Saj Parreno
Budgeting and planning are intertwined. These two components keep an organisation running, open doors to opportunities, and ensure corporate goals are met.
A budget, specifically, creates a clear sense of direction. It allows management at all levels to direct both capital and revenue resources, participate in the goal setting, coordinate various activities, standardise processes, and so on.
Unfortunately, some companies fail to align their budget with their strategic plan. They disperse funds on the fly and spend more than what’s reasonable, causing them to get into debt and fail catastrophically.
Here’s the catch. If only organisations capitalised on budgeting and planning software, then they would not face any of these hitches.
But what’s this tool first? B&P software boasts a centralised database that allows users to keep budgets consistent, and maximise data integrity.
When users enter data with it, they’re presented with the information that they need—whether adjusting their budget or developing their budget estimates.
Why Invest in Budgeting and Planning Software?
Secured Data
Several companies, particularly start-ups, started out using Excel for planning and managing their budgets.
While this spreadsheet program is easy to use, flexible, and familiar to many users, it has its own limitations. It’s not as reliable as budgeting and planning software, especially when it comes to security: sensitive information is not protected well.
Once users share an Excel file, they expose the data within, and the sharing organisation to various digital threats.
But with a cloud-based budgeting system, users are guaranteed the highest level of data security. It syncs online with every user’s financial accounts so there’s no need to enter transactions and update balances manually.
Controlled Finances
Manual accounting consumes a lot of time. It involves dreary routines such as calculating trial balances, journalising transactions, and preparing financial statement reports.
All of the above requires time and effort. But companies must perform everything to have more control on their operations, and ensure they don’t go over the budget.
Budgeting software can make these tedious accounting tasks simpler. It has a rich dashboard that generates visual reports and core accounting tools that can process the accounting cycle automatically.
This tool also helps users tweak the budget when revenues stray from original forecasts, and update rolling forecasts and budgets based on present results.
Managed Expenses
Using Excel spreadsheets for corporate budgeting and planning has slowly become a thing of the past.
It’s an ineffective way of measuring business spending because of shaky accuracy. In fact, a 2013 MarketWatch report found that around 80 per cent of spreadsheet documents contain errors, with errors in 1% or more of all formula cells.
This research finding suggests that their room for human error is unacceptable by contemporary standards. Fortunately, B&P software doesn’t have this shortfall, so it’s the better tool for organisations.
With cloud-based budgeting software, companies can manage expenses easily. Their business spending will be displayed by the software automatically, so long as the tool is connected to bank and/or credit card accounts.
Summing It Up
Don’t be left behind. Invest in budgeting and planning software, and say goodbye to manual accounting. When you do this, creating an action plan, and managing your finances is a piece of cake.
