100+ up-to-date-for-2024 FP&A statistics every CFO should know

Size and structure of finance departments

Finance departments come in all shapes and sizes. Companies all have their own approach to finance staffing and how they divide up the many roles and responsibilities within the finance team.

These findings show you how it’s done across the industry. 

1. On average, finance headcount is 97.5 FTEs per billion USD in annual revenue (Gartner, 2021)
2. Since 2019, 45% of finance executives say they’ve decreased staffing levels within corporate finance (Netsuite, 2022)
3. In multi-functional finance teams, 21% of finance staff are dedicated to FP&A (Gartner, 2021)
4. 73% of companies have less than 20 employees in their finance department (Battery Ventures, 2021)
5. 71% of FP&A departments have between 1 and 10 employees (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
6. 13% of FP&A departments have more than 30 employees (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
7. Finance organizations have, on average, decreased their cost by 29 percent compared with 10 years ago (McKinsey, 2020)
8. 23% of finance spending is dedicated to financial planning and analysis, while 26% is dedicated to accounting and reporting (Gartner, 2021)
9. The typical finance organization spends about 10% more time and resources on financial planning and analysis (FP&A) activities than it did a decade ago. (McKinsey, 2022)
10. On average, FP&A employees spend 75% of their time gathering data and administering the process, leaving just 25% for providing value-added financial analysis to the business (CFO.com, 2021)
    
    
11. 28% of finance executives believe that 61-100% of their accounting staff will never return to the office (Versapay, 2021)
12. 83% of CFOs say hiring and retaining talent is very important to growth—more than even the CHRO (PwC, 2022)

FP&A careers

FP&A is an increasingly in-demand role within businesses. But do employee salaries reflect that?

These statistics give insights into the role, including average tenure and compensation.

1. In 2022, FP&A is the thirteenth-fastest growing role in the United States (LinkedIn Research, 2022)
2. The average tenure for FP&A employees (full-time employees dedicated to planning, budgeting and management, and capital project accounting processes) is six years (APQC, 2021)
3. The median salary for a corporate financial analyst was $95,570 in 2021 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021)
4. The median finance compensation per employee is approximately $115,000 (Gartner, 2021)
5. The median pay for financial managers in 2021 was $131,710 per year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021)
6. 78% of finance professionals feel their organization is greatly or extremely effective at retaining finance talent (APQC, 2022)
7. 68% of financial analysts believe problem-solving and decision-making abilities are the most important skills for a finance leader (Hanover Research, 2022)
8. 95% of finance professionals say advanced spreadsheets skills are an essential skill for FP&A managers (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
   
   
9. 73% of finance professionals say building dashboards and data visualizations is an essential skill for FP&A managers (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
10. 58.1% of CFOs said that it's harder in Q3 '22 to hire highly skilled workers than it was at the beginning of 2022 (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)

Reputation within the business

Financial planning and analysis is part of the wider finance function. Rather than focusing on traditional financial activities like accounting and reporting with financial statements, FP&A focuses on the future: determining a company's financial health. But how is it perceived within the rest of the organization? Is it a trusted resource or does the function cause challenges for other areas of the business?

These statistics show how FP&A teams are seen by the rest of their companies.

1. 60% of non-finance executives rate their finance department as ‘good’ or ‘perfect’ at financial and scenario planning (Netsuite, 2022)
   
   
2. 70% of finance professionals strongly agree or agree that FP&A delivers the right information for the business, while 66% agree or strongly agree FP&A delivers information at the right time (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
3. 77% of finance professionals agree or strongly agree that FP&A delivers value-added insight (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
4. 78% of finance teams believe that their organization's senior management trust that the data provided by their FP&A departments is both accurate and reliable (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
5. 49% of FP&A professionals feel that the rest of the business doesn’t understand FP&A (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
6. 61% of FP&A professionals report their teams are making more data-based decisions currently compared to a year ago (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
7. 48% of survey respondents confirm that their management is optimally using data and analytical insights currently to a greater extent than it was a year ago; 45% report it is unchanged (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)

Collaboration with other teams

Finance teams have historically had a reputation for being pretty insular, but in recent years there’s been a shift for finance business leaders (and their teams) to take on a more strategic role in their companies.

These statistics show how frequently and effectively finance teams collaborate cross-functionally within the business.

1. 53% of executives rate their CFO as either ‘highly proficient’ or ‘expert’ at collaborating to improve business functions (Netsuite, 2022)
2. 78% of CFOs say they actively collaborate with IT to leverage cloud, advanced analytics, automation, and other technologies to increase the performance of finance/accounting (CFO.com, 2022)
3. 5% of finance practitioners say finance teams work in silos when forecasting and planning, while 18% say there’s minimal collaboration between operations and finance (Association for Finance Professionals, 2021)
4. 43% of finance practitioners say that operations and finance teams collaborate to create the numbers when forecasting and planning (Association for Finance Professionals, 2021)
   
   
5. 30% of business and operations teams can independently understand the financial impact of their decisions. 61% can only understand the impact with help from the finance team (Association for Finance Professionals, 2021)
6. 50% of CFOs see C-suite collaboration and establishing finance as a business partner across the enterprise as a top priority (PwC, 2022)

Common challenges for finance and FP&A

If your finance team is struggling it can be hard to tell whether this challenge is unique to you, or a common challenge for finance professionals.

These stats shine a light on some of the common challenges facing finance and FP&A teams today.

1. 68% of finance managers say their job is harder now than it was in 2019 (Netsuite, 2022)
2. 36% of CFOs say that accurate forecasting will be their biggest challenge for the next 12 months (Gartner, 2022)
3. 46% of FP&A practitioners don’t believe their FP&A team is adequately staffed (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
4. 65% of FP&A practitioners say their team is working at or over 100% of capacity (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
   
   
5. 30% of FP&A practitioners experience challenges dealing with inconsistent definitions for calculations and terms (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
6. 76% of FP&A practitioners believe having too many priorities is hindering their success (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
7. 62% of FP&A practitioners believe data challenges are inhibiting their success (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
   
   
8. 35% of finance professionals don’t feel that their current financial planning system meets their needs today, while 44% believe their system won’t meet their needs in the next three years (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
9. 26% of FP&A practitioners don’t believe they have systems and tools that can quickly be reconfigured for organizational changes (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
10. 61.5% of CFOs said they've noticed a net increase in spending from Q2 '22 to Q3 '22 (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)
11. 73% of CFOs ranked security and privacy as their top concern, followed closely by profitability reporting and analysis (Protiviti, 2022)

Budgeting and financial planning

Budgeting and planning is a core focus for FP&A professionals, but how much time should you dedicate to it, and who else should be involved?

These statistics will help you understand how other finance departments handle the budgeting and planning process.

1. 75% of organizations take between 4 and 12 weeks to develop their budgets (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
2. On average, it takes companies 35 days to complete their annual budget (APQC, 2021)
3. 52% of finance departments create and manage their planning model with input from the operating business unit leaders, while 5% do so with minimal input from the operating business units  (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
4. 76% of finance business leaders believe the finance function at their organization performs accurate, real-time planning and financial analysis to prepare for a rising inflationary environment (CFO.com, 2022)
5. 40% of finance executives said that scenario planning and analysis is one of the top 3 areas they’d like to improve their skills in (Netsuite, 2022)
6. 90% of FP&A teams supplement financial planning systems with spreadsheets (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
   
   
7. 37% of financial professionals agree that their planning system enables them to easily build scenarios and what-if financial analysis, while 41% disagree (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
8. 96.4% of CFOs have noticed a larger-than-usual increase in net costs compared to last year (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)
9. 30.5% of CFOs expect those larger-than-usual net cost increases to continue past the next 12 months (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)
10. 26% of CFOs plan to mitigate those increased costs by passing it on to the consumer (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)

Financial modeling and forecasting

Forecasting is another key focus for FP&A teams. This includes cash flow forecasting, looking at business trends, and creating detailed forecasts to determine a company's growth or future outcomes.

These stats look at how long it takes, and which parts of the process take the longest.

1. In 2020, 56% of finance teams carried out forecasting monthly, while 19% did it weekly (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
2. 31% of finance departments carry out forecasting every quarter, while 6% do it every six months or more (Battery Ventures, 2021)
3. Only 8% of FP&A teams can create an out-of-cycle forecast easily (Association for Finance Professionals, 2021)
4. 62% of finance professionals report that their organizations require two weeks to create a typical forecast, and 28% take between three and four weeks (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
5. 73% of finance professionals say that data processing (including transformation, reconciliation, and formatting) is the biggest obstacle preventing them from accelerating the time it takes to complete a forecast (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
6. 54% of finance professionals say that finding and accessing appropriate financial data is the biggest hindrance in preventing them from accelerating cycle time in order to complete a forecast (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
7. Financial analysts spend 49% of their time on data collection, validation, and managing data for forecasts but only 10% on doing calculations (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
   
   
8. Management review accounts for 12% of the time FP&A practitioners spend creating a forecast (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
9. 39% of FP&A respondents have hired IT and data professionals to manage financial data or train analysts (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
10. 48% of CFOs are prioritizing investments in predictive models and scenario analysis capabilities (PwC, 2022)

Software and tools for managing data

Finance teams have an increasing number of tools and technology available to them, but many are still relying on spreadsheets and manual data entry for a lot of their work.

These stats will help you understand how other finance departments are leveraging software to improve their processes, and where they’re looking to invest in the next few years. 

1. 22% of CFOs believe their company is lagging when it comes to the adoption of technology solutions (CFO.com, 2022)
2. 34% of CFOs plan to adopt new technology solutions for FP&A within the next 6-12 months (CFO.com, 2022)
3. Since 2019, 52% of finance executives say they’ve increased the amount of FP&A technology their team uses (Netsuite, 2022)
4. 69% of FP&A teams use spreadsheets daily, and 92% use them at least monthly (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
   
   
5. 68% of finance professionals use purpose-built (purchased) software planning platforms for planning and analysis purposes, with 29% using them at least weekly (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
6. Only 38% of FP&A professionals believe they have the tools and resources to effectively complete their work (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
7. 52% of FP&A practitioners say they need better planning and enterprise resource planning software because most planning and analysis are manually manipulated in spreadsheets (Association for Finance Professionals, 2022)
8. 64% of finance organizations plan to invest in cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) technologies in the next three years (Gartner, 2021)
9. 57% of finance organizations plan to invest in advanced data analytics technologies and tools in the next three years (Gartner, 2021)
10. 37% of finance departments use predictive analysis tools regularly and 42% use them intermittently (Hanover Research, 2022)
11. 24% of finance departments use artificial intelligence tools regularly, while 36% don’t use AI tools at all (Hanover Research, 2022)
12. 20% of finance departments use machine learning tools regularly, while 37% don’t use ML tools at all (Hanover Research, 2022)
13. 86% of finance teams use Excel to make forecasts and budgets, while 43% use Google Sheets (Battery Ventures, 2021)
    
    
14. 74% of FP&A teams use Excel for financial reporting, and 38% use Google Sheets (Battery Ventures, 2021)
15. 69% of finance leaders prefer FP&A software that integrates with Excel (Battery Ventures, 2021)
16. 53% of finance teams use data visualization tools (APQC, 2020)
17. The top four types of charts and graphics used for financial and management reporting are bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and trend charts (APQC, 2020)
18. 48% of finance leaders believe financial reporting is the top opportunity for using artificial intelligence or machine learning tools (Hanover Research, 2022)
19. 53% of finance professionals agree that the analytical tools they currently use elevate the quality of the analysis being done by FP&A (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
20. 73% of finance professionals say they use analytical tools that require (historical) data to be prepared in spreadsheets prior to using the tool (Association for Finance Professionals, 2020)
21. 55% of finance leaders expect it to take 2-3 months to implement a new FP&A tool (Battery Ventures, 2021)
    
    
22. 80% of finance executives listed reducing time-consuming, error-prone processes as the top benefit of accounts receivable automation (Versapay, 2021)

CFOs, business leaders, and financial leadership

The role of the chief financial officer is changing rapidly, so how does FP&A fit into its new strategic priorities?

These statistics will help you understand the challenges and priorities for CFOs and finance leaders, as well as the types of work that take up most of their time.

1. 78% of UK finance leaders say the industry needs a new breed of CFO, focused on facilitation, fairness, and the future (Sage, 2022)
2. 48% of finance executives feel their job is more difficult now compared to 2019 (Netsuite, 2022)
3. Finance leaders spent 19 percent more time on value-added (versus transaction-processing) activities than a typical finance department did 10 years ago (McKinsey, 2020)
4. Finance leaders spend 28.8% of their time on financial planning and analysis, and business partnering (McKinsey, 2020)
5. 47% of finance executives feel their skills in analyzing data have improved since 2019 (Netsuite, 2022)
6. 67% of CFOs say they spend significant time on data analysis, FP&A, and scenario planning (Netsuite, 2022)
7. 47% of CFOs say their top priority is building predictive models and scenario analysis capabilities (PwC, 2022)
   
   
8. 53% of CFOs are reevaluating their investment strategy to focus on margin-improving projects (PwC, 2022)
9. 85% of financial leaders have already made alterations to their financial forecasts and strategies in anticipation of an impending recession (Hanover Research, 2022)
10. 35% of CFOs consider recession a serious risk to their companies, and 71% think it’s likely that one will occur in the next 12 months (PwC, 2022)
11. 43% of CFOs believe that inflation will negatively impact their business for the next two years (CFO.com, 2022)
12. 65% of CFOs plan to respond to rising inflation by simply passing costs on to their customers as prices rise (Gartner, 2022)
13. 82% of CFOs report that their investments in digital are accelerating, exceeding investments in other areas such as talent, supply chain, business services, or fixed assets (Gartner, 2022)
14. CFOs believe that accounting and data analysis are the 2 most important skills to look for when recruiting for critical roles within the finance team over the next 12 months (CFO.com, 2022)
15. 55% of CFOs consider talent acquisition and retention a serious business risk (PwC, 2022)
16. 15.7% of CFOs said inflation is their biggest concern going into 2023 (Fuqua School of Business, 2022)
17. 53% of CFOs plan to revisit pricing this year to protect margins (PwC, 2022)
18. 58% of CFOs plan to increase their investment in automation over the next 12 months (Vic.ai, 2022)
19. 61% of CFOs report that integration with their current systems is the biggest challenge of financial automation (Vic.ai, 2022) 
20. More than 50% of CFOs are looking to finance automation software to help them generate insights (Vic.ai, 2022) 

Conclusion

There you have it: 100+ statistics focused on financial planning and analysis. 

So now we want to hear from you. What surprised you? And what felt true to your experience?

And if you’re one of the 44% who don’t think your current systems will meet your needs in the next few years, or the 69% still using spreadsheets every day, you may want to learn about how FP&A software can help you improve your processes. Learn more about Cube — request a demo today.