Marketing Finance
RGM° · Training
Working with Finance and FP&A
FP&A is marketing's closest finance partner. Roles, cadences, outputs.
Why FP&A partnership
FP&A is marketing's closest finance partner. Strong partnership enables better forecasting, planning, and investment justification.
Roles
- Marketing FP&A analyst (where exists).
- Corporate FP&A team.
- Marketing operations finance lead.
- External advisors / consultants.
Cadences
- Weekly pacing.
- Monthly close + variance.
- Quarterly board prep.
- Annual planning.
- Ad-hoc on investments.
Outputs
- Marketing P&L.
- Variance reports.
- Reforecasts.
- Investment cases.
- Scenario models.
- Compliance reports.
Advanced playbook
- Dedicated marketing FP&A analyst at scale.
- Weekly pacing with FP&A.
- Monthly close partnership.
- Quarterly board prep collaborative.
- Annual planning joint.
- Investment case standardization.
- Scenario modeling regularly.
- Compliance discipline.
- Cross-functional respect.
- Joint education programs.
Mistakes
- FP&A partnership reactive.
- Weekly pacing skipped.
- Monthly close adversarial.
- Quarterly board prep last-minute.
- Annual planning siloed.
- Investment cases ad-hoc.
- Scenario modeling absent.
- Compliance reactive.
- Cross-functional respect weak.
- Joint education absent.
Checklist
- Marketing FP&A analyst at scale
- Weekly pacing with FP&A
- Monthly close partnership
- Quarterly board prep collaborative
- Annual planning joint
- Investment case standardization
- Scenario modeling regularly
- Compliance discipline
- Cross-functional respect
- Joint education programs
Sources and further reading
- CFO Connect community
- Marketing FP&A LinkedIn groups
- RGM Marketing Operations finance module
- HBR FP&A research
- Patrick Campbell, ProfitWell
- SaaSwerks finance research
- OpenView FP&A research
- Tomasz Tunguz B2B FP&A
- David Skok finance partnership
- Andrew Faris DTC finance
- Marketing Brew finance coverage
- Reforge marketing finance
Part of the Marketing Finance series.