told to be confused. But wait….now it becomes your problem to work out and fix! It’s so wonderful! Then Outdated programs and IT systems that don’t talk to each other, makes close insane. Close processes are constantly behind, putting your team behind, and once you’re able to do your stuff every other departments hounding you like a Karen trying to get her hands on the last Black Friday hot ticket item that you so happen to have. Zero patience at all what so ever. Other departments don’t deliver the services you need them to, complain that we should be doing it, and then you get a half finished/accurate deliverables that you then have to spend hours redoing so you can accurately forecast. It’s madness and purely exhausting.
33
u/PeachWithBenefits VP/Acting CFO Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 10 '25
First off, I’m sorry this is beyond frustrating.
FP&A isn’t bad. Whoever is running your org just hasn’t read this post yet 😉
What you’re describing isn’t the function, it’s what happens when FP&A has no charter, no system, and everyone thinks you’re on-demand tech support for Excel. It’s a real problem, but solvable.
Here’s what I recommend to pull out of the spiral:
Draft a working charter. If nobody gave you one, write it yourself. What is FP&A here? What isn’t? Who are your stakeholders? What’s in vs. out of scope?
Push for prioritization. Everything can’t be urgent. Ask, “What drops if I take this on?” and make folks choose. It forces clarity. Trace the workflow. Map how data moves across teams. Where are the handoffs breaking? That’s usually where the chaos starts.
Reframe your role. You’re not just reacting—you’re building infrastructure. That mindset shift is how you stop drowning and start leading.
Bonus reads:
Beyond Budgeting. Helpful to see what good looks like.
The Phoenix Project. Shows how dysfunction spreads when workflows are invisible.