Why FP&A Should Be Your Strategic Powerhouse, Not a Reporting Tool – Olivia MacDonald

In this episode, host Paul Barnhurst (aka The FP&A Guy) dives deep into the evolving world of Financial Planning & Analysis with Olivia MacDonald, a highly skilled financial professional with a diverse background in FP&A process optimization and system implementation. The conversation explores what makes FP&A great, focusing on business partnerships and the strategic role FP&A can play beyond just reporting numbers.

Olivia is a qualified CPA and ACA with a proven track record of delivering strategic solutions that drive efficiency, accuracy, and transparency across organizations. With a mastery of data extraction and transformation tools like MQL, SQL, and SOQL, Olivia has helped companies streamline operations, enhance financial transparency, and drive decision-making through data. Her non-traditional path into FP&A—from audit to FP&A consultancy—gives her a unique perspective on how finance can be a business driver, not just a reporting function.

Expect to Learn

• What distinguishes great FP&A teams, with a focus on strategic business partnering.
• How audit and FP&A share common skills, and how auditors can leverage financial modeling experience.
• The importance of building strong relationships as an FP&A professional and working with different business units.
• Olivia’s unique career journey from auditing in Ireland to working in FP&A and the key lessons learned.
• Strategies to streamline the budgeting process and engage business partners in decision-making.

Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:

• “FP&A shouldn’t just be a reporting function. It needs to be a strategic business partner that helps drive decision-making.” - Olivia MacDonald
• “Having mentors who can tell you, ‘That’s a bad idea,’ is invaluable. It’s how I ended up taking risks in my career that paid off.” - Olivia MacDonald
• “When I got into FP&A, I realized how important it is to be a business partner, not just a numbers person.”  - Olivia MacDonald

This episode with Olivia MacDonald takes us through the evolving role of FP&A where she emphasizes the importance of involving business partners in the budgeting process, learning from mentors, and embracing technology, including generative AI.

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