FP&A Fundamentals Course

Lesson 1 • Business Model and Turnover Drivers

Identifies how different business models generate turnover and incur costs. Enables analysts to tailor planning assumptions to the specific company they support.

Lesson 2 • Financial Statements as FP&A Inputs

Reviews income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement from an analyst's perspective. Builds the financial literacy required for all modelling and analysis chapters.

Lesson 3 • What FP&A Does in an Organisation

Defines FP&A's mandate, key deliverables, and stakeholder relationships. Sets the foundation for understanding every subsequent analytical and planning activity.

Lesson 1 • Expense Budget Construction

Covers headcount planning, discretionary spend, and cost-of-goods-sold budgeting. Produces the expense side of a complete operating budget.

Lesson 2 • Consolidating and Presenting the Budget

Demonstrates how to roll departmental budgets into a consolidated P&L and present findings. Develops the communication skills needed to defend budget assumptions to leadership.

Lesson 3 • Turnover Budget Construction

Teaches methods for building turnover budgets from volume, price, and mix assumptions. Directly applies business model knowledge from Chapter 1 to a planning output.

Lesson 4 • Budget Philosophy and Governance

Covers top-down vs. bottom-up approaches and the governance structures that guide budget approval. Frames the political and organisational dynamics analysts must navigate.

Lesson 1 • Statistical and Trend-Based Methods

Introduces moving averages, regression, and seasonality adjustments for quantitative forecasting. Equips analysts to apply data-driven techniques alongside judgement-based methods.

Lesson 2 • Forecasting Fundamentals

Distinguishes forecasting from budgeting and explains when each is appropriate. Establishes the accuracy-vs.-speed trade-off that governs forecast design choices.

Lesson 3 • Rolling Forecast Design

Explains how to replace static annual budgets with continuously updated rolling forecasts. Enables organisations to maintain forward visibility regardless of where they are in the fiscal year.

Lesson 4 • Forecast Review and Governance

Covers the cadence, ownership, and escalation process for forecast reviews. Ensures forecasts remain credible and actionable throughout the planning cycle.

Lesson 1 • Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Integration

Links the income statement to a dynamic balance sheet and cash flow statement. Produces a fully integrated model where changes flow automatically across all three statements.

Lesson 2 • Model Architecture and Design Standards

Establishes layout conventions, colour coding, and structural rules for professional models. Prevents the design errors that cause models to break or mislead decision-makers.

Lesson 3 • Building the Income Statement Model

Constructs a driver-based income statement with turnover, COGS, and operating expense schedules. Applies budgeting and forecasting concepts from earlier chapters in a live model.

Lesson 4 • Scenario and Sensitivity Analysis

Adds scenario toggles and data tables to stress-test model outputs under different assumptions. Enables analysts to present a range of outcomes rather than a single-point forecast.

Lesson 1 • Turnover Variance Deep Dive

Decomposes turnover variances into volume, price, and mix components at the product level. Connects variance findings to sales performance and market dynamics.

Lesson 2 • Variance Analysis Fundamentals

Defines price, volume, mix, and rate variances and explains how each is calculated. Provides the analytical vocabulary used in every management reporting conversation.

Lesson 3 • Management Reporting Design

Covers the structure, frequency, and content of monthly management reports for executives. Produces reports that are concise, visually clear, and action-oriented.

Lesson 4 • Expense Variance Analysis

Analyses spending variances by separating volume-driven from discretionary cost overruns. Helps analysts distinguish controllable from uncontrollable expense variances.

Lesson 1 • Pricing and Profitability Analysis

Analyses product, customer, and channel profitability to identify margin improvement opportunities. Directly supports pricing decisions and portfolio rationalisation discussions.

Lesson 2 • Cost-Benefit and Investment Analysis

Applies NPV, IRR, and payback period to evaluate business investment proposals. Equips analysts to support capital allocation decisions with rigorous financial logic.

Lesson 3 • The Business Partner Mindset

Shifts the analyst's orientation from reporting the past to shaping future decisions. Defines the behaviours and credibility factors that make FP&A a trusted adviser.

Lesson 4 • Ad Hoc Analysis and Business Cases

Develops a repeatable framework for scoping, building, and presenting ad hoc financial analyses. Prepares analysts for the unstructured, high-stakes requests that define senior FP&A work.

Lesson 1 • Capital Allocation Frameworks

Covers how companies prioritise investment across organic growth, M&A, and shareholder returns. Equips analysts to support capital allocation discussions at the executive level.

Lesson 2 • Strategic Planning Process Overview

Maps how FP&A supports the annual strategic planning cycle alongside business unit leaders. Positions the long-range plan as the financial expression of corporate strategy.

Lesson 3 • Long-Range Financial Model Construction

Extends the three-statement model from Chapter 4 into a multi-year projection with macro assumptions. Produces a long-range plan that supports investor and board-level discussions.

Lesson 4 • Scenario Planning for Strategy

Applies scenario analysis to stress-test strategic plans against market and competitive disruptions. Enables leadership to make robust decisions under uncertainty.

Lesson 1 • FP&A Technology Landscape

Surveys the categories of planning, reporting, and analytics tools available to FP&A teams. Enables informed technology selection based on company size and complexity.

Lesson 2 • Building and Leading an FP&A Team

Covers team structure, skill development, and performance management for FP&A organisations. Prepares senior analysts and managers to build high-performing finance teams.

Lesson 3 • FP&A Process Design and Standardisation

Establishes standard operating procedures for recurring FP&A processes like close and forecast. Reduces errors and enables consistent output quality across team members.

Lesson 4 • Data Management for FP&A

Covers data sourcing, cleansing, and governance practices that underpin reliable financial analysis. Prevents the data quality failures that undermine FP&A credibility.