Planning, Budgeting, & Forecasting: The Dangers - Part 2

Revisiting Traditional Planning and Budgeting

In the first part of this blog article, we looked at the traditional approach to planning and budgeting and recognized a number of flaws, regardless of how sophisticated some of the modeling capabilities of several of the leading solutions were. This raises a fundamental question:

Is having an infinitely complex model with unlimited reporting capabilities but with high maintenance costs and dependence on outside consultants and with no ability to really gain insight into the future financial health of the organization superior to having a somewhat less capable modeling solution but one that is user-maintained and with no modeling formulas, functions, and links, one that automatically provides management with a Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows that are always synchronized in real time to the P&L and its underlying budget? This is a very long question but in reality, it is a very simple one.

What Are Management’s Priorities?

What is really important (or should be) to them? As the title of this article implies, relying on older, traditional methods can actually be dangerous to the company and its management since it can mislead them to make incorrect decisions when there is no real visibility into the company’s financial future. Furthermore, the few applications that claim a forecasted Balance Sheet can be programmed may mislead users who desire such a report and perhaps even rely on it. As has already been discussed in this blog, to be able to deliver a complete and accurate Balance Sheet for all budgeted periods, the planning and budgeting software must have a built-in GL, just like its accounting software counterpart.

Why Have a General Ledger in Budgeting Software?

To this date, I have not seen a planning/budgeting software solution that has such a GL by design, except for one application, Budget Maestro.

System-Generated Balance Sheets & Statements of Cash Flow

I cover a lot of my experiences with Budget Maestro in this blog. I feel very fortunate to have found a solution that is 100% user-maintained, free from the worry of programming and managing endless sets of formulas and links, yet a solution able to reasonably model any type of business with very few exceptions. The real bonus I get with this software is the system-generated Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows that are automatically updated in real time with every change in the budget. With these capabilities come many additional noteworthy benefits, such as:

• Forecast and Monitor your Key Financial Ratios.
• Forecast and Monitor your Loan Covenants Compliance.
• Determine how much of your credit line you can tap.
• Generate Accurate Forecasted Financial Statements.

The Right Fit for SMBs

Budget Maestro may not be the best fit for a Fortune 100 company, but it is certainly perfect for the many SMBs (small and medium businesses) in search of a way to better manage their organizations with greater insight into their financial future. I urge you to be open-minded and see how a traditional budget and analytics process can be transformed with this unique solution.

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