What is connected planning?
Connected planning is an approach in which finance, sales, workforce, supply chain and other plans are built in one linked model rather than separate spreadsheets. A change in one plan, such as a hiring delay or a lower sales forecast, flows through to the others and to the financial forecast, so every team works from the same assumptions.
Also calledintegrated business planningxP&Aextended planning and analysis
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- Links
- Finance, sales, workforce, supply
- Also called
- xP&A
- Needs
- Shared dimensions and drivers
How connected planning works
Each function keeps its own plan in a shared platform: sales plans pipeline and quotas, HR plans headcount and pay, operations plans demand and supply, and finance plans the budget and cash. The plans share dimensions, such as products, regions and cost centres, and drivers, so the links between them are explicit. When sales lower a forecast, the effect on production, hiring and cash appears straight away, and scenarios can be compared across the whole business. The approach extends FP&A beyond finance, which is why it is also called xP&A. It requires agreed definitions and data flows from the ERP, CRM and HR systems, and ownership of each part of the model; without that, a connected model just centralises inconsistent data. Anaplan uses the term for its platform, and Pigment links finance, sales and HR plans in one model.
Common questions
What is the difference between connected planning and FP&A?+
FP&A is finance's planning and analysis work. Connected planning extends the same model to sales, workforce and operations plans so they all feed the financial forecast.
What is xP&A?+
Extended planning and analysis, a term for planning that goes beyond finance to include operational plans in the same platform. It describes much the same idea as connected planning.
What does connected planning need to work?+
Shared dimensions and drivers across plans, data feeds from the ERP, CRM and HR systems, and clear ownership of each part of the model.
Connected planning software
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage · Glossary
