Planning & Forecasting (FP&A)
We build forecasts from the drivers the business can see moving, such as orders, average value, stock and headcount, and test them against what actually happened.
Questions we help answer
- How far can we trust our forecast, and how wrong has it been in the past?
- Which few drivers explain most of the movement in our revenue and costs?
- Can we move from an annual budget to a rolling forecast without adding work for the finance team?
- How do marketing spend, stock purchases and hiring plans flow through to cash?
- Who owns each line of the forecast, and how do they update it?
What we do
Driver-based model
A forecast built from operational drivers such as orders, average order value, conversion, stock turns and headcount, linked to the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash.
Rolling forecast process
A monthly or quarterly re-forecast cycle with owners for each line and a short review meeting format.
Budget build
Annual budgets built bottom-up from the same drivers, so budget and forecast speak the same language.
Forecast accuracy tracking
Forecast against actual by line and period, so the model's error is known before anyone relies on it.
- How an engagement with THEFOCUS startsDiscuss this with us
How we approach it
- 01
Find the drivers in the history
We test which operational measures explain past revenue and cost movements before building them into the model.
- 02
Back-test before use
The model is run over past periods it did not see, and its error is shown to the leadership team.
- 03
Hand the model over
Inputs, assumptions and owners are documented so the finance team refreshes the forecast without outside help.
Relevant industries
How an engagement with THEFOCUS starts
A first conversation is about your situation. If there is a fit, we propose a scoped diagnostic with a fixed deliverable before any larger commitment.
Discuss this with us01
A working conversation
Forty-five minutes with the person who would lead the work. We ask about the decision, the systems behind it and the deadline.
02
A scoped diagnostic
Read-only access, a fixed timeframe and a written finding: what the records show, what it costs and what to change first.
03
A plan you can act on
Changes, owners, measures and exclusions in writing. The same team then builds and measures, or hands over cleanly.
- One accountable team
- The people who diagnose also build the systems and measure the result.
- Partners chosen per problem
- Independent specialists join for the parts that need them, under one contract.
- Records before dashboards
- Orders, ledgers and logs are reconciled before any recommendation depends on them.
Questions executives ask
Can you prepare forecasts for a lender or investor?
We can build the model and document its assumptions so your team and advisers can present it. We do not give regulated investment advice or arrange finance.
Do we need FP&A software?
Not necessarily. A well-structured spreadsheet model with documented inputs often serves a growing business well. We recommend dedicated software when the number of entities, users or scenarios makes the spreadsheet fragile.
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