Executive Summary
The three key activities of corporate financial management take place on a continuum of the past (reporting and compliance), present (analysis and measurement), and future (planning and forecasting). Financial business process (BP) professionals must coordinate the activities that are part of this financial process life cycle (FPLC) to enhance the value of information within the business and drive better execution of compliance imperatives — but automation and integration gaps discourage their efforts. By treating the full array of financial activities as a cycle or continuum, financial BP pros can more effectively integrate and automate these activities, creating a valuable resource of historical, performance, and predictive information. This information will give financial BP pros a better understanding of past results, current business performance, and expected future results and improve their ability to make strategic and tactical decisions.
