SOLUTIONS · RESPONSIVE PLANNING & SCENARIOS
The board's what-if, answered in the room
A driver-based plan connected to the same trusted actuals as your board pack. Test agreed changes in contracts, pricing, headcount or utilisation, see the impact on performance and cash, and compare responses while the decision is still open.
A 30-minute conversation about your priorities and the decisions your finance team needs to support. If a paid FP&A Diagnostic is appropriate, we agree its scope and fee before proceeding.
- MAPS TO
- TRUE FP&A · Responsive Planning
- PLATFORM
- Your choice, sized to the business
- SEQUENCED AFTER
- A trusted reporting foundation
WHERE IT BREAKS TODAY
The forecast gives a number, not an answer
The board asks what a contract delay means for cash, and Finance needs another round of analysis
Planning is an annual event
The business changes faster than assumptions are reviewed and the forecast is updated
Every scenario is a rebuild
Inputs and calculations are tangled, so a change takes too long to trace through the model
2026 FP&A Trends Survey: 19% of respondents can run scenarios in real time or in less than one day; 19% use fully driver-based models.
WHAT WE BUILD
A driver-based model
Connect the operational assumptions that matter to financial outcomes
A shared planning basis
Governed actuals, owned assumptions and a clear forecast version
Scenarios that support action
Compare agreed alternatives, see the trade-offs and identify the response
KEY
IMPACT
Agreed scenarios
Change modelled assumptions without rebuilding the forecast
Connected to the business
Volume, price, headcount and utilisation where relevant
Shared actuals
Planning and reporting use consistent definitions; forecast versions remain distinct
Prepared what-if answers
Compare modelled options while the decision is open
Financial consequences
See how a driver change affects performance and cash
An agreed response
Named owner, review date and trigger for intervention
Typical delivery outcomes across PE-backed and blue-chip businesses, with the scope of drivers and scenarios agreed during design.
WHEN THIS BECOMES URGENT
Five moments when the forecast stops being good enough
A budget out of date before it is signed
The assumptions moved while the process ran.
A board asking for scenarios you cannot produce
The question is reasonable. The model cannot answer it.
A quarterly reforecast nobody trusts
Produced on schedule, but assumptions, ownership and the response to variance remain unclear.
A new sponsor with a value-creation plan
The plan needs a model that can be tested against it.
Headcount or contract volatility
The biggest swing factor sits outside the finance model.
THE FRAMEWORK
Decision Infrastructure
The same Decision Infrastructure shown in How We Work, applied to the board's next what-if question. Trusted actuals feed the Planning layer and Reporting layer. Test a change in assumptions, see the impact on performance and cash, and agree the response while the decision is still open.
We design and build the planning infrastructure around the decisions your business needs to make.
Platform choice follows the requirements and your existing estate. Your leadership team retains ownership of targets, the value-creation plan and decisions.
HOW WE CLOSE IT
Diagnose → Build → Run
The same three services, applied to this one problem.
01 · Diagnose
Test the questions your plan must answer
Take the board's planning questions and test the current model, data, assumptions and review process. Agree which drivers, scenarios and decision outputs need to change.
FP&A Diagnostic
02 · Build
Connect drivers to decisions
Build the driver-based model on the trusted data foundation. Define assumptions, versions, scenario comparisons and approval steps, then test the outputs with the people who will use them.
FP&A Implementation
03 · Run
Keep the model useful
Maintain the agreed model, data connections and scenario logic. Support forecast reviews and improvements as the business changes. Your leaders own targets, approve assumptions and decide the response.
FP&A Managed Service
SELF-CHECK
Finance Business Partnering Gap Audit
Check whether Finance challenges assumptions, models pricing and capacity decisions, and helps business leaders act before the decision is made.
A practical decision-support self-check; it is not a technical planning-model assessment.
WHAT CHANGES
From a plan that ages to one that keeps up
Re-run
Test agreed changes in drivers without rebuilding the model.
Reviewed and current
Refresh actuals and review assumptions on the agreed cadence, with forecast versions approved and retained.
One basis
Planning and reporting share governed actuals and definitions, with differences between actual, plan and scenario visible.
WHERE WE HAVE DONE THIS
Proof a sponsor would recognise
SYNAMEDIA · PERMIRA-BACKED AT THE TIME
Through an extended FP&A engagement, ABCL helped Synamedia develop its Anaplan model and connect planning and reporting across multiple global business units. Common definitions and review routines gave teams a more consistent basis for discussing performance.
Read the Synamedia case studySee how data, modelling and reporting were brought together in a working FP&A environment, and what changed for the finance team.
Explore more client resultsWHERE NEXT
Three ways forward
DISCUSS YOUR PRIORITIES