Accurate budgeting and forecasting are, for a CFO, two of the most important responsibilities on your to-do list.  For many companies, Excel is the go-to program for budgeting and forecasting, and for good reason. It is easily accessible, cost-effective, and chances are your employees are familiar with it. That being said, the use of Excel presents its own problems, many of which are directly related to accuracy.

Excel, however, isn’t the problem – control over the system is. Excel, while a key component of your budgeting and forecasting, leaves room for error, thanks to such factors as errors from manual entry points, outdated information, merging and variation in templates. Excel also means spreadsheets, lots and lots of spreadsheets. These issues make control incredibly difficult to master.

How is this risky? It all comes down to accuracy. Reaching the financial truth, fundamental in budgeting and forecasting, cannot be accomplished with data inaccuracies. If the initial numbers are incorrect, for whatever reason, the end numbers won’t be either. This is a big problem.

Furthermore, coupled with these issues is the arguably even bigger issue of data security. Just consider the vast number of spreadsheets, many of which contain highly-sensitive corporate data, much of it financial, passing through many different hands. Often those hands belong to employees who perhaps should not actually have access to this data. And we are not even just talking those employees entering the data into the system. Any IT employees with access are also seeing those numbers.

Why is this risky? That’s a no-brainer. Data in the wrong hands is a problem – it is as simple as that. This is even more true when you consider where the information is held once entered by employees. An unsecured system is a treasure-trove for hackers.

So what’s the solution? A centralized data system, where data is stored inside the system rather than on each individual user’s server, one that automates the merging of data, completes analysis, and gives you control of user access with a pre-determined permission hierarchy, addresses the above risks and removes the threat to your business.

At True Sky, we give you back control, making not only your budgeting and forecasting process more accurate, but also far less risky. Want to find out more? Contact us today by calling 1 855 878 3759.