Make better strategic decisions through solid financial planning

Good financial planning is essential for any organization that wants to grow strategically. After all, the plan shows whether the strategy is feasible. A financial plan is much more than just a sum of numbers. It translates strategic goals into concrete budgets. And that’s exactly where the challenges often lie: how do you ensure that plans, budgets, and forecasts align? How do you translate strategy into operations without getting lost in scattered Excel sheets or isolated data sources?

The challenges of financial planning

Many organizations struggle with fragmented planning processes. Strategic plans are created, but linking them to budgets and forecasts often proves difficult. Data does not flow smoothly across different layers of the organization, making it time-consuming and error-prone to compare plans — or to compare planned versus actuals.

There’s often a lack of transparency in how figures are built up: where do the costs come from? How are assumptions structured? What is the impact of a change in the forecast on overall results?

Solid financial planning gives you the grip and insight needed to realize strategic ambitions. Especially in times of rapid change, the need for accurate and consistent steering information is greater than ever.

There is a better way

Today, powerful planning tools are available that make the process not only more efficient, but also more insightful, reliable, and flexible. Think of SAP Analytics Cloud Planning (SAC-P) or Vena. These tools help organizations centralize their planning processes, automate workflows, and improve data quality.

Still, we often see companies hesitate to take the leap — usually due to limited budgets or perceived complexity. That’s where we come in.

Our approach: pragmatic and focused

At McCoy, we understand that endless investment in tooling isn’t realistic — core processes like sales, production, and financial administration always come first. That’s why we take a pragmatic approach.

We start with an Explore phase in which we guide users through the possibilities of a modern planning tool in an accessible way. We use pre-defined models, input templates, and reports. Then we map out the differences between the standard and your specific situation — always keeping the setup intentionally simple.

Because simplicity enables speed, adoption, and agility.

The Realize phase follows the Explore phase. Here, we expand the pre-defined setup with the adjustments and wishes identified earlier. We work iteratively in three-week sprints, each ending with a joint review. During these sessions, users are actively walked through new functionality. This creates a natural learning curve, builds trust, and strengthens adoption from day one.

Our approach ensures that your team becomes operational quickly and is prepared to grow — in a way that fits your organization, your people, and your ambitions.

Why McCoy?

We combine deep expertise in finance and technology with a no-nonsense mentality. Our consultants think from a business perspective and build internal support. By starting small and making smart use of standard components, we deliver value quickly — always with the end user in mind.

Every planning challenge requires a tailored approach. See how we handle this in Workforce Planning en Sales Planning.

• Blog: SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and SAP Group Reporting – the perfect combination for your financial planning

• Video Gio: Top-down forecast adjustments in SAP Analytics Cloud

• Scope item: Financial planning scope item (to be written by Gio)

• Video Mathijs: How to accelerate the forecasting process with SAC