Dave Ramsey has become a household name in the personal finance world. His budgeting rules have helped countless families and individuals get out of debt and stay out of debt—an admirable contribution to society, no doubt.

But it turns out Ramsey’s rules aren’t only for personal finance. They can actually be applied to businesses, too, as he points out in the post “How to Run a Business Debt-Free.”

Now, going debt-free is a big undertaking, but it’s really got just one vital element: the budget. Just like Ramsey’s personal finance system, everything starts and ends with making and sticking to a budget.

Whether or not you plan on taking your business debt-free, having a system to make your budgeting process easier will do wonders not only for your personal stress level, but for your organization’s performance.

Here are a few ways that streamlining your budgeting system can help your financial department, and your business at large.

It frees you up to look at the big picture

Instead of focusing on the trees, you can look at the forest, allowing you to see both the healthy, green parts and the areas that are looking a little brown. Streamlining your budgeting so that it’s easier and takes less time means you can shift your focus from data capture to information analysis, which in turn will help you make better business decisions.

It reduces time spent figuring out who needs what financial forms.

A streamlined process makes it easier for employees to access the forms they need on their own, rather than requesting them from a CFO or other financial supervisor. With better permissions and easier ways to share information, employees spend less time tied up in administrative or financial tasks, while managers spend less time tracking down the right data or form.

In addition, when employees are able to access these things themselves, accountability is heightened, which is a good thing in any business.

It reduces IT costs. A simpler system means that you’re more likely to be able to maintain it within your organization, rather than hiring expensive IT help. And that helps your budget, too.

It helps make your forecasting more accurate

When you can shift from once-a-year budgeting to ongoing budgeting and forecasting, your outlook is much more accurate. True Sky, for example, lets you integrate historical data from previous budgets, change numbers as you go, and even make edits to variables in order to forecast hypothetical situations. What this all boils down to is better, more accurate data that can be managed in a more agile way.

A streamlined budgeting process also means a streamlined workflow

When workflow is smooth and seamless, employees, managers, and businesses as a whole benefit. Since a budgeting process can often be choppy, with lots of back-and-forth, it’s a prime process to tackle first. This can go against conventional wisdom, which often places the budgeting process in a low-value position; but it’s also a process that can tie up a lot of time in menial tasks.

Reporting is easier

Pulling reports can be another big time drain when your budgeting process is not optimized. When you opt for a simpler, more streamlined budgeting system, pulling reports is quicker and easier. That, in turn, means that you can pull them as needed—not just once a quarter or once a year. With the right system, those reports can also be interactive, with the ability to add comments or notes related to the data.

We developed True Sky because we thought businesses needed a better budgeting system—one that makes the process simpler, more streamlined, and more effective. If you think your business might benefit from using True Sky, contact us today!