The 10 commandments of FP&A storytelling - part 2
Two months ago, I posted an article on what I thought were the 10 commandments of FP&A story telling. It was born out of the some of my past frustrations of working with FP&A professionals, and a small attempt in making FP&A at my current company better. Following the post, two well-wishers suggested a deep-dive on the commandments with examples. Thank you for the challenge.
This post is the same ten commandments, with examples of what works and what doesn’t. For this article, I have got inputs from three of my peers - one, a SaaS CFO, and two in fintech. All three have requested not be named in the article - you know who you are. Thank you for sharing your experience. This post wouldn’t be possible without you. None of the examples are from my current company.
Here we go!
1) Know your audience
What it really means: your message should change based on who’s in the room. Same facts, different framing.
Real example: You’re reviewing Q3 marketing ROI.
- For the CFO: “We can hit FY EBITDA with a £1.2m reallocation from brand to performance without raising total spend; CAC drops from £142 to £128 within two quarters.”
- For the cmo: “Shifting £1.2m from channels A & B to paid search and affiliate lifts net-new customers by ~9% this half without hurting brand search.”
- For the board: “Reallocation preserves FY EBITDA while keeping growth guidance intact; risk is execution timing over Black Friday.”
Try this prompt before you build slides:
“By the end of this meeting, I need [person] to understand X, believe Y, and decide Z.”
Common pitfall: presenting the model’s structure instead of the decision at hand.
2) Don’t drown them in data
What it really means: every number must earn its place. If it doesn’t change the decision, it’s noise.
Real example: A 45-tab OPEX workbook became a 6-slide pack. We kept three metrics: run-rate, variance vs plan, and cash impact. The COO finally engaged because she could see her unit’s levers on one page.
Quick test:
- If I remove this chart, does the recommendation change? If not, cut it.
- Can I replace three small charts with one clean waterfall or bridge? Do it.
Watch-out: vanity metrics (“impressions up 120%”) without a link to revenue, cost, or risk.
3) Begin with the “so what”
What it really means: headline first, proof second.
Real example (email to CEO): Subject: “Recommendation: pause hiring plan; still hit FY revenue” Opening line: “We can meet the £84m target while pausing 11 non-critical hires; runway extends by 3 months. Key risks: sales ramp, seasonality.” Then the detail: ramp curves, sensitivity, and the hiring map.
Slide template:
- Title = the conclusion (“Pause 11 roles; keep target”)
- Left = 3 bullets on why
- Right = one chart that proves it (e.g., revenue vs capacity)
Common pitfall: thirty minutes of context before the ask. Executives don’t have time for suspense.
4) Use visuals wisely
What it really means: visuals should reveal a pattern, not decorate the story.
Real example: We replaced a 20-row variance table with a waterfall: price/mix, volume, FX, and overheads. The board immediately asked about FX hedging instead of debating row 17.
When to use what:
- Waterfall for variance drivers.
- Line for trends and seasonality.
- Stacked bar to compare mix.
- Scatter for efficiency frontiers (e.g., spend vs ROI).
- Bridge for EBITDA from LTM to guidance.
Watch-out: “Frankencharts” — 3 axes, dual scales, tiny fonts. If you need to explain how to read it, redesign it.
5) Build bridges, not silos
What it really means: connect finance to operations, customers, and strategy.
Real example: Customer service wait times were up, churn ticked up, revenue dipped. The story that landed:
“A 40-second increase in wait time in Q2 raised churn by 0.6 pp and cost £380k ARR; hiring 8 agents pays back in 5.4 months.” Finance, ops, and CX rallied behind a single action because the chain of cause and effect was explicit.
Bridge checklist:
- What operational lever explains this financial movement?
- What’s the customer impact?
- How does today’s fix influence next quarter’s KPIs?
Common pitfall: presenting variances as fate, not as choices.
6) Speak human, not jargon
What it really means: translate ratios into actions.
Real example: Instead of “Gross margin compresses 160 bps due to adverse mix,” try:
“We sold more low-margin SKUs; for every 1% shift back to core, we recover ~£220k per quarter.”
Before/after:
- Before: “Capex carry forward reduces FY CFADS.”
- After: “Pushing two projects to Q1 improves year-end cash by ~£1.4m.”
Simple rule: if your slide needs a glossary, rewrite it.
7) Create tension
What it really means: highlight the gap between plan and reality, then show the path to resolution.
Real example: “We planned for 12% growth; we’re tracking to 8%. Three things changed: conversion, delivery times, and returns. We can still reach 10% by doing A, B, C; 12% requires incremental risk (D).” This frames risk honestly and invites a decision.
Useful device: the “red thread” slide
- Expectation: “Plan: 12%”
- Reality: “Run-rate: 8%”
- Root causes: “conv −1.5pp, delivery +1.2 days, returns +0.8pp”
- Resolution: “Fixes and their impact (+1.4pp, +0.9pp, +0.6pp)”
Common pitfall: soft-pedalling the bad news until Q4. Tension early = time to act.
8) Show the before and after
What it really means: quantify the delta, not just the state.
Real example: A cost programme promised “£3m savings.” That meant little until we showed:
- Before: £38m annual OPEX
- After: £35m by month 9
- Delta: £3m, of which £2.2m hard, £0.8m dependent on vendor renegotiations
- EBITDA impact: +£2.6m after one-offs Seeing the bridge from current to future made the plan credible.
Template:
- Start with baseline (where we are)
- Show interventions (what changes)
- End with landing point (where we’ll be & when)
Watch-out: percentage changes without a base (“+12% of what?”).
9) Make time a character
What it really means: use time to explain why something happened and when it will change.
Real example: A spike in refunds looked alarming in April. A timeline clarified it: post-promotion cohorts from February churned after the free-trial window; when we overlaid cohort behaviour, seasonality, and shipping delays, the board stopped chasing a red herring and focused on promo quality.
Tools that help:
- Rolling 13-month charts to avoid Q4/Q1 optical illusions
- Cohort curves for retention and payback
- Lag/lead markers (e.g., “marketing spend → pipeline +6 weeks → revenue +12 weeks”)
Common pitfall: comparing one month to the prior without acknowledging seasonality or cut-off timing.
10) End with a decision
What it really means: finish with a clear, bounded ask.
Real example (final slide text): Decision today:
- Approve £1.2m channel reallocation (now)
- Pause 11 roles (now)
- Revisit growth guidance on 30 September (commitment) if approved: EBITDA +£1.8m, runway +3 months; main risks A & B with owners named.
Checklist for your last slide:
- Ask: what exactly are you asking for?
- Impact: £/KPI change, with confidence range
- Risks: top two, with mitigations
- Owner & timeline: who drives it, by when
Common pitfall: ending with “happy to take questions” instead of an ask.
Three short war stories (borrowed)
a) the pricing tweak that paid the rent A SaaS company missed its gross margin target. The finance team showed a tidy variance table; nothing moved. A junior analyst rebuilt the story as a customer-level price/mix waterfall, revealing that a 5% discount on just two enterprise accounts drove half the miss.
Recommendation: cap discretionary discounts and introduce guardrails in the quoting tool. Margin recovered within a quarter.
b) the headcount debate that evaporated Operations argued for 25 new hires; finance resisted. We reframed the pack: start with a throughput-based capacity model linked to SLAs and churn. Tension slide: “If wait time exceeds 2 minutes, churn rises 60 bps; current trend breaches in six weeks.”
Decision slide: approve 12 hires now, 8 later if KPIs breach. Both sides felt heard because the story connected people to outcomes.
c) the marketing miracle that wasn’t Marketing claimed “record engagement” during a campaign. Instead of pageviews, we showed a cohort payback chart: the promo pulled in low-quality traffic with 14-month payback vs the 9-month benchmark.
Reallocating budget lifted net revenue with less spend. The team learned to celebrate payback, not impressions.
Closing thought
Great FP&A isn’t about prettier models; it’s about clearer choices. When you know your audience, strip out noise, lead with the “so what,” and end with an ask, your work stops being interesting and starts being useful. Numbers don’t move people — stories do.
And the best FP&A stories move people to act.