Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) maturity is key for organisations navigating a turbulent and uncertain business environment. These systems, aided by the efficiency of automation tools, are proving intrinsic to cost optimisation and strategic planning, a new survey found.
Tariffs are having at least a moderate effect on profitability and financial forecasting for organisations, but finance leaders are confident that their teams will continue to weather the storm, according to Protiviti’s 2025 Global Finance Trends Survey Report.
Similar to Protiviti’s 2024 findings, FP&A remains a top priority, ranking slightly behind security and privacy of data and nearly tied with strategic planning atop a list of 15 priorities for the finance function to improve its capabilities over the next 12 months.
While stakeholder desire for FP&A maturity pushed finance teams to improve practices last year, tariff pressures in 2025 continue to illuminate strategic planning considerations for organisations. Uncertainty from changing tariffs has affected organisations across several business areas, with 59% of finance leaders reporting that profitability has been at least moderately affected. Those disruptions, respondents note, are affecting their organisation’s ability to prepare timely and reliable financial forecasts (64%) and prepare reliable financial reporting and forecasting information on time (62%).
In response, organisations are augmenting the capabilities of FP&A systems with automation tools to advance innovation aims and cut costs. A majority of CFOs and finance teams report that those tools have delivered measurable success on cost optimisation efforts over the past year.
Protiviti surveyed over 900 finance leaders worldwide in Q2 of 2025.
“Amid the shifting tariff landscape, FP&A ranks as the area requiring the most attention from finance organisations,” the survey found. Most leaders said that their organisations are equipped to prepare for future shocks: 88% of finance leaders and professionals in publicly held companies are very or somewhat confident in their organisation’s ability to navigate current economic challenges and uncertainties. More than two-thirds (68%) in private companies said the same.
“These findings speak to the improved FP&A and strategic planning capabilities CFOs and finance teams have developed over the past several years — first honed during the global pandemic — to foresee emerging developments and respond with precision and agility,” the survey said.
However, the survey added, 51% of CFOs and finance leaders have not made any progress adjusting business process outsourcing (BPO) or offshoring models. Subsequently, to strengthen supply chains, organisations are moving to improve or increase communication with select suppliers (60%) and enhance third-party risk management processes (52%) this year.
Other key takeaways from the survey:
Security and data privacy is top of mind. “CFOs and finance leaders still view the security and privacy of data to be their top priority to address over this coming year,” the survey said. A majority of leaders and professionals cite concerns over this risk from the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
AI deployment has accelerated globally. A vast majority of finance organisations (72%) are currently employing AI, including generative and agentic AI — more than double the percentage from last year’s survey (34%).
Organisations report significant ROI from tech enablement. “Process transformation and ERP enablement are among the top technology areas delivering valuable cost and efficiency benefits for finance teams,” the survey said. Cloud-based applications are also enabling cost optimisation, cybersecurity advancements, FP&A maturity, and strategic planning.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
