Assessing the Impact of Tariffs and Economic Uncertainty: Opportunities to Leverage OneStream Software

Executive Summary

The recent announcement of widespread tariffs on imported goods has introduced significant volatility into an already uncertain global economy. These trade measures threaten to trigger retaliatory actions, disrupt supply chains, and contribute to broader macroeconomic headwinds, including the potential for an economic downturn. Finance and FP&A teams now face intensified pressure to deliver timely, accurate forecasts and provide guidance to leadership amidst rapidly changing costs, unpredictable demand, and evolving policy landscapes.

In this environment, finance needs to operate with greater agility and insight. OneStream, a leading Corporate Performance Management (“CPM”) finance platform that is ranked in Gartner’s highest quadrant for Planning, can be leveraged to help FP&A to respond through:

• Dynamic scenario modeling to evaluate tariff impacts and contingency strategies
• Real-time cost and margin analysis across products, geographies, and business units
• AI-driven demand simulations to anticipate and plan for market fluctuations
• Rolling forecasts supported by integrated ERP and supply chain data
• Extensible dimensionality for deep, granular analysis at speed

These capabilities are key as organizations reevaluate sourcing strategies, pricing models, and go-to-market approaches in response to a shifting global landscape. In these times, value can be realized by pairing world-class finance technology like OneStream with your FP&A and Finance teams.

Finit is acutely aware of this challenging business environment and is committed to swiftly assisting.  As the global market leader in OneStream success, we have both the FP&A functional and technical expertise to rapidly evaluate and deploy OneStream solutions that will help support the business in making confident, data-driven decisions during this period of heightened complexity and change.

Background

The recent announcement of widespread tariffs on a broad range of imported goods introduces significant volatility into an already uncertain global business environment. These tariffs, aimed at reshaping trade dynamics and bolstering domestic industries, risk triggering retaliatory measures, disrupting global supply chains, and contributing to macroeconomic headwinds—including the potential onset of an economic downturn.

As a result, Finance and FP&A teams are now facing a rapidly evolving challenge: how to forecast accurately, advise executive leadership, and identify mitigation strategies amid volatile trade policy, escalating costs, and unpredictable customer behavior.

Key Changes for Businesses and FP&A

Volatility in Input Costs

• Tariffs on raw materials, components, and finished goods can cause sudden cost spikes.
• Supplier risk and sourcing changes may introduce lead time variability and supply uncertainty.
• FP&A must model these cost impacts with limited visibility into policy longevity and retaliatory actions.

Demand Uncertainty

• Higher product prices may be difficult to pass on to customers, especially during a downturn.
• Consumer and B2B price sensitivity will complicate revenue forecasting and price elasticity modeling.
• International sales may decline due to retaliatory tariffs or geopolitical tensions, requiring geographic revenue scenario planning.

Operational Disruptions

• Inventory and logistics strategies may need to shift due to import duties or sourcing bottlenecks.
• Planning must now accommodate shifting freight costs, retooling expenses, and possible margin compression.

Strategic Decision Making Under Uncertainty

• Management will expect FP&A to provide scenario-based forecasting, risk-adjusted plans, and what-if analyses.
• Timely and agile forecasting will be essential, but traditional tools and models are usually not up to the task.

How FP&A Can Create Value

In this environment, FP&A teams are in a great position to help the business navigate the challenges by:

• Delivering real-time cost impact analysis for key product lines and customer segmentation.
• Providing multi-scenario forecasts that incorporate tariff escalation, economic slowdown, and demand elasticity.
• Simulating the effects of pricing strategies, supplier changes, and customer behavior shifts.

All of this requires advanced capabilities in modeling, data integration, and agility.  Traditional tools like spreadsheets, ERPs, and BI tools are usually not sufficient for the task as they lack the prebuilt financial intelligence, modeling capabilities, and finance-led data integration features that are required.  These features are core to OneStream’s modern finance platform and why it is purpose-fit for these dynamic analytical needs.

Navigating Tariff Volatility with OneStream

OneStream’s unified finance platform offers a great foundation for navigating this turbulent environment through robust financial modeling, scenario planning, and connected operational insights.

Scenario Modeling & What-If Planning

• Model tariff impact across multiple business units, geographies, and product lines.
• Create multi-scenario driver-based forecasts incorporating:
  • Tariff rate changes
  • Retaliation assumptions
  • Price sensitivity curves
  • Supply chain reconfigurations
• Use quick, side-by-side comparisons between scenarios to guide leadership decision-making.

 Extensible Data for Granular Analysis

• Incorporate data from procurement, logistics, and sales to assess the real-world impact of shifting tariffs.
• Analyze tariff impact by SKU, vendor, customer, or region without rebuilding models.
• Drill from corporate forecast to plant-level or product-level impact in seconds.

Rolling Forecasts & Predictive Capabilities

• Shift away from static plans to rolling forecasts that adapt to monthly or quarterly trade changes.
• Leverage AI/ML-powered forecasting (via OneStream’s SensibleAI Forecasting) to detect patterns in customer response to pricing changes and to generate different demand scenarios to be ingested into analytical models based upon external and macro event changes such as interest rate changes or benchmark metric changes.

 Real-Time Collaboration and Data Integration

• Integrate ERP and supply chain data to automatically reflect updated costs, vendor shifts, and inventory risks.
• Streamline collaboration and drive buy-in between finance, procurement, and operations with centralized planning and analysis.

How Finit Can Help

Finit understands time is of the essence, and value can only be created by enabling and deploying these capabilities within OneStream to your finance teams. Our FP&A transformation experts can quickly help evaluate your needs and guide you through an actionable roadmap tailored to your industry and business needs. Our OneStream consultants can then rapidly design and implement the identified capabilities in OneStream to realize immediate business value.

We aim to enable FP&A and business finance teams to offer better insights and decision support during complex and uncertain times.