We’re getting closer to 2025, and that means it’s time for growth-stage companies to take the time to invest in their financial planning. While you might feel tempted to continue focusing on other pressing priorities, refining financial strategies now can pay off significantly in future growth.
Currently, economic conditions and competition are in flux—but even in seemingly smooth circumstances, a well-organized financial plan is far from a waste of time. It’s a strategic resource that can help your team stay on track to achieve your financial goals.
Organizing your company’s finances now can also help you address a growing problem that might already be affecting your organization: 35% of finance professionals report that their current financial planning system doesn’t meet their needs today.
So if you don’t have an effective financial planning system in place and you’re aiming to raise capital, scale your operations, or improve cash flow management in the coming year, setting up a strong foundation now can make all the difference.
Here in this post, we’ll share some tips to help you consolidate your financial information and reporting, adjust to dynamic forecasts, and allocate resources with intention to drive long-term growth for your company.
Centralizing Financial Data
While the time and effort required varies depending on your current level of financial organization, one of the most straightforward ways to get started making improvements to your financial planning is to centralize your financial data.
Some companies choose to use tools like enterprise resource planning (ERP) or financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software. These tools can offer your teams a central point of access for all of the financial information they need.
We recommend taking the time to consolidate data from different departments and then maintaining it as a single source of truth for more convenient reference. Once this process has been initially carried out, it becomes much easier to keep data updated over time.
This organization strategy brings a few key benefits. Firstly, CFOs can access the latest financial information, which supports faster decision-making backed by numbers.
💡 For example: Instead of making your leadership wait weeks to reconcile data from various teams, help them gain instant access to key documents such as cash flow reports, expense breakdowns, and revenue trends with a centralized system.
Centralized systems also improve collaboration between teams. By reducing redundancies and streamlining communication, you can respond faster to market changes. Adaptability is quickly emerging as a critical capability to prepare for 2025’s fast-moving economy, meaning fast reaction times will make a difference.
Implementing Rolling Forecasts
The challenge with traditional budgets is that they’re static, and as a result, they often fail to account for the unpredictability of modern business environments. Your team might not be getting optimal output from your financial planning if you’re relying solely on an annual budget.
Implementing rolling forecasts is key to staying agile, a company characteristic that we’ve already seen will be important in 2025.
Rolling forecasts open up the opportunity to adjust your financial plans regularly—monthly or quarterly—based on real-time performance metrics and the latest market dynamics. It integrates a proactive approach into your team’s financial strategies and makes it easier to respond to emerging opportunities or challenges without derailing future objectives.
Seeing a sudden spike in demand for a particular product? A rolling forecast can support immediate reallocation of resources to help you maximize ROI and engage in ongoing financial planning based on new information.
Optimizing Financial Reporting
As a growing company, you’ll likely want to establish trust and transparency with stakeholders, including investors and board members. Clear and consistent financial reporting is essential to achieve that.
It’s easier said than done—meaning many companies struggle with reporting, often due to outdated reporting processes that consume more time and resources than necessary.
Here are a few ways to streamline your reporting:
- Standardize templates for financial statements and dashboards
- Increase reporting frequency to provide timely updates
- Consider using automation tools to promote accurate reporting and reduce manual contributions
- Prioritize audit readiness
By maintaining clear and structured financial reports, you’ll likely find audits less stressful. You can also increase your credibility with lenders and investors, which encourages the kind of strong business relationships that can grow your network and make future fundraising efforts easier.
Prioritizing Capital Allocation to High-Return Projects
Every growth-stage company faces tough decisions about where to invest resources. To keep an eye on long-term growth, evaluate which projects have the highest returns or are likely to produce a strong ROI.
To accomplish this, start by developing a clear framework to assess projects. Consider factors such as:
- Alignment with business goals
- Payback time frames
- Short- and long-term profitability
- Financial risks and strategies to address them
The goal of evaluating these elements is always to ensure that your capital supports initiatives designed to drive measurable, impactful results. For example, funding a marketing campaign for a product with proven demand might deliver greater ROI than investment in speculative R&D.
Final Thoughts
As you focus on the numbers going into 2025, your financial planning strategies should still keep the bigger picture in mind. You’ll need to create a system that supports agility, transparency, and growth.
By centralizing your data, adopting rolling forecasts, optimizing reporting, and making informed capital allocation decisions, your growing company can remain open to new opportunities and better anticipate periods of stagnation or growth.
Need help getting started? 5th Line offers advisory services to support your financial operations and management, with years of experience working with growth-stage companies on financial planning.
And if you’re ready to take your financial planning to the next level, sign up for the 5th Line Forecast email newsletter to connect with experts and discover strategies to help your company thrive.