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Forward Accounting: When Planning Adopts the Logic of Bookkeeping
When controlling adopts the logic of bookkeeping in its planning, the result is a clean and detailed planned income statement for the coming financial years. But not real steering.
I saw this effect often in my consulting years. My boss at the time had a fitting name for it: forward accounting.
What does it look like in practice? Planning follows accounts instead of drivers. Granularity gets confused with quality. Reporting logic overlays steering questions. And planning becomes control rather than orientation.
Forward accounting is often an attempt to make planning auditable, so that every variance can be explained later. And that is exactly how planning misses its core purpose: coordination and prioritisation under uncertainty.
Explainability is not the same thing as the ability to steer.
Good planning operationalises strategy. It allocates resources, makes conflicting objectives visible, evaluates options and preserves adaptability.
If planning is meant to shape the future, it has to move away from accounts and towards drivers and options. Particularly when the world becomes less predictable.