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CFO & Strategy

Annual Financial Planning (FP&A) Process

Written by Harry Prabandham

Curated by Rubric Financial

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Planning Calendar & Process

  • Begin annual planning in Q4 (October-November) with a strategic review, finalize the budget in December, and launch in January
  • Start top-down with board-level strategic priorities and revenue targets, then build bottoms-up departmental plans to validate feasibility
  • Involve department leads in the planning process: the CFO sets guardrails and constraints, but functional leaders own their budgets

About the author

Harry Prabandham

Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.

More articles by Harry

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