54 master data questions that will save time for your FP&A team

Many FP&A teams spend a ton of time trying to bridge operational and financial data to tell a well-informed story for leadership.

Since FP&A is where the rubber hits the road for both operational and financial reporting, teams often encounter a bullwhip effect where small gaps or inconsistencies in source master data create massive problems downstream.

One missing or unmapped field can create a cascade of additional modeling and reporting requirements to triage, and FP&A teams are stuck creating a story from nothing.

Much of this pain can be avoided completely by addressing the root causes. For those currently setting up foundational data or going through a transformation project, here are 54 questions to ask to save your team time and energy down the road.

GL Accounts (Income Statement, Balance Sheet)

1. Can you distinguish between cash and non-cash activity?
2. Can you distinguish between GAAP and below the line Non-GAAP activity?
3. Can you distinguish between variable, semi-variable and fixed expenses?
4. Can you distinguish allocated costs to get to pre-allocated and post-allocated views?
5. Can you distinguish key ins and outs from accounts, e.g., amortized commissions
6. Can you tie out GAAP, non-GAAP, and operational reporting based on common denominators?
7. Do you have sufficient level of detail on key expense drivers like compensation?
8. Do you have sufficient level of detail between major products, segments, and/or business units for revenue?

Departments

9. Can you map departments between HRIS and ERP systems?
10. Can you roll up departments cleanly to GAAP functional areas?
11. Can you roll up departments cleanly to budget owners?
12. Do departments help distinguish between variable and fixed roles, e.g., sales reps and sales management?
13. Are you duplicating efforts between GL accounts and departments, creating more combinations than needed?
14. Do departments have enough employees to mask compensation?

Locations

15. Can you map locations between HRIS, ERP, and CRM systems?
16. Can you differentiate between office locations and actual working locations?
17. Can you roll up locations cleanly to regions and/or subsidiaries?
18. Do different areas of the business look at locations differently, e.g., sales territories or offices vs. operations branches?

Entities

19. Are financial transactions consistently tagged with the right entity?
20. Are entities reported in different currencies?
21. Are transactions reclassed between entities?

Employees

22. Can you map employees between ATS, HRIS, and ERP systems?
23. Are employees consistently tagged with departments, locations, entities?
24. Are employees split across departments and entities?
25. Do employees need to be tagged with projects or initiatives?
26. Are there any common role designations across employees?
27. Are there different comp plan types based on role for bonuses, commissions, etc.
28. Can you track changes in employee attributes over time?
29. Can you distinguish between full-time employees, part-time employees, and contractors?
30. Can you identify PT/FT conversions, re-hires, and other non-standard movements?
31. Can you map key variable compensation drivers like commissions to employees?

Customers

32. Can you map customers between CRM and ERP systems?
33. Do customers have parent accounts?
34. Can you roll customers into those parent accounts?
35. Are there multiple occurrences of the same customers?
36. Can you identify those customers?
37. Can you map customer contract data to customers?
38. Can you map volume data to customers?
39. Can you map revenue data to customers?
40. Can you map invoice/collection data to customers?
41. Can you map expense data to customers?

Vendors

42. Can you map vendors between procurement and ERP systems, if different?
43. Are there multiple occurrences of the same vendors?
44. Can you identify those vendors?
45. Can you map purchase order and/or contract data to vendors?
46. Can you map expense data to vendors?
47. Can you map invoice/payment data to vendors?

Products

48. Can you map products between CRM and ERP systems?
49. Are there multiple occurrences of the same products?
50. Can you identify those products?
51. Can you roll products cleanly into product categories?
52. Can you map revenue data to products?
53. Can you map invoice/collection data to products?
54. Can you map expense data to products?

If you can address all of the above, congratulations! You are well-equipped to answer the vast majority of financial questions that can come your way.

‍