Shruti Mahato is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Manager in Accenture with 8 years of Anaplan experience. She has recently participated in IFP Partner training. Her thoughts are reigned from hands-on experience on the application which she wants to enthusiastically wants to apply within her organization and for her clients.
Current challenges
In today’s world when finance professionals are finding it challenging to navigate through evolving business landscape and crossroads between traditional finance modeling and modern finance transformation, it is palpable that we need a solution that meets the modern demands with integrated financial planning solutions. One of the key challenges that organization face is often siloed, difficult to integrate, slow adapters, and outdated platforms hinder the very insights of holistic view of the 3 major financial statements which tell the health of the organization.
Introducing Anaplan’s Integrated Financial Planning (IFP) Application
Anaplan’s IFP Application is built on the foundation of agility, scalability, and ease of use that equips finance teams with cutting edge technology. It’s a solution which is designed to have end to end automation in mind. IFP application has an intuitive user interface which is designed for finance professionals and focuses on high impact analysis rather than manual reconciliations. The end-to-end implementation is shorter, and users can focus more on value added activities. The end results in more insightful stories, greater accuracy, clarity and accuracy.
The solution
The IFP application comes with an innovative, easy to guide configurator that simplifies setup and accelerates configuration of best-practice FP&A processes like P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow management as well as Revenue, OpEx, Headcount, Capital and Long-range planning. Furthermore, it has out of box scenario planning and dashboards with no-code integrations to ERP and GL systems through Anaplan Data Orchestrator. The prebuilt models can be fully integrated with extensions of Anaplan like Anaplan Financial Close & Consolidation, Disclosure Management, Anaplan XL Reporting and Anaplan Co-Planner creating a cloud-native suite to empower the office of CFO.
The planning application v1.2 comes with a data model which has default dimensions for legal entity, cost center, employee CoA for Income Statement, Cash Flow and Balance Sheet. One can plan additional dimensions like customer, channel etc. There are optional dimensions for geography, vendor, asset, project, product, others. Additionally, there is a separate Data Hub for confidential data for employees. Other functionalities include pre-built versions and scenarios, as well as pre-defined reporting currencies to simplify consolidation and analysis.
The headcount planning feature allows the organizations to plan at employee level using benefit rate assumptions (including pension, SSI, medical, dental, and other benefits) providing information of the workforce by both country and legal entity. The model also allows calculating movement of to be hired, transfers and termination of the employees. To strengthen the framework, it allows scenario and version planning.
The operate expense planning feature enables planning at GL account and common trends can be seen (prior month run rate, prior year averages, budget/forecast holds, MoM adjustments). It can set up and forecast opex drivers while detailing budget line on detailed line.
The revenue planning component allows us to plan at GL account level with pre-built trends like (YoY, MoM, moving averages) and drivers (PxQ, discounts, returns) for Revenue & CoGs, It also allows flexibility to override assumptions and the results automatically update the specific GL accounts. While configuration it gives you the option to select methodologies one would like to use (direct input, trend-based methods, driver-based).
The capex planning module allows model prepaids and accruals while working on capital using drivers. The insights of the module will also give prebuilt asset categories, depreciation methods and useful life inputs. The calculation of depreciation is based on in-service dates, evaluates P&L and cash flow impact of additions/disposals and projects net book value across forecasting years. The configuration allows setup at which dimensions and at what level users want to plan.
The framework supports comprehensive capabilities to provision balance sheet and cash flow modeling. It provides use of prepaids and accruals, to shape up expenses and revenues across periods. One can use configurable drivers which can help in working capital, enabling dynamic forecasting of receivables, payables and inventory movements. The outcomes support roll-forward schedules, integration with P&L to maintain consistency across planning cycles. The sub-schedules like intangibles, goodwill, investments, debt, and equity, provide consistency over balance sheet components. Furthermore, the automated generation of the indirect cash flow report helps in timely insights into financial planning and decision making strengthening financial governance over once disintegrated systems.
Lastly the application provides different methods of target setting like top-down target setting for revenue, target gross margin % for COGS and top-down target setting for Opex. Users can choose their dimensions and also decide at what level users would like to plan and budget.
Upgradability today and in future
With the purchase and subscription of IFP all customers are provided with the latest version which involves upgrading to newer versions, re-integrating any extensions and adopting relevant functionalities. Whenever Anaplan goes through platform updates, new features, bug fixes and infrastructure improvements, the IFP application will also go through the same innovation and stability ensuring customers benefit. In principle, with the purchase and subscription of an IFP Anaplan application, customers are entitled to all future versions of that Application.
Summary — Step to the future of finance
The Anaplan IFP application is one of the powerful platforms for effective financial management and strategic planning. With pre-built Data Hubs integrating into ERP and GL systems, financial analysts can forecast various financial outcomes through scenario and what-if modeling. The modeling uses patented Hyperblock calculation engine for best-in-class technology. The cloud-native application also supports financial close and consolidation with intercompany eliminations, foreign currency with no-code ownership. The regulatory and narrative reporting supports pixel perfect insights which optimize resources, drive growth and adapt to business needs.
