Reimagining FP&A: From spreadsheets to a single source of truth

Welcome to our OneStream webinar, Reimagining FP&A from Spreadsheets to a Single Source of the Truth. We are seeing FP&A leaders under increasing pressure to deliver faster forecasts, clearer scenarios and sharper insights for the business. Yet many teams are still constrained by disconnected data and spreadsheet heavy processes. In this webinar, we're going to explore how PwC Switzerland modernized their FP&A approach, moving from fragmented planning to a unified driver-based model that delivers speed, alignment and measurable results. Let's take a quick look at the agenda.

So we'll dive into introductions just next. Then we'll go into a little bit about PwC Switzerland. We'll look at the challenges, opportunities really that they had, how they reimagined FP&A. We'll take a look at some of the benefits that they achieved. And we'll also do a little bit of looking forward and consider some best practices around FP&A. And then at the end of the session, we will have a Q&A section.

You're welcome to post questions and we'll try to take as many as we can live, but we'll be monitoring those and we'll ensure to get you an answer back after the event.

So important introductions. I'm Nicholas Cox. I'm from Global Product Marketing here at OneStream. And I'm joined today by Paolo Bugatti from PwC Switzerland. Paolo, we're honored to have you join us today. Please, can you share a little bit about yourself and your role with the audience today?

Yes. Thank you, Nick, for having me here. I'm Paolo Bugatti, Senior Manager here at PwC Switzerland since more than four years. Previous to that, I was working for several companies in the industry side in various role in finance, corporate strategy. I have a background of mechanical engineering, an MBA. I'm married. I have two kids, so I'm used to be challenged. And I'm happy to have a fruitful discussion with you about our FP&A transformation here at PwC Switzerland.

Excellent. Thank you, Paolo. Thank you. So let's dive in a little bit to about PwC Switzerland. Would you like to share a little bit more about the organization and maybe a little bit about the complexity? Yes, sure. So, I mean, I think everybody knows PwC globally, but now here at PwC Switzerland, a couple of figures. So we are 13 offices, around 3,600 employees, a lot of nationalities, more than 80. So we are truly diverse in that sense from all over the world. And we are a little country. We have roughly 1 billion of revenue, but we are, as you were saying, also quite complex.

We have four line of services, as also globally, the advisory, tax advisory, assurance or audit, and obviously our corporate function, which all of them need to plan their business for the next year, for the next three years.

Globally, we are present in 136 countries, more than 370,000 employees and roughly 57 billion US dollar of revenues. Great. Thank you, Paolo. Great. So I know we can take a look at the industries that PwC supports globally, and I know that differs a little bit. You can explain how that's somewhat different in Switzerland. Yes. I mean, this is a global view with more than 175,000 clients that we are serving in the various lines of service, as I mentioned before.

Roughly, and if I look at Switzerland, more than 28% are financial services. We are probably around 20%, 25%. And then a big pocket is industrial manufacturing. Here also in Switzerland, which makes also about a quarter. And obviously we have all the health industry, which we are all have reserving. So it gives, although this is the global view, but at the end of the day, it gives a pretty good representation also of Switzerland.

Excellent. Great. Thank you, Paolo. So let's dive a little bit into the challenges. We could say challenges and opportunities, but, you know, what were the challenges that you were seeing around planning and the FP&A process at PwC Switzerland?

Yes. So maybe I start also with my role here at PwC and what was my role in this project. I mean, my role here at PwC in general is to implement OneStream for our clients. Now, in this particular case, we implemented OneStream for ourselves. So I was the project leader on that. And when we started the project roughly three, three and a half years ago, we had, as you can see here, a couple of challenges.

We were doing planning as everybody else we see still out there doing it with Excel at the end of the day, with multiple processes, with multiple models. Some of our line of service were doing it more top-down. Some of them were involving more people, more teams, doing it more bottom-up. At the end of the day, they were not a unified process, a unified platform to put in the data and to have one model how we want to plan the business. And plan the business, obviously, you do budgeting, you do then the forecasting, and you do a long-range plan.

So we didn't have an integrated reporting solution, neither. We had a solution which basically was based on Excel files. And at the end, you didn't have one source of truth. Or at the beginning of the process, obviously, then you start discussing, you have a lot of iteration. At the end, you need to agree on a certain set of data.

Then you get to this data, but the process itself took a long time until you were there. And so that was really a challenge. And then, obviously, then we decided that we want to have a more state-of-the-art system solution platform, helping us to speed up the process at the end of the day, to be more efficient, more effective in how we are doing our planning exercises. Great.

Thank you, Bauer. Now, I understand. So you had multiple models and you had different spreadsheet processes. And I'm assuming you had different versions of the truth, people coming to meetings with different versions of numbers.

Yes, absolutely. One special challenge was we are importing and exporting services also within the PwC Switzerland. Maybe a couple of words about our business. At the end of the day, we are selling actually people to our clients. So, and in that sense, one team could, let's say, sell the people or the service through the people who are client. Or he could also, let's say, import from another team, from another line of service, or from the network, these people which are planned then to execute projects.

So, obviously, there needs to be alignment between this export and import. And you still need to do that. Also, with the system, you still need to talk to the people. But you are much more facilitated how you reach and how you have the data in one platform, where before it was one Excel 5 had a number, let's say 100. Another Excel 5 had a number 110. Nobody were updating it. There were errors there. I mean, we all know how it is with Excel. There is no Excel without errors. So, obviously, it takes more time. And that was not really efficient.

Great. Yeah. No, I understand. I've seen it many times. Thank you, Paolo. So, how did you go about the selection of OneStream? You looked at other systems. You maybe researched the market a little bit. How did you arrive at the decision for OneStream? Well, yes. We obviously went through a serious tool selection or system selection process. We looked at the different system in the market.

We did pro and cons at the end. We started, of course, with our requirements. Requirements to have one platform we can use for all the data. Requirements on how fast we can set it up. Requirements on how easy it is to maintain requirements around. Also, the workflow that you can build in. So, all kind of these requirements. And then we compared the system which are in the market. There are maybe, I would say, four or five systems which are still there. And obviously, we came to the decision that OneStream for us was the best system. So, obviously, then we choose that.

And that was a conscious decision. Also, because of the benefit. What I believe has OneStream with this one platform approach.

Excellent. Of course, I would say you made a great choice, Paolo. Thank you. So, let's take a look at how you have really reimagined FP&A. And so, we've got this a little bit more detail about what you did and how you've achieved that. So, maybe the question is, how did you set about this, this reimagining the FP&A function?

Well, let's say everything started, obviously, with a vision. Also, for an FP&A transformation, you need to define where you want to go, what you want to achieve at the very beginning. So, we said, we want, as I mentioned before, be more efficient. But what does that mean, be more efficient? Before, we were having, from a time point of view, to do a budget, two to three months we needed. Now, we set the goal. Okay, we want to do it in four weeks.

A forecast was not possible. I just pressed a button, you know. Now, we really can have it in one day. So, that's more, that's really being more efficient and using the time of our people to do more work, which generates insights, generates

being able to steer the business, being able to having the right discussion and then taking the right decisions. So, that's obviously one angle of. Then, insight focused. Exactly.

What platform, once you have more time available, you can generate insights that you are using to drive the business. You have a proper governance structure behind. So, it needs to be governed. That's obviously also one stream is giving you the tools to define who has which role, who has which responsibility in the whole process of the planning. Then, we decided we want to go from, let's say, account-based planning, where we see that. Also, today, you have a P&L and then you look, okay, this year we achieved that much in revenue. How much we want to achieve next year?

Plus 5%. Let's just take a number. Now, we want to understand the driver and we want to be able to also make scenarios. So, driver-based planning. So, all this we said as a vision, what we want to achieve.

So, basically, also implementing into one stream the model of PwC, the business model. Obviously, it's a simplified model. We have a planning. But the model of, as I mentioned before, we are selling at the end people to execute projects. So, our driver is FTEs, how many people we have, how many people we can bring to the client.

Another driver, another way to see it, how many projects we would execute next year. So, this is all driver that we brought into the planning model, into one stream when we were setting up to, let's say, have a simplified version of our business to have this budgeting and forecasting.

So, and that goes also in the appropriate level of detail because, obviously, in the budgeting, you do a bottom-up planning, whereas in the forecasting, in our case, as we defined it, based on the requirements that we need to do it in one day, it's more a top-down. So, the right level where you do the budgeting, the right level where you do forecasting.

We defined that at the beginning, in the vision, in the requirements, and, obviously, then we designed it first, and then we implemented it because it's crucial to have a really design before you start setting up the system.

Great. Important advice, I think, you know, in terms of planning and having a design up front. Yeah, very important. I'm curious, Paolo, was reducing cycle time, so the timing of the process, was that one of the most important goals of the project, or would you say these were all equal?

It's definitely one of the most important process or many important goals because it frees up time to do more value-added activities, to make variance analysis, to make variance analysis, to do performance analysis, to take the decision. I think that's definitely one of the goals. Besides, obviously, to get rid at the end of Excel in the planning exercise, because you need to maintain Excel. You need, yes, you have errors.

It's just not state-of-the-art. Yeah, yeah. No, I understand. And I think, yeah, getting to that one source of the truth and then making it more efficient, you know, has really made a difference. So we can dive a little bit more into the details. So, you know, really, I like this slide in terms of, you know, you can explain here how you interlinked planning, budgeting, and forecasting in one unified platform. Yes, sure. So what you see on the left, it's actually a simplified management or planning cycle. So when we look at that, we divide it in, let's say, four pockets.

The first one is the strategy, the corporate strategy, or realisation of strategy, the business planning, how you want to call it, aspiration formulation. Obviously, we don't bring that into a system, into a finance system like one stream. But it gives the direction. It needs to give the goal. Out of this, what we have, and that's the yellow part here, it's obviously the long-term plan, the three-years plan, the target setting.

Then the next one is the budgeting, the bottom-up budgeting. And if you look at the year, the next year, obviously, you have the forecast and you have the management reporting. So these three parts, the long-range plan in yellow, the budget in purple, and the forecast, we designed and we implemented into one stream. We started with the budgeting, and here on the right, you also see what were our, let's say, goals. So it needs to be driver-based, FTE as a main driver, and it needs to fulfil the requirements to be done in approximately four weeks.

And that's a bottom-up budget where we include all the teams of PwC Switzerland with their forecast and bringing in what's their expectation, how many people they plan for next year, out of that how much revenue and how much cost and so on. On the other hand, we implemented the forecast and there we changed the view because based on the requirements that we want to have an update of the forecast in one day, we can obviously not do the four weeks exercise and going up,

bottom-up and asking ourselves how many people I have. So we are much higher level and we decided and we designed, let's just look at the project. So we are changing the driver. So we know, we see our outlook is maybe that much turnover.

Ah, in the discussion, we see we have one project more or one project less. So if the turnover increases by, let's say, 10 million, let's just put in as a management, how the management see the business going, 10 million. And thanks to the functionality of OneStream, we are spreading it down and basically updating very fast the forecast.

The long-range plan as the last component is a three-year plan in our case. We had the requirement that it needs to be done in one week. So there are more discussion as then in the forecast.

But it has a similar logic than that the forecast is just is basically on growth rates on the project where we see the business. And it's also set as more as a, let's say, target setting for the budget in the first year. Excellent. Excellent. Great. Thank you, Paolo. No, I think that really effectively talks to, you know, how you've, how you've done, you know, how you've achieved everything in that unified way. And we'll have a chance to revisit this slide when we, when we talk a little bit more about best practices. So you'll see this slide again. So let's.

Yes, yes. Exactly. That's one thing of the platform because everything is interlinked. Every data there and that's what you exactly see there, how everything fits together.

Yeah. Wonderful. No, great. I think you really explained it really, really well. So thank you for that, Paolo. Yeah. So let's, let's talk a little bit more about the, the benefits and the, the value that you've achieved. And, you know, what, what overall would you say have been the benefits of the project? You know, what sort of results have you seen? Yes.

So this is a reflection of, of our budget. Since we see here, let's say on, on the management cycle, all the parties which are involved from the board of director, the management down to the teams.

And on the left, how, let's say long the process war and, and thick. So the alignments between the teams. We, if you look at, at the management cycle and the impact on the right side, we were really able to reduce the cycle time down to four weeks. In general, what we see is that you can reduce this, with a state of the art system between 30 and 50% of the time used with proper governance, proper process, proper workflows.

So we achieved that. We also reduced the amount of alignment between the teams, the people to let's say have a unified source of truth where you have one data set. That's the data set. Obviously the team still needs to talk between each other, but there is a rule based how you set up these, these numbers, how, which numbers, is now the valid one and it's automatically set for everybody because there is one platform. So we have obviously scenario planning in there. We can obviously save one version of the budget to a second version, compare them. It's, it's very fast and easy.

It's integrated in that sense and it's robust. Obviously, actually it's not robust by itself. So really that were the, where the benefits be achieved for the budget. But also obviously for the forecast and for the long range plan. And we are able now also to, for the management reporting, to compare the figures to actuals, to see why we, where is the gap?

What we do about it and how, what decision needs to be taken. Excellent. That's great results, Paolo. Would you, would you say actually now you have the ability to scale and meet the needs of the future much more so than you would have done with the, you know, the, the, the original kind of spreadsheet process?

Well, to scale it up since it's now very easy because let's assume you have, you increase the business, you have more teams to bring them aboard. It's very easy because everybody's using the same process, the same workflow.

It's just a couple of team mores, which needs to give their input. Whereas before you might have had a different Excel file, more different discussion with more teams. So now the, when you scale it up, you don't really have an impact on, on the timing because yes, you still need to have a discussion with the teams, but it's not the one time, five times, 10 times discussion and alignment. Now really you have the platform. Everybody's looking at the same platform, knows what is required, knows the deadline to input their figures.

So I have all the figures are there in that one platform and then you just come together. You decide which one is the right number and that's it. And it doesn't matter how many teams you have involved. So to scale it up now today of 3,600 people and if tomorrow PWC Switzerland would be the double of the size, that's no problem.

Excellent. Yeah, that's great. That's what, that's what you want is that sort of solid foundation. And yeah, I just wanted to call out, I really liked that last line on the, on the slide there. Budgeting is not a separate event anymore, but fully integrated. That's one of my favorite texts on there really. I think it shows that you've got it really in, in one solution.

Great. So let's go forward now and, and look at some of the best practices maybe that, that, that we can dive into. So, you know, I just want to, to ask a few things really around FP&A. What, what is next for FP&A and perhaps, you know, how, how do you see the function changing in the next few years?

What is next? Next. I think this, a state of the art system, you really like the foundation for everything. What comes next can, can be predictive, uh, forecasting.

So you connect a lot of more data from the outside world to generate, for instance, a forecast or a budget, uh, automated. So it's obviously a system generated one, but it might give you a different view of the world.

That obviously depends in which industry you are, if you have a lot of data out there that you can use or not. So that, that's one way, obviously the future will, will go, uh, interconnection with external and internal data system generated as one. So I, of, of, of the, of the planning, I don't think that it will replace the planning at the end of the day, because you need still somebody who is responsible for the figure.

Who needs them to execute the plan. And if it's only system generated, nobody's responsible. I think there will be some governance problem. And then obviously as everybody's saying AI is, is, uh, also the future AI will help, but in a sense to support us, uh, what are we looking for to give us suggestion? It, I don't think it will replace us also because of the same, and that means also the future of FP&A.

So the, the people working in FP&A, they need to skill up, not only on the technology, but also they need to skill up in the business understanding in the company they are. I see FP&A in the future as a co-pilot of the CEO. And in order to be the co-pilot of the CEO, you need to understand the business. So you need to be able to sit at the table, bring your insights there, and to discuss what's going on based on the data that you generated, that you have, that you get from a system like OneStream. And so making suggestions, really discussing the issues and take decisions.

So really the future for me of FP&A, thanks to the system and the tools is to be faster, to then be more efficient, to generate insights and to be able to discuss the, uh, the issue that any company have and to, and to steer the business. Now, maybe I see here best practices on FP&A, maybe best practices on, uh, executing such a transformation. I think best practice is very crucial that before you embark in, uh, in a setup, in an implementation, you have a proper design, what you want to implement.

Paper forgives you a lot. If you, if you decide to do it different, I mean, you just scratch it out, you lose maybe one day, you have a couple of more discussion. Obviously, if you, if you didn't do that, and in the middle of the implementation, you want to change it, it will impact your timeline and it will impact your cost. In our case, we did the design for the budget. We did the design for the forecast and for the long range plan. Why?

Because the models are different. The requirements were different. So we need to define how we want to simplify which shortcuts you accept to do during your, uh, your planning exercise. And that's needs to be designed in order to have a successful FP&A transformation.

Cool. Great. No, I think that's a, you know, great lead into the best practices piece, Paolo. You know, I know we said we revisit your slide. I think, you know, one of the things I picked up really there was to, you know, the planning and the design that you did up front really, you know, focus and, and, and those, those kind of goals you really put in place around what the timing should be. That seems to have been quite critical for you.

Well, yes, it, it was a management requirement. So we had to fulfill that. And then obviously a lot of discussion during the project was how do we do that? I mean, how do we do that? I mean, system helps us. We can, because we are with this one platform and that also why we selected one stream with this one platform, we bringing actual data, budget data on a monthly basis together. So we really can press the button and generate an outlook. And, yes, it was, it was a mandatory requirement, which we had to fulfill.

Sure. Great. Thank you. So I'd like to, like to just dive back to AI a little bit. You mentioned, you know, around the future of FP&A and you mentioned AI, and I think that's a, you know, very topical. A lot of people are thinking about what AI can do for them and how to bring that into processes.

And so, you know, I'm going to call on a little bit of research that one stream have done recently, which showed us that 83% of CFOs anticipate increasing AI spending. However, right now, when we looked, only 33% have successfully deployed AI solutions. So I'm just interested to ask you, you know, why you think that is, you know, is there, there's certainly a gap there in actually executing on AI?

Well, if, or how I see it, at the end of the day, everything what you do, you implement the system, you, you have AI. It needs to create value in our case for PwC Switzerland or for a client or for the company. It needs to create value. Now, how do you create value?

Well, either you increase your top line or you decrease your cost so you have a higher bottom line. Now, AI needs also to create value. What does that mean? If you want to reduce, with AI, if you want to reduce costs, well, I don't think that's the way now for finance should go. But AI can help you, thanks that you're generating more insights and thanks that you are being able to be the co-pilot of the CEO, maybe to increase the top line. So have the right insights on what you can do in the business.

So I think today we are not, or AI needs to really to be able to help you to generate value and not only, let's say, have a, be as a gadget, let's call it like this, where let's talk to my data. Yes, I see. And I know how to have a couple of questions and it's just there, but it needs to be embedded in the process.

It needs to facilitate the finance person to get insight into the business. And I can take these insights and I can make my business thoughts and bring them to the table. That's what's value generation. And I think maybe that's why there is this gap of only 33% were successful because there was more, let's say, let's try AI. Let's try a couple of things disconnected. And then, yeah, I think it needs some time to get there, but I think we are on the right way.

Perfect. Yeah. No, no, I like your explanation. And I think, yeah, you know, I do think it's, there are additional tools, there are new tools that we can make use of. They can really help to bring efficiencies and insights, as you said, you know, new information. So I think there's a long way to go for some with AI. Some really great results could be possible.

So final thing, actually, I just want to, just the last box on the slide really is, I know you mentioned already that, you know, around the skills for the future that FP&A will need. And you mentioned having a really good understanding of the business and how critical that is. And, you know, I fully agree.

I also wanted to reflect on that with AI, you know, in terms of what do you think, what skills do you think will become essential for FP&A professionals with the age of AI and advanced analytics? You know, and I'm thinking about this kind of prompt and building reports. Those are the kind of things that I see. Do you agree?

Yes, I agree. Of course, you need to upskill technically. You need to know how you're using the systems.

But on the other hand, you need also to have a better business understanding to challenge what you receive and to understand what AI is telling you. So you're right. It's the combination of two, of the two. You need to be able to prompt, to use these new tools in the right way so that at the end, you're generating value for your company, for the business.

Perfect. Thank you, Paolo. I think we can turn over to questions now. So I see that we've had questions submitted. So thank you for that. And I'm scanning them very quickly now. So as I said, we'll try to take a few just now. And then, you know, we're monitoring them. So we do have them recorded. So I'll pick this question first, Paolo. It's asking you about data consistency. So how did you ensure data consistency and governance without slowing down business decision making as part of your project?

I think we achieved data consistency thanks to the platform. And one stream and the platform gives us the opportunity and the tools to have a proper governance automatically in place. So we didn't really slow down the business of the decision. Of course, during, let's say, the project, you involve people from the business, you know, which are part of the project.

But that's part of the game, let's say. You want to implement a new system. You cannot do that alone as a finance organization. You need people on the business. And actually, that's a very important aspect when you execute also such a project, because you need to involve everybody from the business already from the beginning in the design phase that explain to you what their challenge is, how they see it, to make the alignment. And that's also important for the change management afterwards.

Otherwise, the business will not accept a system like this. So it's very important also to have the people.

But I don't see that or that we had to ensure this. It just came natural, let's say, with the platform, with OneStream itself.

Excellent. Great. Thank you. Yeah. So another question, I think, about KPIs. What KPIs do you think matter most when measuring the impact of an FP&A transformation?

I accept, let's say, the reduced cycle time as a KPI. I don't see one. You have the definition of what you want to achieve. I mean, obviously, you don't want to achieve a cost reduction with an FP&A transformation. Otherwise, you need to get rid of certain people in the company. So because you want to free them up to do more value-added activities.

Obviously, we had KPIs on the timing to implement it. We had KPIs that how we want to roll out the transformation. And then, obviously, we decided to have everybody aboard from the beginning for the change management. That makes it easier. So there are more, let's say, soft KPIs, not actual KPIs.

We want to have, as I said, besides, let's say, that we want to achieve it in four weeks. So a reduction of 50% of the time. The other were rather soft KPIs. Obviously,

proper governance in the project execution with weekly touchpoint and everything needs to be discussed. And obviously, being in budget. But that's, you know, that's a project thing. That's not the case. Yeah.

At the end, it's about the project execution. And if the project is successful, we definitely see it what our people at the finance organization are, what work they are doing today. And they're not doing any number crunching anymore. And that's also a KPI. You cannot measure it, but it's definitely a KPI that tells you if you're successful or not.

Sure. Yes. Great. Thank you. Well, I think we've probably got time for one more question, but I just wanted to call out on the screen there. You'll see the barcode. Do check that out. That's the 2026 Finance Leaders Guide to FP&A. So if that's of interest to you, that's an asset that could be interesting to link to. So, Paolo, one more. I think this gives us an opportunity to talk a little bit about the project, as you just mentioned. And it's how did you deal with change management during the project?

Well, as I mentioned before, we took change management very serious. So we set up from the beginning and not only this, let's say, the core project team, which was designing and setting up the one stream, but with the large project team, meaning everybody from the business, everybody from the teams, which have then also a role in the planning, a role in executing, using the system, which were before doing the planning, which were before doing the planning, let's say, we set up a weekly touchpoint, showing them what are we doing.

They can bring their input. They can challenge us. So we discuss how we want to do it. Also to make the alignment. Every week they were part of the project.

And that's, let's say, how change management at the end of the day and acceptance of a new system went very smooth.

The first year, I mean, obviously, you had them to do some fixes, but if they were quite minor. So then maybe you want to have some changes on the logic and you build it up. But because then also the people which were involved, they could contribute and they saw, oh, we decided it there. Now we see how it looks. We want to change it. So you have this, let's say, community in the project. And that makes the change management very easy if you work and if you communicate to all the stakeholders of the project, of the planning community, in our case, openly.

And tell them that's the goal. Contribute. And if they can contribute, they are part of the project and then it's a change management. It's much easier.

Excellent. That's great. Thank you. Yeah. Really good. Good advice. Thank you. Thank you, Paolo. So I think at that point, and it's time to say thank you. You know, really, thank you, Paolo, for your insights and experience today. Thank you for being here and thank you to our audience for attending. We really hope you'll join us at another one of these webinars very soon. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Nick, for having me. It was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you and have a great day.