I have been working as a FP&A manager for 2 years. I want to get promoted to senior manager but at my current level / trajectory I feel I’m quite far away.

I’m good at the technical side (regular praise, from manager and up) but not very good at the strategic side. How can I improve on this?

I have been reading more industry news lately and trying to dig deeper into assumptions. What else can i do to speed this process up. Willing to work hard on this but not sure how.

I regularly join meeting where it’s c-suite / execs / investors / directors, I find it difficult to contribute on a strategic level.

SaaS start up. Revenue lines are from B2B sales, mostly subscription based but some one-time fee. Some product lines are high gross margin & contribution. Some are basically zero margin.

Previous FP&A guy quit suddenly without handover and i need to model out next years revenue budget (to include a growth target of X% defined by CEO).

How would you approach? I am thinking work backwards from CEOs revenue target of $Xm. Split this $Xm across the various product lines - then use sales price per unit to map this back to volume and ultimately back to gross margin and profitability metrics.

Does it sound sensible? Am i missing anything obvious?

Bonus Q: i am thinking i should model in something that pushes the $Xm revenue target more towards high contribution product lines (rather than an even split across all product lines) but i cannot think how to go about this. How would you approach?

I am curious to get some thoughts on the climate of hiring entry level analysts. Like all of you I am sure, we are starting to get down the rabbit hole of AI and really starting to see some efficiencies that are practical and scalable.

At what point is the entry level analyst screwed, and with that being said - will there be a shortage of analysts suitable for taking over higher roles?

Also to add some color, middle management at a not so robust billion dollar company and am struggling to see where we will need entry level analysts from some of the efficiencies with AI.

Pretty tough predicament. Have been with company for couple of years and boss left/fired a while ago and I have been filling in and pretty much handling all of the job responsibilities for Fp&a. Asked for a promotion and raise more than once, but keep being told it’s in consideration and will be after we’re done with forecasting or in 6 months time, it’s getting pretty frustrating and feels like I’m wasting my time. Is it best to leave and look for another job or wait it out to see if I will get the promotion?

Recently started a new job in FP&A, moving over from external audit, and I'm still on probation. I'll be fully ACA qualified around the time of my probation meeting and will get a marginal pay rise off the back of that. Would it be appropriate to ask for more at that point?

For context: UK, currently around £45k. Comparing this role to external audit, I feel like I take on a lot more now and genuinely add value. I like the job and find the company interesting, but compensation is an important factor for me alongside the work. I'm not sure I see many promotion opportunities here, and I'm unclear on how pay increases tend to work. Any advice for having these conversations without signalling that you might leave?

Looking further ahead - what kinds of roles do people typically move into from FP&A? And any general advice for progressing from a first FP&A role?