This is the third of a series of LinkedIn posts where Stampa & Partners answers the question: “How CFOs can use tools to achieve goals and overcome challenges?”

1. Influence

CFOs are key elements in an organisation that have the power to influence the direction of their companies and likewise to support the success of their strategic goals. One of many ways to do this is through the costing allocation process or by using this process to determine the distribution of bonus.

Costing allocation, even if for internal purposes can be used to penalise and / or incentivise managers to pursue established strategic goals. Imagine a corporation that intends to reduce salary gaps between specific, groups or sets of employees (e.g. based on gender, nationality, hierarchical level, office based); it can set allocation rules that will encourage managers to reduce those gaps in the organisation.

While this exercise could have been done previously, it was mostly an either manual effort or with the use of traditional VBA based worksheets that often proved to be slow or not flexible enough. Recently new tools emerge that can be easily incorporated, with capacity to process big sets of data in a very short time.

One of these tools is SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PAPM). This is a solution built on SAP HANA that empowers teams and decision-makers with clear insights on how their business runs and is being feed. By using existing SAP and/or non-SAP data, it allows to understand, control and manage costs drivers and how value is generated and can be optimized. SAP PAPM’s models can be quickly built, personalised, tested and simulated by end users. Data from multiple sources can be used to calculate results swiftly without data replication. It is also capable of performing complex calculations in just seconds, it is fully transparent, traceable and auditable.

2. Monitoring

For CFOs a sound and well executed strategic planning process is a crucial instrument for the successful accomplishment of set corporate goals. Thus, to have more effective monitoring processes and procedures for strategic planning is important and can result in significant improvements in efficiency and focus.

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) offers a wide variety of planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities, it is flexible and easy to use. CFOs and controllers can set goals, design a strategic planning based on a set of expectations and use the same tool to monitor the attainment of those goals based on the most updated information. The analytical capabilities of SAC finally allow users to identify, calculate and visualise delta, sources of discrepancies and readapt future expectations, hence supporting executives in the decision-making process.

Please stay connected to access next week’s third of four challenges identified in current CFOs Agenda → “Improve reporting process, auditability and traceability”.

We at Stampa & Partners have an extensive track record working with CFOs and supporting organisations in Europe successfully digitalise finance functions, leverage analytics and ensure compliance with new accounting standards. Therefore, we can advise your business with the best solutions to fulfill your goals.

By André Almeida