Over the last decade, FP&A quickly transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have. What started as a secret weapon for the biggest, most prestigious companies is now table stakes. The goalposts have moved, and simply “doing” FP&A is no longer enough to win in 2025.
At Aleph, we started the year by taking a step back and synthesizing thousands of customer conversations and interactions from 2024 to understand what the winning FP&A teams are doing differently to help them stand out.
Below, we’ll explore the core pillars that separate the top 1% of FP&A teams from the other 99%. While some of these may seem obvious, the real challenge lies in embedding these practices and principles into a team's DNA and executing with excellence.
In the coming weeks, we’ll go beyond theory and dive deeper into the “how” with a series of templates, case studies, and webinars to elevate FP&A’s impact in 2025.
Pillar 1: Perfect data is a myth; quality data is a must
What separates the top performers is not just advanced modeling or automated reports—it’s the foundation those capabilities rely on: consolidated, clean, well-structured data.
Easier said than done when virtually all data falls under FP&A’s purview. It’s arguably the most complex dataset within the business because it encapsulates the entire business from headcount to revenue and everything in between.
Siloed across multiple systems, departments, and formats, FP&A is responsible for connecting the data dots to create a 360° view of the business, report on the past, and accurately predict the future. “Garbage in, garbage out” is the simple truth that underscores a very complex challenge.
Even the best FP&A teams battle with imperfect data, but they don’t let imperfect data be a paralyzing excuse for not getting things done. They become one with every column, row, and nuance of each system, piecing together how every data table is structured and interconnected.
For example, revenue may be labeled as one thing in their ERP and something completely different in their CRM, even though these two systems are referencing to the same thing. In a perfect data world, this would never happen, but in the real world, these anomalies exist around every corner.
They serve as cross-functional translators, mapping and transforming raw source data into a common language. Throughout their journey, they document and shape their playbook to ensure consistent definitions, formats, and processes across systems and teams. This makes their data universally understandable, usable, and easier to work with over time.
The highest-performing teams embrace that perfect data is a myth. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey. Instead of striving for perfection, they pursue a holistic approach that is flexible enough to accommodate changes over time, not just a static data model that only works at a single point in time.
Winning requires a relentless focus on quality, tackling one inconsistency, automating one process, and refining one metric at a time. While the path may be complex, each improvement compounds, fueling better decisions and greater strategic support along the way.
Dig deeper into this pillar:
- Read the full post on Perfect data is a myth—here’s what top teams focus on instead
- Check out this free, lightweight AI Vendor Cleanup tool we built for anyone to use
Pillar 2: Deeply understand your business and industry
It’s natural for FP&A teams to focus on the quantitative data in front of them. After all, analyzing the facts is at the heart of what they do. However, great FP&A teams know that relying solely on their spreadsheets can lead to tunnel vision, where critical drivers are often overlooked, and numbers get misinterpreted.
What separates the good from the great is those who take the time to deeply understand their business and industry from multiple perspectives, not to broaden their focus indiscriminately, but to sharpen it on what truly matters. Knowing what to optimize for—and why—is essential.
This pillar extends beyond internal operations to include how external stakeholders assess their business. Whether it’s investors, analysts, or other market participants, being attuned to outsider points of view arms them with the foresight to align internal metrics with broader market expectations.
To build this level of understanding, top performers:
- Engage regularly with other teams. They have routine 1:1s to learn what challenges others face and what drives their success. For example, talking to the sales team about deal cycles or the product team about development bottlenecks.
- Explore product and industry dynamics. They know their product inside and out, what differentiates it, and track competitors’ strategies. They build a repository of resources and benchmarks to keep a pulse on what others are seeing and doing.
- Separate signals from the noise. They sift through mounds of quantitative and qualitative data to decipher leading indicators from lagging ones and ensure that the company resources are always pointed towards areas with the highest ROI.
When FP&A teams dedicate time to listening and learning, they not only improve their own effectiveness but also help build a culture of alignment and shared success. Being curious isn’t just a skill—it’s a competitive advantage that positions you and your company for long-term, scalable growth.
Pillar 3: Balance simplicity and complexity
Building the perfect model is a quest many seek, but few achieve. Even the top 1% of FP&A teams humbly admit that their models are an ongoing work in progress. But what sets these teams apart is their ability to strike the perfect balance between simplicity and complexity—knowing when to go deep and when to keep it simple.
Their models have simple front ends connected to complex back ends, allowing them to present clarity without sacrificing depth. Imagine being on a call with a CEO who asks, “What would happen if we did this?”
They can adjust two to three cells on the fly and provide real-time answers. Their models are deeply interconnected, and a single change updates forecasts, expenses, and inputs across the board. Their outputs are easy for non-finance stakeholders to understand and digest.
This balance is not just about design but also about prioritization. The best teams know that perfection isn’t the goal from day one. Instead, they start with a simple yet functional foundation and layer in complexity with each iteration.
They channel their energy into areas with the highest impact. For instance, they wouldn’t use 15 assumptions to forecast a minor expense that accounts for 1% of total costs, but they might use 15+ assumptions to model headcount, which drives 80% of expenses.
This pillar also extends well beyond the walls of modeling best practices. Instead of spending a day to optimize a work-from-home stipend that’s worth a few hundred dollars, top performers redirect their efforts to high-leverage areas like software expenses, where a focused analysis could uncover $10k in savings in an hour.
This disciplined focus reflects their understanding of the Pareto principle, where 80% of outcomes often come from 20% of inputs. The best teams get really good at identifying when simplicity and “good enough” meet the needs of the business vs. when and where to go deep. It’s not about cutting corners; it’s about optimizing for impact.
Pillar 4: Automate anything that can be automated
Automation is a core pillar that the top teams identify, document, and roll out on their ascent to the top. Like any other function, it takes doing things that don’t scale to define the roadmap for what can be scaled.
For example, consider the process of creating an audit-ready P&L. What may take days in the early days can usually be reduced to hours or even minutes through automation. Similarly, instead of manually checking every transaction for data discrepancies, teams configure rules and alerts to flag inconsistencies automatically.
These examples may be intuitive, but it takes the pain of manually doing them before you have the playbooks for exactly where and how to automate them. Throughout this journey, top teams constantly ask, “What can be streamlined? What’s the bottleneck? What technology can help us do this faster or better?”
They know that automation isn’t just about saving time. It eliminates costly errors that can have disastrous effects on the trust and confidence in their work. A more automated process is, if done correctly, a more robust one.
This focus on automation doesn’t mean removing human judgment—it means multiplying FP&A’s impact over time without having to multiply its headcount. Automating the mundane, manual busy work allows FP&A to dedicate more time and energy to strategic support and mastering the art of storytelling that we cover in our last pillar.
Pillar 5: Master the art of collaboration and storytelling
And last but certainly not least, the top-performing FP&A teams don’t just crunch numbers—they step into the shoes of a business owner. They operate as strategic partners, aligning their efforts with the company’s overarching goals and supporting teams across the organization to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
While strong technical skills are foundational, they’re only part of the equation. Winning teams know how to pair these skills with a cohesive narrative that reflects the broader business context. They are the mirror and the flashlight for the business, reflecting what’s happening and illuminating what’s ahead.
They elevate their role from passive data hunters to proactive business partners, collaborating closely with stakeholders to refine plans and ensure alignment. They’re no longer just a back-office function; they’ve become the glue that connects the front office, blending technical expertise with interpersonal “people skills” to serve as cross-functional cheerleaders and champions.
And what really separates the top 1% from the other 99% is their mastery of storytelling. They become chameleons, adapting their pitch and approach to different audiences, whether it’s exciting engineers about how a product launch added to revenue or customer success about how their efforts are boosting NRR.
By adopting a business owner mindset, these teams become indispensable partners. They don’t just analyze the past—they help shape the future, empowering the organization to take confident steps toward its strategic objectives. This mindset transforms finance into a critical driver of growth and alignment across the entire business.
Take your FP&A team from good to great in 2025
The path to FP&A greatness isn’t defined by one major leap but by a series of deliberate, consistent steps. Every process, decision, and interaction has a snowball effect that builds toward greater impact.
At Aleph, we work with thousands of FP&A professionals across a range of company sizes, industries, and stages of maturity. Every team’s dynamic is different, but the common thread is that they all built a solid foundation using these five pillars.
This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of what lies beneath each pillar. In the coming weeks, we’ll dive deep into the “how” for each pillar with a series of templates, case studies, and webinars. We hope you’ll subscribe and follow along. 👇
Our goal with this series is to help other FP&A teams navigate their journey and give back to the FP&A community that Aleph was built on top of. A rising tide lifts all boats.
If you’re interested in seeing how Aleph’s platform helps build these pillars faster and stronger, we’d love to show you around.
