Limelight Software today released its 2026 FP&A Statistics Report, aggregating more than 50 benchmarks on how finance teams are operating, investing, and adapting. The data reveals a finance function caught between rising technology investment and legacy workflows that continue to slow progress. CFOs are sponsoring AI and lifting FP&A budgets to record levels, yet nearly 100% of finance professionals still use spreadsheets for monthly planning, 82% make decisions on stale data, and 69% of finance transformation programs are running behind schedule.
Key findings from the report show that FP&A technology spending is climbing fast. According to Gartner, 77% of CFOs and senior finance leaders plan to increase FP&A technology spending in 2025, with 47% expecting a 10%+ increase versus 2024. The FP&A software market is projected to grow from $3.9 billion in 2023 to $9.7 billion by 2031. AI adoption is set to more than double inside 12 months: 28% of finance departments currently use AI in forecasting, and another 39% plan to adopt it within the next year (PwC). The AI in FP&A market alone is projected to grow at a 34.8% CAGR through 2034.
Despite these investments, spreadsheets remain near universal. Almost 100% of FP&A professionals still use spreadsheets for monthly planning and reporting (AFP), and over half of FP&A teams now manage eight or more data categories and ten or more reporting tools each quarter. Forecast accuracy is the top cost-control obstacle: 61% of CFOs say inaccurate forecasting is the single biggest barrier to controlling costs (SAP Concur), 82% of companies make decisions based on stale information, and 85% say outdated data leads directly to lost revenue.
Transformation programs are stalling, with 69% of finance transformation initiatives progressing slower than planned and 30% failing to hit their goals outright (Gartner), most often due to poor change management. Meanwhile, the CFO role keeps expanding: 82% of CFOs say their remit has grown significantly over the past five years (Egon Zehnder), 81% now see themselves as the primary drivers of business growth, and 50% are planning a finance restructure. AI is reshaping forecasting first: 66% of finance leaders say generative AI will have the biggest immediate impact on explaining forecast and budget variances (Gartner), and 55% of retail and CPG finance leaders are already using Gen AI in their forecasting workflows.
"Finance leaders in 2026 are being pulled in two directions," said Rosie Shea, Business Development Manager at Limelight Software. "They're expected to drive strategy, sponsor digital transformation, and accelerate ROI, while still spending most of their week pulling numbers out of spreadsheets. The teams pulling ahead have stopped tolerating that gap. They've centralised their planning data, automated the manual work, and put AI on real forecasting problems rather than treating it as a science project." Shea added: "What the data really shows is a distance between intent and infrastructure. CFOs are committing larger budgets to FP&A technology and accelerating AI adoption. But nearly 100% of finance professionals are still working in spreadsheets, and 61% point to forecast accuracy as their biggest cost-control problem. Closing that gap is the work of the next two years."
The 2026 FP&A Statistics Report pulls together more than 50 benchmarks from primary research published by Gartner, PwC, KPMG, McKinsey, Deloitte, AFP, Workday, IBM, Egon Zehnder, AICPA & CIMA, Protiviti, SAP Concur, MGI Research, APQC, Verified Market Research, The CFO Alliance, and others. Each benchmark sits alongside Limelight's commentary on what it means for finance teams planning their operating model, technology investments, and team structure in 2026. The full report is available at https://www.golimelight.com/blog/financial-planning-analysis-stats.
