Mid-Year Planning and Other Forecasts
Jun 11, 2025
It is now June. Organizations on a calendar year are nearly done with the second quarter. At the half-way point in the year there should be a fair amount of clarity about two things:
- Year-to-date performance against the annual operating plan
- Quarter-to-date performance against the latest forecast
Though over simplified, there is a cascading effect of information associated with each of the bullet points mentioned above. Examples include achievement of strategic objectives and specific initiatives planned for the year as well as performance against top line growth, margin achievement and spending objectives. There are some companies that are large enough and have enough FP&A resources to do mid-year, long range plans – essentially a second annual operating plan leveraging mid-year information. In the world of FP&A processes this tends to be a luxury item and can sit inside of many other FP&A forecasting cycles making mid-year planning redundant.
However, given the state of the world both politically and economically in terms of volatility and uncertainty, redundancy in forecasting is crucial. There are two features of forecasting that need to be enhanced given the external state of affairs:
- More frequent forecasts are necessary
- More robust forecasts in terms of scenarios that capture various economic possibilities and detailed trigger points for decision making
Enhancing and institutionalizing this increased frequency in response to the political and economic environment we are all operating in can make a tremendous difference in the profitability of a business. Thats where I can help.