FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) services help businesses understand their current business performance and plan accordingly for the future.
FP&A starts with the accurate financial statements, i.e., profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Forecasts, budgets, and long-term plans are based on these reports; When the figures are not right, the projections made using them will not be right either.
FP&A relies on the provided information and makes future insights. This entails the cash flow forecasts, budgets, and financial models that transforms business plan into numbers/budget. These tools assist in planning for the growth of revenues, costs, margins, and funding requirements.
FP&A is a team effort. As the business owner or operator, you know your business and where you want it to go. EA’s FP&A experts work with you to shape your vision, use best industry practices, and create clear projections that investors, lenders, and stakeholders can easily understand.
Accurate financial statements are the foundation of effective financial planning and analysis.
A company’s P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow, prepared on a consistent accrual basis, form the baseline for all forecasts and projections. Once these are stabilized, FP&A turns them into forward-looking models that reflect the leadership’s strategy and growth plans.
Your business story, in other words, is the projections. Although FP&A professionals assist in setting up and modeling such projections, it is only the leadership which is aware of the direction of the company. Therefore, it is critical to prepare quality financial statements in order to construct believable forecasts which will be relied on by investor, lenders and stakeholders.
FP&A services can assist rising businesses to go beyond responding to financial challenges as they come along, and to strategize in advance and make wise decisions.
Managing finances also becomes more complex as a business expands. The cash flow may be strained, expenses may be increased and decisions may be risky. FP&A introduces sanity and visibility by transforming financial statements into actionable information.
- FP&A helps organizations grow by providing these key services:
- Makes cash flow management more transparent
- Helps leaders make decisions using data analysis
- Connects the organization’s strategy with its financial data
- Helps with fundraising and builds trust with stakeholders
- Promotes financial discipline throughout periods of organizational growth
The primary distinction between outsourced and in-house FP&A is reduced to the way of accessing expertise, searching of scales, and cost control with keeping control over the strategic decision-making.
In-house FP&A
Using an in-house FP&A team, you get to employ full time financial analysts that will work only on behalf of your company. This model provides more intimate day-to-day coordination and in depth institutional familiarity, nonetheless, it bears more fixed costs such as salaries, benefits and recruiting, training and ongoing management.
Scaling an in-house team may be tedious and costly as businesses evolve and become more financially complex.
In-house FP&A is efficient when a firm has the capital, maturity and workload that warrants a full-time staff, and its senior and high-level positions may still be onshore.
Outsourced FP&A
Outsourced FP&A provides access to a team of seasoned financial personnel at a comparative price to hiring and training.
Companies such as Expertise Accelerated (EA) access a global talent pool to provide budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, and management reporting, overseen by US-based CPAs to ensure standards and accountability.
From a cost and efficiency standpoint, outsourcing is compelling. In most instances, offshore FP&A department can bring the same analytical output at a mere fraction of the cost of about 40% of the cost but with high governance by having top senior US-based oversight. This has been tested at scale and in large, complex organizations.
The hybrid model is the most effective approach for many organizations. Retain high, strategic positions in-house and outsource the heavy FP&A work to a partner that is trusted.
Absolutely. Our CPAs personally oversee the onboarding, review, and stabilization of all new clients.
Once your accounting is running smoothly, a dedicated engagement manager continues managing the day-to-day communication while our CPAs remain available for escalation, strategic questions, and periodic reviews.
Our clients’ accounts are managed by senior accountants typically with Big Four experience (e.g., Deloitte, EY) and reviewed by U.S.-based leadership.
Our model gives you the benefit of:
- Specialized U.S industry skill sets
- Big Four–caliber talent
- A heavily supervised team
- 60%+ cost savings
Quality control is strict, and oversight happens at multiple levels.
Our departments use QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop extensively.
We also incorporate EDI system information, distributor portals, POS reports, and manual order processing.
We organize and categorize everything to ensure complete, audit-ready records.
Our onboarding system is designed in a way that is transparent and efficient, therefore you have a dependable financial visibility.
Once you complete a no-charge consultation, we proceed in a systematic, time-tested process (assuming that your current financial statements are not out of date):
Discovery & Document Review
We begin with the knowledge of your business and scrutiny of your current accounting systems, financial statements as well as supporting documents. This presents a clear picture of what is happening today.
Catch-Up & Clean-Up
Where gaps or inconsistencies exist, we systematize, classify and rectify the past period transactions so that you can have the correct and complete books.
Stabilization and Standardization
We have best-practice bookkeeping and accounting workflows, account structure standardizations, and have your P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow configured appropriately, providing a powerful and dependable base.
Monthly Close Cadence
When your processes become stable, we introduce a steady monthly close, which gives you the accurate and timely financials to make your decision-making, reporting, and planning.
On this basis, our professionals assist in your budgeting, forecasting, and FP&A requirements. You give us the vision of your business and we make it into the clear and believable financials and projections.
Everything is sorted and classified to have total records that are audit ready.
Most clients reduce their costs by 60% or more while gaining access to deeper U.S. industry expertise.
With EA, you get both affordable accounting and a stronger skill set.
Yes, we provide a full set of monthly financials, once your accounting is organized and up to date, including:
Profit & Loss (P&L)
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Additional management reports as needed
All financials are prepared on an accrual basis, providing you with accurate, reliable insights to make informed decisions.