The most common reason FP&A tool evaluations fail is not that teams pick the wrong vendor. It is that they never clearly defined what they needed in the first place. Requirements gathering is the foundation of a successful evaluation — and the step most teams either skip or do superficially.
This guide covers how to identify requirements, who to involve, how to categorize and prioritize them, and how to build a requirements document that drives a structured evaluation. For a deeper framework, see our Requirements Engineering report.
Requirement Categories
Functional requirements
What users need to do — budgeting workflows, rolling forecasts, scenario modeling, variance analysis, management reporting, workforce planning.
Technical requirements
How the system must operate — ERP integration, SSO, API availability, data volume capacity, mobile access, SOC 2 compliance.
User experience
How it should feel — ease of use for contributors, self-service reporting, Excel interoperability, learning curve.
Commercial requirements
Budget constraints, licensing model, implementation timeline, ongoing support expectations, contract flexibility.
The Gathering Process
Stakeholder interviews
Talk to FP&A analysts, department heads, IT, accounting and leadership. Ask: what takes too long? What breaks? What questions can you not answer today?
Process mapping
Document current workflows — budgeting, forecasting, reporting, close. Identify pain points, manual steps and workarounds that the new tool should eliminate.
Prioritization
Apply MoSCoW: Must have (eliminates vendors), Should have (differentiates finalists), Could have (tiebreakers), Won't have (out of scope for now).
Documentation
Produce a structured requirements matrix with categories, priorities and evaluation criteria. This becomes the scoring framework for vendor evaluation.