Financial Planning & Performance System
Design and implementation of a financial planning and decision-support system connecting budgeting, forecasting and operational performance management. From fragmented spreadsheets and delayed reporting to real-time financial visibility and scenario-based decision-making.
Executive Summary
A professional football club operated across fragmented Excel workbooks, with monthly reporting cycles taking 2–3 weeks and no unified view of financial performance.
The project delivered a unified financial planning and decision-support environment connecting budgeting, forecasting and actuals — replacing Excel across the finance function and giving management real-time visibility and scenario-based decision support.
- ✓Reporting cycle reduced from 2–3 weeks to under 2 days
- ✓Finance team effort reduced by approximately 50% through automation
- ✓Daily P&L visibility with drill-down to individual transaction level
- ✓Integrated budgeting, forecasting and workforce planning in one platform
- ✓30 users onboarded — platform became the operational standard for financial management
Context
Professional football clubs operate in a uniquely challenging financial environment. Revenues fluctuate with sporting performance, attendance, sponsorship agreements, broadcasting rights and transfer activity, while major cost categories such as player contracts remain largely fixed.
The client relied on disconnected Excel workbooks maintained across multiple departments. Financial consolidation was manual, reporting cycles took up to three weeks, and multiple budget versions limited transparency and confidence in reported figures.
As a result, management decisions were often based on historical information rather than current financial performance.
The objective was to create a unified planning and reporting environment supporting budgeting, forecasting, scenario analysis and financial decision-making across the organisation.
The biggest improvement was speed and flexibility. We can now evaluate different scenarios and see the impact of changes almost immediately — something that was extremely difficult with spreadsheets.
Deputy CFO, Professional Football ClubBusiness Challenge & Objectives
The strategic objective was to transform finance from reactive monthly reporting to active, data-driven financial management.
- ✓Establish a single source of truth for financial planning and reporting
- ✓Improve visibility into current financial performance
- ✓Reduce reporting effort and reliance on manual consolidation
- ✓Enable scenario-based planning and forecasting
- ✓Support faster and more informed financial decision-making
My Role
I joined the project following the initial business analysis phase and took ownership of the implementation through to production deployment and handover.
- ✓Translating business requirements into decision-support models
- ✓Designing planning and reporting architecture
- ✓Defining information flows and integration requirements
- ✓Developing budgeting, forecasting and scenario-planning models
- ✓Facilitating stakeholder alignment and adoption
I worked closely with finance leadership and business users to iteratively refine requirements and deliver a solution aligned with evolving business needs.
Business Results
The implementation delivered measurable impact across financial visibility, process efficiency and decision-making quality. The platform became the operational foundation for all financial planning at the club with active daily use across 30 users from July 2021.
- ✓Reporting cycle reduced from 2–3 weeks to under 2 days.
- ✓Daily financial visibility replaced monthly reporting snapshots, enabling management to act on current rather than historical information.
- ✓Finance team effort reduced by approximately 50%, allowing greater focus on analysis and planning.
- ✓Scenario planning became part of day-to-day financial management, supporting evaluation of foreign exchange exposure and revenue assumptions.
- ✓A single source of truth established across finance and operations, improving confidence in financial information and decision-making.
Decision-Making Impact
Before the project, finance primarily focused on consolidating historical data.
After implementation, management gained the ability to monitor performance continuously, evaluate scenarios and respond more quickly to changing business conditions.
Transformation: before and after
Before
- Fragmented Excel files across departments, no version control
- Monthly manual consolidation taking 2–3 weeks per cycle
- No single source of truth: multiple conflicting budget versions
- Reactive management: decisions made on weeks-old data
- Manual ERP data entry, high error rate, no audit trail
- Forecasting limited to annual budget, no rolling reforecast
After
- Unified CPM/EPM platform with single chart of accounts
- Automated daily data refresh from all source systems
- One source of truth: 30 users accessing consistent real-time data
- Proactive management: real-time P&L with variance alerts and FX scenario view
- Automated ERP feed with validation rules and full audit trail
- Three financial models: budget, rolling forecast, HR cost module
Solution
A football club's financial model is driven by a distinct set of interconnected variables: matchday revenue tied to league position and fixture density, sponsorship contracts with milestone-based recognition, player costs representing the largest and most fixed cost item, workforce planning across non-playing staff, and FX exposure across multi-currency income and cost streams. Understanding these drivers was the starting point for designing the planning architecture.
Business → data translation
Systematic mapping of each business process to a data requirement, source system, and analytical model.
Each business process was mapped to a data requirement, source system and analytical model — connecting financial data sources through a unified planning system to budgeting, forecasting and board-level decisions.
Delivery Approach
Duration: 10 months
Approach: Iterative delivery based on continuous stakeholder collaboration, model refinement and phased rollout.
Key activities
- ✓Requirements and business analysis
- ✓Information architecture and model design
- ✓Budgeting and forecasting models
- ✓ERP integration
- ✓User training and adoption
Key Takeaway
The project transformed finance from a reporting function into an active decision-support capability, providing management with timely visibility, scenario analysis and a shared foundation for planning.