FP&A / Financial Planning Functional Consultant (SAP Finance)

FP&A / Financial Planning Functional Consultant (SAP Finance)

Experience: 6+ Years
Location: Remote
Employment Type: Contractual
Number of Positions:  1
Shift: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM IST

Job Overview

We are looking for an experienced FP&A / Financial Planning Functional Consultant with strong SAP Finance knowledge to support the design and implementation of modern, integrated Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) solutions.

The consultant will work closely with Finance, FP&A, Accounting, business stakeholders, and technical/data teams to understand existing budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, and planning processes. The role will involve translating complex Excel-based financial models and business rules into structured, scalable, system-driven planning requirements.

The ideal candidate should have strong expertise in FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, P&L planning, CapEx, COGS, workforce costs, management reporting, and SAP Finance data.

Key Responsibilities
1.  FP&A Process & Functional Analysis
Analyse existing budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning processes.
Understand, document, and analyse complex Excel-based planning models, calculations, assumptions, and business rules.
Translate Excel-based financial models into structured, system-driven planning requirements.
Define functional requirements, planning workflows, business rules, calculations, and validation logic.
Identify opportunities for process standardisation, simplification, and automation.
Support both top-down and bottom-up planning approaches.
Assess current-state processes and contribute to future-state FP&A planning design.

2. Financial Planning & Modelling

Design and support planning models across key financial areas:

Revenue Planning

Volume and sales-driven forecasting.
Inflation and foreign exchange assumptions.
Top-down targets and bottom-up forecasts.
New market, campaign, and strategic initiative overlays.

COGS Planning

Historical run-rate-based forecasting.
Inflationary adjustments and uplifts.
Manual adjustments for new products and launches.
Seasonality analysis and planning assumptions.

Employment / Workforce Cost Planning

Headcount, working hours, salary, and rate-based workforce planning.
Payroll-related calculations, including NI and pension components where applicable.
Employee data analysis and workforce cost sensitivities.

Property Cost Planning

Store/property-level planning.
Rent, rates, utilities, maintenance, and cleaning costs.
Property-related cost assumptions and overlays.
Lease/property planning requirements.

CapEx & Depreciation

CapEx planning by asset, project, or initiative.
Asset cost, start date, useful-life, and depreciation assumptions.
Depreciation calculation logic.
Alignment with Fixed Asset Register data.

Marketing, IT & Overhead Planning

Percentage-of-sales-based planning.
Run-rate plus manual overlay approaches.
Campaign and initiative-based planning.
IT project, contract, licensing, insurance, and tax cost planning.

3. SAP Finance & Data Understanding
Work with SAP financial data, including:
General Ledger (GL)
Cost Centers
Profit Centers
Entities
Fixed Assets
Understand financial dimensions, hierarchies, master data, and planning structures.
Define requirements for reporting and analysis across Profit Center, Cost Center, GL, Entity, Channel, and other relevant dimensions.
Work with data/technical teams to ensure planning models align with underlying SAP and enterprise data structures.
Understand integration requirements with external systems such as HR, payroll, sales forecasting, and property systems.

4. Functional Design & POC Support
Define functional designs for FP&A and financial planning use cases.
Develop and validate planning scenarios, assumptions, drivers, and business rules.
Support Proof of Concept (POC) activities, including:
Driver-based revenue planning.
Run-rate and inflation-based COGS planning.
Manual/table-based planning.
CapEx and depreciation calculations.
Percentage-based planning.
Workforce cost planning.
Validate planning outputs with Finance stakeholders and refine models based on business feedback.
Support solution evaluations and future-state planning recommendations.

5. Stakeholder Management
Act as the functional bridge between Finance/FP&A stakeholders and technical/data teams.
Conduct workshops with FP&A, Finance, Accounting, and business stakeholders.
Gather, analyse, and document business requirements.
Translate financial concepts and business requirements into clear functional/system requirements.
Challenge existing processes and iden               tify practical improvement opportunities.
Support UAT, test-case definition, validation, defect clarification, and business sign-off.

Required Skills & Experience
5–10 years of relevant experience in FP&A, Financial Planning, Budgeting, Forecasting, Finance Transformation, or related financial planning functions.
Strong understanding of:
P&L Planning
Budgeting & Forecasting
Revenue Planning
COGS
Opex
Workforce/Payroll Cost Planning
CapEx
Depreciation
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet Planning
Strong financial modelling and analytical skills.
Hands-on experience working with complex Excel-based financial models.
Ability to convert Excel-based models into structured planning logic and functional requirements.
Experience with driver-based and rule-based planning.
Strong understanding of SAP Finance and SAP financial data, particularly GL, Cost Center, Profit Center, and Fixed Asset data.
Experience in requirements gathering, functional analysis, and functional specification preparation.
Strong understanding of financial dimensions, hierarchies, drivers, assumptions, and planning methodologies.
Strong stakeholder management and workshop facilitation skills.
Ability to effectively communicate with both Finance stakeholders and technical teams.
Good-to-Have Skills

Experience with one or more of the following planning platforms will be an advantage:

SAP Integrated Planning / SAP IP
SAP BPC
SAP Analytics Cloud Planning
Anaplan
OneStream
Oracle EPM
IBM Planning Analytics
Other enterprise FP&A / EPM / financial planning platforms

Additional desirable experience:

Finance transformation and planning-system implementation projects.
Retail/store-based financial planning.
Workforce planning and payroll modelling.
CapEx, Fixed Assets, and depreciation planning.
Integration of planning solutions with SAP and other enterprise systems.
Agile delivery environments.
POC development and solution evaluation.
Key Attributes
Strong FP&A / Finance domain expertise with a technology-oriented mindset.
Ability to understand complex financial models and convert them into scalable planning logic.
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
Comfortable working with Finance, FP&A, Accounting, business, data, and technology teams.
Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Pragmatic approach to balancing automation with necessary manual adjustments and overrides.
Comfortable working in a fast-paced transformation and POC environment.
Expected Deliverables

The consultant will contribute to:

Current-state assessment of FP&A processes.
Functional requirements and business rules.
Planning models and driver definitions.
Functional specifications.
POC scenarios and validation.
Financial calculation and planning logic.
Data and dimensionality requirements.
UAT scenarios and business validation.
Future-state FP&A planning recommendations.
Process standardisation and automation recommendations.
Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will combine strong FP&A/Financial Planning domain expertise, hands-on financial modelling experience, and SAP Finance knowledge. The candidate should be capable of working independently with Finance stakeholders to understand complex planning models and translate them into clear, structured, and scalable functional requirements for a technology-enabled planning solution.