WHAT DOES A FINANCIAL PLANNING ANALYST DO?
Published: July 25, 2025 - The Financial Planning Analyst prepares and analyzes expense reports, financial statements, and forecasts while supporting sales and budget planning across domestic and international teams. This role focuses on KPI reporting, process improvement, and the development of global forecasting frameworks to ensure accurate and timely financial insights. The analyst also fosters cross-functional collaboration and promotes best practices to enhance productivity and strategic decision-making.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Financial Planning Analyst
1. Financial Planning Analyst Duties
- Financial Modeling: Help build financial models to commercially analyse large data sets
- FP&A Support: Support in building out a strong FP&A function
- Business Partnering: Drive a culture of business partnering across the wider business
- Performance Analysis: Have the ability to commercially analyse brand and product performance
- Cashflow Forecasting: Support in building new models around cash-flow forecasting
- Budget Modeling: Lead on creating new budget and planning models to analyse commercial performance
- Metrics Tracking: Participate in short and long-term financial planning processes, including forecasting, reporting, and periodic operational metrics analysis and tracking
- Goal Alignment: Track appropriate metrics to monitor performance against forecast and goals, ensuring alignment with corporate strategy
- Driver Analysis: Analyse business drivers impacting organisational performance through interpretation of financial results and macroeconomic trends impacting the market landscape to drive action and challenge/support decisions
- Strategic Planning: Support the preparation of business updates and decks to facilitate strategic planning for senior leadership
- Model Review: Review and challenge the commercial models, underpinning new bids
- Ad-hoc Projects: Ad-hoc investigative projects underpinned by financial models
- Board Reporting: Ownership of the finance elements of the monthly Board Pack, including the rolling monthly forecast, and risks and opportunities
2. Senior Financial Planning Analyst Details
- Financial Analysis: Collecting, compiling, verifying and analyzing financial data to identify the business issue and risk
- Analytical Tools: Developing and maintaining analytical tools and a database to measure and evaluate the financial plan and results
- Target Monitoring: Monitoring monthly sales and profit targets and conducting necessary actions to keep on track
- Cost Analysis: Analyzing cost and expense trends to identify business issues and performance risk
- Performance Reporting: Preparing weekly/monthly management meeting, providing performance trend along with opportunity or risk
- Market Research: Market and industry research to identify business opportunity/expansion and to develop business strategy
- Incentive Evaluation: Examining the Sales Incentive plan and evaluating performance accordingly
- Working Capital: Monitoring and managing working capital such as inventory or other assets and establishing a target and achievement plan
- Budget Management: Planning a yearly budget and managing monthly to have SG&A expenses in plan
- Leadership Insight: Direct point of contact for senior leadership, providing key insight and analysis to realise cost savings for the company
- Board Reporting: Autonomously produce key schedules for inclusion in Board presentations, including budget and 3-year plan
- Variance Analysis: Responsible for detailed variance analysis to drive proactive decision making
3. Financial Planning Analyst Responsibilities
- Report Delivery: Lead monthly, quarterly and annual delivery of assigned reports and analysis for the Financial Planning team
- Process Improvement: Own process improvement projects to streamline and deliver efficiencies
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with multi-functional teams to deliver ideas that will improve results
- Financial Stewardship: Support financial stewardship responsibilities to include internal audits and balance sheet analysis
- Cost Accounting: Lead costing set up to ensure accurate cost accounting
- Cost Analysis: Perform basic analysis on cost, cash, pricing, collaboration with Finance and multi-functional teams
- Performance Reporting: Ensuring accurate and timely reporting of business performance, as well as thorough and robust financial forecasts
- Business Forecasting: Own the preparation of current financial reports as well as summaries and forecasts for future business growth and other ad hoc analyses
4. Financial Planning Analyst Job Summary
- Financial Reporting: Build, analyze and consolidate internal financial statements and other statistical and routine reports every month
- Performance Analysis: Prepare and present the practice level monthly and annual financial reports and performance exhibits to Finance leadership
- Planning Impact: Build and maintain analysis exhibits, including the impact of long-range planning, introduction of new practices and physicians, etc.
- Budget Modeling: Lead the day-to-day efforts to build and improve the annual budgeting process as well as point-in-time forecast models, including model inputs and methodology improvements
- Forecast Analysis: Provide monthly forecasting and Annual Operating Plan (AOP) analysis for the income, balance sheet, and cash flow statements
- Business Reviews: Prepare presentations for weekly, monthly, and quarterly business reviews, annual budgets and business planning initiatives
- Target Alignment: Partner with regional and functional teams to ensure understanding of business and financial targets and performance against those targets
- Standardized Reporting: Work with regional teams and plant controllers to ensure local operations follow standardized procedures and produce standardized reporting of both actuals and forecasts
- Account Reconciliation: Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting, including preparation of trial balances, journal entries, and account reconciliations
- Process Improvement: Identify improvements to existing processes and work with respective teams to execute
- Internal Controls: Support appropriate internal controls, including SOX and other accounting policy compliance measures
- CFO Support: Provide support to the CFO for external party requests
5. Financial Planning Analyst Accountabilities
- Financial Modeling: Develops financial models and analyses to support ongoing business initiatives
- Data Analysis: Analyzes complex financial data and summarizes results and recommendations to management for decision-making purposes
- ROI Analysis: Supports Senior Management and Departments with in-depth analysis, including financial models, ROI analyses, and proformas
- Process Improvement: Drives standardization and process improvement across all planning aspects, including best practices
- BI Tools: Implements and works with Business Intelligence tools and dashboard reporting
- Reporting Preparation: Prepares weekly and monthly reports
- Ad-hoc Reporting: Performs special project ad-hoc reporting
- Budget Support: Supports annual budget process, incorporating business initiatives, economic trends, and operational effectiveness
- BI Experience: Experience using Business Intelligence and Analytics systems and tools strongly preferred (Tableau, SQL, etc.)
- Stock Analysis: Be responsible for the month-end stock position analysis and review with the business
- Trend Analysis: Support the Group finance team with weekly analysis (trend combined)
- Business Review: Support the finance control team in the month-end business review (Vs PY and Budget)
- Project Analysis: Be responsible for the new project's business case analysis
6. Junior Financial Planning Analyst Functions
- Forecast Support: Assist in preparing and delivering weekly forecast updates to the parent organization
- OPEX Analysis: Provide monthly OPEX FvA and BvA analysis and facilitate management budget controls
- KPI Management: Facilitate the weekly forecasting / KPI Operations management project
- Strategy Planning: Participate in the annual business strategy development and budget preparation processes
- Data Administration: Act as the administrator of all sources of financial data, including budget, forecasts and actual financial results, to provide business support to various internal stakeholders
- Reporting Support: Assist in the preparation of the monthly financial reporting package/management accounting
- Month-End Support: Month-end support provides analytic support and business insight into the financial results
- Decision Support: Collaborate with Finance and operations teams to drive strategic decision support
- KPI Development: Alignment of commercial reports with corporate metrics and development of ad hoc KPI and trackers to facilitate proactive business decisions from the business leaders
- Special Projects: Work on ad-hoc special projects
7. Financial Planning Analyst Job Description
- Decision Support: Proactively shape and influence IT Senior Management's decision-making process by managing the analysis and reporting around key business drivers.
- Reporting Analysis: Convert monthly and quarterly detailed financial data into understandable reporting summaries, analysis, insights, and actionable recommendations to be used by IT Senior Management.
- Forecast Planning: Support the monthly forecast process and annual budget plan process in a manner that drives and supports the strategic imperatives of the business, leveraging the documented forecast process and timelines.
- Close Support: Assist in the monthly close process to ensure proper financials are reported, including, but not limited to, accruals, data mining, reclassification entries, variance analysis and other required reporting.
- Scenario Modeling: Participate in key business initiatives, prepare "what-if" scenarios on certain business risk factors, break-even analysis, perform benchmarking and other ad-hoc projects
- IT Finance: Collaborate with the IT organization on IT Total Cost of Ownership, financial metrics, and cost transparency initiatives.
- Process Improvement: Analyze, recommend and implement process improvement opportunities that enhance the efficiency of the IT Finance processes while also increasing the informative value of the content provided to IT Senior Management.
- Financial Inquiry: Responds to financial inquiries by gathering, analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting data for IT leadership.
- Cost Review: Monthly cost centre analysis and review with relevant key business partners.
8. Financial Planning Analyst Overview
- Forecast Development: Assist with the development of the forecast in an agile, hyper-growth environment, working closely with leaders across the business to improve the visibility and approach to resource planning and allocation
- Insight Generation: Partner with leaders across the organisation to drive actionable insights
- Financial Reporting: Prepare financial reports for the Board and other key stakeholders
- Project Support: Understand business drivers, provide financial input into a variety of projects and assist with the effective operation of the overall FP&A team
- Stakeholder Reporting: Provide analytics, regular and ad-hoc reporting to key stakeholders across the business, to develop insight-based understandings
- Data Visualisation: Utilise data visualisation to support the design and delivery of operational and financial KPIs to cross-functional teams across the business
- BI Tooling: Lead the development of various FP&A-related BI tooling capabilities, such as dashboarding
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build and maintain collaborative relationships with colleagues within FP&A as well as cross-functionally to ensure shared objectives are clear, communication is open, and that insights and recommendations provided are understood
- Business Understanding: Develop a thorough understanding of business drivers and operations to support operating leaders in data-driven decision making and action planning to maximise opportunities
- Business Reviews: Support the preparation of comprehensive business reviews and updates to various audiences
- Data Confidentiality: Maintain user confidence and protect operations by keeping information confidential
- Special Projects: Execute special projects in support of the Head of Financial Planning and Reporting, and defined by the finance team
9. Financial Planning Analyst Details and Accountabilities
- Financial Projection: Prepare the financial projections and valuations to support management decisions
- Statement Analysis: Prepare a monthly report and analysis on financial statements (e.g., revenues, expenditures and cash management) to ensure all operations are smoothly operated
- Budget Presentation: Present the prepared annual budget to the Manager and CFO for approval and submit the budget to AirAsia Finance Group within the submission timeline
- Budget Coordination: Summarise the annual budget from each department and ensure that meets budget submission deadlines
- Variance Identification: Identify variances between actual and budgeted financial results at the end of each reporting period, and update if there are any Ad-hoc transactions
- Budget Modeling: Suggest spending improvements that increase performance, design and implement effective budget models for departments and the entire company
- Financial Support: Provide the financial data to support any other departments, including the Financial part of the CAAT form and any other aircraft business regular forms
- Ad-hoc Analysis: Update and complete the daily task requests, including Ad-hoc cargo cost analysis and passenger flight requests
- IFRS Compliance: Calculate and prepare the effect in financial terms of the new financial standard adaptation (e.g., IFRS16)
- Forecast Ownership: Ownership of P&L Forecast (monthly and Quarterly) and the Budget process
- Business Partnering: Finance business partner to the business, providing support for top-line analysis on a weekly/monthly/quarterly basis and alignment with group finance
10. Financial Planning Analyst Tasks
- Expense Reporting: Compile, prepare and publish monthly and quarterly expense reports and analyses with a focus on goal achievement for each cost owner.
- Financial Analysis: Prepare and analyze quarterly financial statements, including Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet.
- Expense Monitoring: Prepare, analyze, and monitor department expenses on a monthly and quarterly basis and brief the Director of Finance on key findings and recommendations.
- KPI Reporting: Create, prepare and publish Financial key performance indicators (KPIs) and identify trends requiring action.
- Process Improvement: Understand and update processes to assure accurate sales and expense reporting.
- Ad-hoc Analysis: Create an Ad-hoc exploratory analysis.
- Forecast Consolidation: Consolidate Mini-Circuits' domestic and international budget or forecast every quarter.
- Sales Forecasting: Partner with sales teams (domestic and international) to review and update, every quarter, the global sales forecast.
- Budget Planning: Partner with domestic teams to review and update annual and quarterly expense budgets or forecasts of US entities.
- International Budgeting: Partner with international entities to prepare, review and update annual and quarterly expense budgets.
- Forecast Framework: Create a global sales and expense forecasting framework for international entities.
- Best Practices: Initiate, develop, and drive adoption of "best practices" that enable team members to work at a higher level of productivity.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with a cross-functional team, including data insights, sales, operations, marketing, and engineering.