The year—and decade—is coming to an end.
But before we race ahead to the finance trends that will dominate 2020 and beyond, we wanted to take a quick glance in the rear-view mirror and reflect back on 2019. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of the top five most-read articles on the Vena blog from this past year.
1. Financial Planning and Analysis: Roles and Best Practices
It’s easy to see why this was our top performing blog post from 2019. This comprehensive piece details everything from the roles and responsibilities of a modern FP&A professional to the typical career path in the field. As a bonus, this post also provides some great best practices and helpful tools to implement when executing tasks such as budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis. An excellent primer for those just entering the world of finance or industry veterans looking for a quick refresher.
2. Understanding Account Reconciliation
Account reconciliation is a critical component of the month and year-end close process. Thus, it’s imperative that finance professionals understand exactly what the account reconciliation process entails and how to shorten the time it takes to complete it so that the books can be closed in a timely manner. Thankfully, this blog post runs the gamut when it comes to account reconciliation – what it is, why it’s important, best practices, how automating the account reconciliation process can lead to significant time and money savings and more.
3. The 3 Fs That Make for Better Forecasts in FP&A
Can your business complete its financial forecasts in eight days or less? If so, you’re among the top-performing organizations according to APQC. Taking 16 days or longer to complete your forecasts? You likely rank near the bottom of all organizations. Speed matters when it comes to forecasts, because forecasts that are slow to produce may be less relied upon by other departments. But “fast” is just one of the 3 Fs that contribute to better forecasts. Read the full blog post to learn how the best forecasts are also flexible and forearming.
4. Discover Financial Planning & Analysis: Your Guide to FP&A
The second in-depth article on financial planning & analysis to appear on our list, this post gives a high-level overview of why businesses need FP&A and what skills are required by finance professionals to complete tasks such as budgeting, forecasting, reporting and planning. This post also covers how the world of FP&A is rapidly evolving and why your chosen piece of software should include features like support for the cloud and seamless integration with Excel and PowerBI.
5. What #SpreadsheetDay Should Remind Us About FP&A’s Future
It’s no secret that we love spreadsheets here at Vena, but the fact that International Spreadsheet Day exists is proof that we aren’t alone in our affinity for Excel. In this post, we looked at the history of Spreadsheet Day and how the creation of spreadsheets created entirely new industries and jobs. We also interviewed some of our favourite customers and asked them what they love about spreadsheets and why they believe Excel will continue to be the de facto FP&A standard for years to come.
And there you have it: our top five most-read blog articles from 2019.
Before we end the year, however, we would like to sincerely thank all of our readers who enjoyed our content throughout 2019. Vena prides itself on not just being a best-in-class finance process management solution, but also a resource center for finance professionals who are looking for informative, educational, and forward-thinking content that will keep them ahead of the curve.
We’ll be back with more great content in 2020, but if you’re looking for something to read in the meantime, check out our latest eBook: Finance 2020: Three Megatrends That Will Define the Next 10 Years.