To the uninitiated, accounting and FP&A may be perceived as the same—a single department that manages the business's financials. Many org charts lump them together alongside other corporate functions like marketing and HR.
But anyone who has worked in either knows better. These teams often operate in entirely different worlds. Accounting reconciles what happened; Strategic finance and FP&A forecast the future. One rarely deals with debits and credits, while the other lives and breathes them.
The disconnects seem trivial, but they make each close and forecast cycle harder than it needs to be. It doesn’t have to be this way. When accounting and FP&A are aligned—through shared data infrastructure, integrated workflows, and open lines of communication—they become far more than the sum of their parts.
With the right collaboration and processes in place, finance teams can move 10x faster, with fewer errors, better insights, and more time to focus on strategic work instead of reconciling the past.
This blog is about how to bring these teams closer together. Drawing from our recent webinar, From Close to Forecast: Bridging the gaps between Accounting & FP&A, featuring Albert Gozzi (Co-Founder & CEO, Aleph), Parker Gilbert (Founder & CEO, Numeric) and Jacob (Jake) Sartin (Assistant Controller, Island), we’ll cover practical steps that FP&A and accounting teams can take to work more like one unified function.
Different lenses into the business
Accountants are detail-oriented by nature. Their primary goal is to compile an accurate, audit-ready record of what happened in the prior month or quarter.
Finance, and specifically FP&A, types are equally quantitatively inclined, but tend to be more comfortable operating in the grey. The murky future is their domain—what's coming around the corner based on what's happening now. Their job is less about being perfect and more about helping leaders make decisions based on the best available data.
Because they're essentially looking in different directions—accounting in the rearview, finance through the windshield—their interpretation of the financials can be wildly different.
This can lead to issues for tasks like management reporting. Executives might ask FP&A for a product-level roll-up that doesn’t jive with the chart of accounts. Accounting pushes back, explaining that they’re not comfortable with reporting that veers outside of GAAP standards. One side doesn't realize why the other can't provide what they need, and frustration builds.
Ultimately, both sides aim to present the financial story for that month or quarter. They’re just coming at it from different angles.
The month-end squeeze
Month-end close is a pressure cooker. Surprises are inevitable, even if you have every hour of the process planned to a T. And inherent timing tensions between departments with different deadlines make coordination tricky.
FP&A wants to start their forecast ASAP, but accounting is still closing the books. So they pull preliminary numbers and run with them. Sometimes that ballpark data holds up. Other times, final reconciliations change the story, and they’re back to square one.
While some of this tension is inherent to the situation, much of it can be alleviated when both sides have a better understanding of what the other is doing and why.
Jake emphasized the importance of meeting in the middle: “The more we understand how our data is being used, the better we can structure it from the start.” That could mean aligning on shared reporting dimensions, or just setting expectations early about what’s needed and when.
A lack of visibility and empathy
The boundaries between accounting and finance tend to be well-defined—sometimes, too defined.
Accounting might know that finance needs actuals by day eight of close, but they often don’t know why. They don’t see how those numbers flow downstream into forecasts and board decks. On the other hand, FP&A may request a P&L by region without considering that accounting has a dozen different journal entries that are due by the end of the day.
That’s the crux of a lot of these disconnects: not ill will, but a lack of visibility into what the other side is dealing with. Finance doesn't need to know how to do accounting’s job, or vice versa, but they should at least be aware of what their main priorities are at any given time. That way, both teams can work together to make month-end and beyond a whole lot smoother for all involved.
So, how do you go about promoting this kind of visibility? The panel had several solid recommendations based on their experience.
How to build a more unified finance and accounting function
Co-define your metrics
The language of finance may be universal, but it has numerous dialects. Things can go sideways quickly when finance and accounting assume that terms mean the same thing, even though there are subtle differences.
Take headcount, for example. Finance might include contractors and open requisitions because they're trying to forecast a department’s overall cost and capacity. Meanwhile, accounting only includes full-time employees because that's what hits payroll. If the discrepancy goes unnoticed, you could end up with management reports that are far afield from what the ERP shows.
The best way to prevent confusion is for finance and accounting to co-create the most critical metrics together. That process should include:
- Building a shared data dictionary. Document what each metric does and doesn’t include. Is ARR net or gross? Are credits included in bookings? Which roles count toward headcount?
- Clarifying usage by team. FP&A and accounting don't necessarily need a standard definition for every term. But both sides do need to be aware of where the differences lie and how to translate between them.
- Revisiting definitions when the business changes. Metrics that made sense six months ago may not hold up after a reorg or major strategic shift.
- Socializing definitions beyond accounting and FP&A. The definition of something like headcount also needs to be socialized with human resources and other relevant teams.
Align on “final enough”
Because accounting and FP&A are working on different timelines, both need a shared understanding of when actuals are final enough to be incorporated into forecasts and management reports.
In a perfect world, FP&A would wait until every number has been reconciled. But the reality is that management needs to know what the story is as soon as possible. As Parker put it during the webinar: “The business can’t wait. Even if close isn’t 100% done, I still need to get something in front of the CFO ASAP.”
To find the right balance, start by identifying:
- Which numbers are truly critical for modeling? Revenue and COGS? Definitely. That last $700 vendor accrual? Probably not.
- What’s the acceptable margin of error? Is a 2–3% variance tolerable in Opex? Or will that throw off headcount plans?
- Who decides when data is stable enough to use? Make the handoff explicit. For example, the controller might send a quick Slack message to the FP&A team that says, “Revenue and COGS are good to go—still finalizing payroll accruals.”
For a report that's going to the SEC, accuracy is paramount. For an update on where the business is headed directionally, clarity is more important than perfection. A shared threshold of “final enough” gives both sides confidence to move forward without stepping on each other’s toes.
Check out our post on “Perfect data is a myth—here’s what top teams focus on instead” for a deeper dive into balancing perfect data vs clean data.
Open up the close
Accounting should always be in the driver’s seat during month-end close, but FP&A shouldn’t be left in the dark. They don’t need visibility down to the journal entry level, but should get a heads up if there are major reconciliations or adjustments in the works.
It's not uncommon for accounting to be a bit territorial here. But to be fair, that's usually because finance is breathing down their neck asking when actuals are going to be ready.
Jake’s team takes a more collaborative approach. They give FP&A real-time visibility into the close process—what’s done, what’s in motion, and what might change the numbers. “Even just seeing what the accounting team is tracking makes it easier for us to know when we can start modeling,” Jake explained.
For example:
- If marketing expenses haven’t hit yet, FP&A can flag that spend is still pending in their management roll-up.
- If bookings data is delayed, they can provide a caveat to their revenue assumptions.
- If a big payroll accrual is still in flux, they know not to lock the forecast just yet.
Everyone wins with a more transparent close. FP&A can get started on their forecasts without worrying about needing to retrace their steps. Accounting can rest assured that the numbers FP&A is presenting have proper caveats when the data isn't final.
Take time to debrief
Once the dust settles post-close, it's tempting to breathe a sigh of relief and move on. But taking a few minutes to debrief while the pain points are still fresh can pay off in a big way.
Jake’s team builds in time after every close to look back. “We ask, ‘What worked? What didn’t? What caused delays?’ And then we take those lessons forward.” These debriefs should be focused on fine-tuning rather than finger-pointing. Did FP&A jump the gun with early data? Did accounting make reclasses that threw off a forecast? Talking through minor issues can prevent them from snowballing going forward.
A few things to ask:
- Which handoffs felt smooth vs. clunky?
- Were there timing bottlenecks?
- Did any numbers spark confusion or require last-minute explanation?
- Were both teams aligned on definitions and priorities?
The goal is simple: leave every close a little bit better than the last.
Stronger together
Forging a tighter link between FP&A and accounting yields immediate benefits, including more efficient reporting cycles and reduced frustration on both sides. But just as importantly, it lays the groundwork for what's next. With AI and automation tools taking on much of the number crunching these teams used to spend their time on, both will have more bandwidth to act as strategic partners to the business.
For a deeper dive into how AI-native finance tools, plus better collaboration, are bridging the gap between accounting and FP&A teams, check out the full webinar.
