Optimizing Financial Decision Making with Finance and Demand Planning
The Situation
A leading book publisher was relying on a mix of outdated, unsupported point systems and Excel sheets to bring together their product P&Ls and sales forecasts. Because of this, the forecasting process was cumbersome and time-consuming and there was no real link between operational and financial forecasting. The Company engaged Accordion to implement a solution that would link sales projections, inventory orders, and product line profitability to improve financial decision-making.
Services
Budgeting/Forecasting Solution Implementation
Reporting & Analytics
FinTech Advisory
The Execution
- Worked closely with the Company’s FP&A, IT, and sales teams to develop a comprehensive framework and understanding of processes and data infrastructure.
- Leveraged a machine-learning statistical algorithmic modeling tool to project sales units for 10,000+ SKUs, using the results to manage inventory planning for physical products.
- Fed sales unit projections into finance model, calculating product revenue and expenses to develop gross margin plan on a rolling forecast basis.
- Enabled driver-based calculation methodology for key revenue and expense metrics, allowing planners to easily change and override variables.
- Built reports for teams to analyze results and perform “what if” analysis at various levels of detail, a capability not previously available in legacy tools.
The Results
With Accordion’s help, the Company achieved their key business goal of automated financial planning — which included a rolling forecast and business planning solutions that linked finance, sales, and operations/inventory. The newly implemented tools saved the Company considerable time in the planning cycles and the broader capabilities have allowed teams to introduce new ideas to improve the planning process that were previously impossible to implement due to legacy tool restrictions.