Planning, budgeting and forecasting (PBF) is one of the only corners of finance where the future is as important as the present, and it plays a crucial role in underpinning the outlook and direction of the business.

As the entire finance function goes through a seismic evolution, the planning, budgeting and forecasting role is also in a state of flux. The changes within PBF are evident.

Technology has enabled more stakeholders to participate in the process, advanced software has expanded the complexity and scope of forecasts, and finance professionals are rebalancing their skills as the requirements of their job changes before them. But the PBF journey is only just beginning. This survey identified several instances where the function has not reached its potential to contribute fully to the future of the business.

For example, the benefits of non-financial data have been widely overlooked, dedicated FP&A capability is still in its infancy, cloud deployment has been patchy and larger more complex models are not necessarily delivering commensurately more benefit.