What does financial management and planning look like for professional service organisations?
In this whitepaper, we dive into the challenges faced by finance teams in professional services and how these can be tackled. We also explore the vital role finance teams play in strategic planning, mitigating risks, and enhancing overall efficiency.Â
Professional services in Australia today
The professional services industry plays a vital role in supporting various industries and businesses across the country. It includes a broad range of services such as legal, accounting, management consulting, architectural, engineering, advertising, marketing, information technology, environmental, and scientific research and development.   Â
Like many other industries, organisations within this space face a range of challenges in today’s dynamic and competitive landscape. These include market differentiation, client expectations, capitalising on emerging trends, and attracting and retaining talent. There are also enormous opportunities to drive growth due to the increasing demand for specialised knowledge and expertise.
Challenges for finance leaders in professional services
A finance leader in the professional services sector would be well across the industry’s opportunities and challenges. They understand the need to apply effective financial management through properly allocating resources and managing financial forecasts to ensure they are best positioned to achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives. Â
Effective financial management requires sound Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) practices. These must evolve to fully account for people planning and related costs, revenue and pipeline forecasting that considers all key variables, whilst at the same time ensuring profitable alignment between the expected demand, and ability to supply the services required. Â
For most professional services organisations, this can be a complex undertaking. In this whitepaper, we discuss some of these challenges and how they may be overcome.
- Revenue forecasting: Ensuring clear visibility into project pipeline is crucial, but finance teams often struggle with fragmented data spread across multiple systems. We discuss the challenges of spreadsheet dependent revenue forecasting, and how to improve on the reliability of forecasted revenue, and highlight risks and opportunities.
- Headcount planning and related costs: The value of a professional services organisation is intrinsically tied to the skills and capabilities of the employees that provide those services. We dive into capacity planning and how it is multi-dimensional, paying attention to having the right skills and compensation mix to name a few.
- Visibility of performance: How can professional services optimise their consulting resource pool, track realisation rates, and minimise the risk of project costs overruns? We explore tools that can drive visibility and transparency, as well as performance.
- Automation and efficiency: Empowered by technology, finance teams are increasingly moving away from manual activities and focussing their time on more value-adding activities. Read about the tools that can help improve on collaboration and strategic outcomes.
Want to learn about solutions for finance teams in professional services? See what Workday Adaptive Planning can do for you, or contact our team for a chat.
