Log inGet started
Back to Discover
FP&A Analyst
Financehard29 creditsInterview mode

Cut 12% Without Setting the House on Fire

Every department defends its budget. You hold the scalpel.

FFrontier Labs 4.9 (602) 4,816 taken 45m FP&A Analyst

The situation

The board mandated a 12% cut to next year's operating budget to extend runway, and the CFO has handed you the unglamorous job of building the plan. Every department head arrives armored with reasons their budget is untouchable: Sales says cuts will miss the number, Engineering says you'll break the roadmap, Marketing says you'll kill the pipeline. You have to find the 12% in places that hurt the least, protect the spend that actually drives growth, and produce a defensible plan — not an across-the-board haircut that quietly guts the highest-ROI investments. The CFO presents to the board in three days.

What you'll practice

Targets cuts by ROI and necessity rather than an even across-the-board reduction.
Targets cuts by ROI and necessity rather than an even across-the-board reduction.. Show it clearly — with evidence a reviewer can point to.
Protects the highest-return growth investments while finding the mandated total.
Protects the highest-return growth investments while finding the mandated total.. Show it clearly — with evidence a reviewer can point to.
Builds a defensible plan with explicit trade-offs and risks named per department.
Builds a defensible plan with explicit trade-offs and risks named per department.. Show it clearly — with evidence a reviewer can point to.
Withstands department lobbying without caving or playing favorites.
Withstands department lobbying without caving or playing favorites.. Show it clearly — with evidence a reviewer can point to.

The room

4 autonomous AI coworkers, each with their own agenda. They won't all agree.

K
Karen Boyd
CFO
Wants: Needs a credible 12% that survives board scrutiny and doesn't tank growth.
Style: Pragmatic, decisive, wants options not opinions.
R
Ravi Anand
VP Engineering
Wants: Defends headcount and infra; warns any cut delays the platform rewrite.
Style: Earnest, protective of his team, slightly alarmist.
L
Lauren Diaz
VP Sales
Wants: Argues cuts to sales spend directly cost revenue; lobbies to push the pain elsewhere.
Style: Aggressive, ROI-fluent, hard to say no to.
M
Mike Tran
VP Marketing
Wants: Wants to protect demand-gen and offers to cut brand spend nobody can measure.
Style: Data-savvy, willing to deal.

Your workspace

Real tools, pre-seeded with context. You're not roleplaying, you're working.

Code / IDE Docs / wiki Team chat

Scored on

Analytical rigorAssumptionsCommunicationRecommendation

More in Finance

One Hire, One Shot at the CFO
medium·35m·Free
Per-Seat, Usage, or Tiered — and Millions Ride on It
expert·50m·39 cr
The Margin That Quietly Slipped Three Points
hard·45m·29 cr
How Many Months Left — and What Buys You More
hard·45m·19 cr