This is part 7 of 12 in a blog series on understanding the budgeting risks of your current planning and forecasting process. For the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a new article every Wednesday on budgeting best practices that will look at the challenges of the budgeting process and how to solve them. Catch up on last week’s post, Too Many Cooks Spoil the Spreadsheet.

How a centralized budgeting solution can enhance the logic behind your data

Financial planning, budgeting and forecasting are often processes that people want to get through and move on.  Traditionally, budget planning is:

• Complicated
• Time-consuming
• Viewed as busy work

It may not be clear to all those involved, but this is the chance for employees to share their business forecasting ideas and contribute to strategic plans for future growth. 

Engage your employees by improving the planning, budgeting and forecasting process by implementing a better business budgeting software. The view can be very different depending on where you stand.  As employees and managers are compiling their own data and justifications for their part of the planning, budgeting and forecasting process, their data and way of thinking can be different from what is expected by senior management.  Straight line assumptions, such as ‘add 10% to last year’s figures’, may get the budgets off their desks faster, but they may not yield the results to strategically help your enterprise grow.

Engage your people and get the input and data you really need by improving your technology.   Download 21 Ways Your Budgeting Process Puts Your Business at Risk to learn how centralized budget solutions can yield better results.  A blank spreadsheet can be intimidating and leave a lot to interpretation.  With a centralized budgeting solution, you can provide templates for your managers to complete so they can focus on business drivers instead of trying to calculate formulas or simply add to last year’s figures.  Instead of procrastinating or inventing figures, they can compile accurate data into a standardized template which gives you the insight you are really after.

Standard spreadsheets don’t allow employees to provide justification to their data or notes and comments can get lost or deleted as spreadsheets are passed through the office.  A centralized budgeting solution provides plenty of room for:

•  Notes
• Comments
• Questions 
• Justifications

Colleagues involved with the review and approval process can see the logic behind the data provided and adjust figures or research data as needed.  Senior management can also gain valuable insight into the data and the justifications for that data.

The planning, budgeting and forecasting process is critically important for your business.  Streamline the process by implementing better technology and you can get greater collaboration from your team, as well as more meaningful data.  Download the eBook created by True Sky,  21 Ways Your Budgeting Process Puts Your Business at Risk, then contact us about using a centralized budgeting solution to improve the insight and logic behind your budgets.