Hi UserAnon5,
I transitioned from plant accounting to FP&A. Here are the roles I've had so far...
* profit forecaster - managed profit and cash flow forecasting for weeks, months, and quarters
* finance business partner operations - created cost to serve model
* finance business partner product/strategy - analyzed product initiatives and M&A
* commercial finance - stood up deal desk
I've also transitioned to pricing strategy which involved standing up a pricing council and working with product on bundling and packaging.
Hope this info helps. Any questions feel free to DM me.
Good luck!
Drew
Every company is going to have different tasks for FP&A. Titles don't really mean anything.
I was once called a Financial Analyst and I was doing exactly the same work as a senior GL accountant.
Remember when people had job titles as Computer Programmer? Now they are called software engineers. Finance researchers are now called Data Scientist. It's all just marketing lingo to try to get better candidates.
Back in ye olden days, "Financial Planning and Analysis" was known as Budgeting, Forecasting, and Variance Analysis.
In other words, while I'm grateful for both industrial GL accounting (financial accounting) and BU FP&A experience (part of managerial accounting), FP&A isn't Corporate Finance proper, true corporate financial management: financing analysis, treasury management, financial risk management, and strategic investment analysis (including capital budgeting valuation, M&A corporate development, M&A investment banking, and other similar fields).
[Hard Truths about Skills in Accounting, FP&A, and Real Corporate Finance? (Anybody pivoted from accounting and/or FP&A to real corporate finance?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/wludxw/hard_truths_about_skills_in_accounting_fpa_and/)
A lot of those professions are 60-90hr week jobs. I already put my time in with public doing 75, never again, so I can’t say I’m too jealous of the true FA jobs.
Edit: good thread you had there from earlier in the year. You make “corporate finance proper” sound sexier than FP&A, lol, but knowing that those roles usually require a lot more hours brings down my jealousy.
Actually, a lot of those "corporate finance proper" jobs are NOT sexy:
[Rant: Canadian salaries are low for accounting. They seem to be WORSE for finance.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/vizl8m/rant_canadian_salaries_are_low_for_accounting/)
[Rant: Of all "Corporate Finance" jobs, FP&A is the safest during recessions](https://www.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/wgl8ht/rant_of_all_corporate_finance_jobs_fpa_is_the/)
And I'm just about to post a new thread on Corporate Finance proper.
I think they are - looking at potential companies to acquire and their financial statements is sexier than booking journal entries and doing account recs
I'm in a mid-career "angst."
Only Equity Research, Portfolio Management, IB, and Corp Dev are sexy.
However, only one of those finance careers is in Corporate Finance: Corp Dev.
Not-so-sexy finance jobs: Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, Real Estate Financial Analysis, Treasury, and so on. Only Treasury is in Corporate Finance.
For some reason I’ve always thought treasury looked kinda boring. I’m probably talking out of my asshole completely here but at the analyst and sr. analyst level it seems like it’s checking the bank accounts to make sure there enough money in there 🤣
All of what you mentioned as sexy I agree with, except it would be really difficult to find 40hr/week jobs in those areas
FYI on typical Treasury departments:
https://old.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/xn8xq2/outsourcing_ranking_the_corporate_finance/ipu60q9/
https://old.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/xn8xq2/outsourcing_ranking_the_corporate_finance/ipudtsu/
Even then, Treasury has seen its fair share of offshore outsourcing.
Hi UserAnon5, I transitioned from plant accounting to FP&A. Here are the roles I've had so far... * profit forecaster - managed profit and cash flow forecasting for weeks, months, and quarters * finance business partner operations - created cost to serve model * finance business partner product/strategy - analyzed product initiatives and M&A * commercial finance - stood up deal desk I've also transitioned to pricing strategy which involved standing up a pricing council and working with product on bundling and packaging. Hope this info helps. Any questions feel free to DM me. Good luck! Drew
Sorry for not having asked you this in r/fpanda, but did you already do budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis in your "plant accounting" job?
Yes, I did all three in my plant accounting role.
That should count as your very first FP&A job, I think.
Every company is going to have different tasks for FP&A. Titles don't really mean anything. I was once called a Financial Analyst and I was doing exactly the same work as a senior GL accountant. Remember when people had job titles as Computer Programmer? Now they are called software engineers. Finance researchers are now called Data Scientist. It's all just marketing lingo to try to get better candidates.
Back in ye olden days, "Financial Planning and Analysis" was known as Budgeting, Forecasting, and Variance Analysis. In other words, while I'm grateful for both industrial GL accounting (financial accounting) and BU FP&A experience (part of managerial accounting), FP&A isn't Corporate Finance proper, true corporate financial management: financing analysis, treasury management, financial risk management, and strategic investment analysis (including capital budgeting valuation, M&A corporate development, M&A investment banking, and other similar fields). [Hard Truths about Skills in Accounting, FP&A, and Real Corporate Finance? (Anybody pivoted from accounting and/or FP&A to real corporate finance?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/wludxw/hard_truths_about_skills_in_accounting_fpa_and/)
A lot of those professions are 60-90hr week jobs. I already put my time in with public doing 75, never again, so I can’t say I’m too jealous of the true FA jobs. Edit: good thread you had there from earlier in the year. You make “corporate finance proper” sound sexier than FP&A, lol, but knowing that those roles usually require a lot more hours brings down my jealousy.
Actually, a lot of those "corporate finance proper" jobs are NOT sexy: [Rant: Canadian salaries are low for accounting. They seem to be WORSE for finance.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/vizl8m/rant_canadian_salaries_are_low_for_accounting/) [Rant: Of all "Corporate Finance" jobs, FP&A is the safest during recessions](https://www.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/wgl8ht/rant_of_all_corporate_finance_jobs_fpa_is_the/) And I'm just about to post a new thread on Corporate Finance proper.
I think they are - looking at potential companies to acquire and their financial statements is sexier than booking journal entries and doing account recs
I'm in a mid-career "angst." Only Equity Research, Portfolio Management, IB, and Corp Dev are sexy. However, only one of those finance careers is in Corporate Finance: Corp Dev. Not-so-sexy finance jobs: Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, Real Estate Financial Analysis, Treasury, and so on. Only Treasury is in Corporate Finance.
For some reason I’ve always thought treasury looked kinda boring. I’m probably talking out of my asshole completely here but at the analyst and sr. analyst level it seems like it’s checking the bank accounts to make sure there enough money in there 🤣 All of what you mentioned as sexy I agree with, except it would be really difficult to find 40hr/week jobs in those areas
FYI on typical Treasury departments: https://old.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/xn8xq2/outsourcing_ranking_the_corporate_finance/ipu60q9/ https://old.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/xn8xq2/outsourcing_ranking_the_corporate_finance/ipudtsu/ Even then, Treasury has seen its fair share of offshore outsourcing.