>I think one of the communication challenges in this broad discussion is what is a "finance" person. Several people refer to them as people in Accounting (accou

>I think one of the communication challenges in this broad discussion is what is a "finance" person. Several people refer to them as people in Accounting (accountants) when I think they really mean Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A analysts). Noted and agreed. I'm not well versed in finance lingo beyond what I learned by taking up a business analyst role. The distinction you mention was likely lost on me due to the fact that this division didn't really have an FP&A team and every accountant was given the title of "financial analyst". Sure, FSS made projections, but those were all terrible. They were worth less to functional managers than the paper they had been printed on. A given year's labor forecast came in the form a single column of multimillion dollar (Ex)cells per cost center. No ability to dig in. Consistently low by ~10%. Did leadership get a bonus by expanding the business book over the course of a year? Who knows?! FP&A was an afterthought for leadership. I was probably the only full-time FP&A employee (at an office with over 700 employees), yet I did not report to finance--I was under the program management umbrella for some reason. It didn't take long to recognize the potential value-add that our finance area could provide with a single change. Alas. Appreciate the replies. You probably feel my pain better than I do.