The 5 Key Outcomes of Using Effective Business Budgeting Software

Can Your Business Budgeting Software Help You in an Emergency?

Imagine this.

It is a Thursday in early November. The budget is under Board review and should be finalized in the next week or so. You do not expect any significant changes because the Board has been part of the entire planning process and knows what to expect.

Your inbox pings. Google alert has detected a new press release from your main competitor. They have launched a critical product that is likely to have a dramatic impact on your company’s results, starting now. Your eyes widen, you take a few quick breaths, and you schedule the first of many emergency meetings. Your company must come up with a similar or better product as fast as possible.

As the meeting acceptance notifications stream in, you toss the annual budget and strategy into the trash can. Those numbers are all out of date as of right now.

The #1 Outcome of Successful Budgeting and Forecasting: Agility

Many business leaders and Finance teams assume that an investment in business budgeting software will simply streamline and organize their budgeting and forecasting process. Of course, streamlining these processes is a great result of your investment, but the #1 key outcome of using effective budgeting and forecasting software is that you can end up with a great budgeting and forecasting process that maximizes your agility.

For most organizations, the typical planning process takes three months or more to complete, and it is costly and time consuming: the very opposite of agile. In the potential crisis scenario above, a driver-based forecast could save the day because managers can use it to quickly reforecast based on a range of scenarios that answer your many ‘what if’ questions.

However, it should not take an emergency to determine if your financial planning methods are working to improve your corporate performance.

4 Additional Outcomes of Using Good Business Budgeting Software

How can you tell when you have succeeded in transforming your planning processes for the better? Look for 4 additional key outputs that demonstrate planning process mastery and a smart business budgeting software investment:

1. Your managing team joins together in a “rally cry,” meeting operational targets in each monthly or weekly review. They also help each other maintain accountability and stay on track.

2. Your strategies and goals are aligned and understood across the company, and they are fully actionable on both a micro and macro level. Properly executed strategies and goals deliver positive outcomes for the corporation and each department.

3. You measure and address performance continuously using valuable KPIs that are clearly understood by all stakeholders and employees.

4. You see positive results from your regular budget reports and analyses, including:

Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow
Key Performance Indicators
Workforce planning

With a market-leading Corporate Performance Management / budgeting and forecasting software solution, you can track your success using targeted budget reports and KPI tools. This puts you in a position to stay agile, no matter what happens.

Agile Budgeting for Whatever Comes Your Way

In disruptive situations, your company should ideally be able to rely on a financial planning tool your team can use to quickly model the required investment cost and resulting impact on cash flow, sales, and other key areas.

Once you have that data, you should then be able to leverage the planning and strategic tools inside your Corporate Performance Management solution or business budgeting software to make clear, strategically oriented decisions that can save jobs, maintain shareholder value, and strengthen the company.

Additionally, your budgeting and forecasting process should help you meet your targets, achieve your strategies, see improved performance continuously, and experience positive financial results.

Is your budgeting software helping you achieve these outcomes?