Budgeting and planning

It is, however, possible to speed up and simplify the budgeting process while at the same time making the actual budget data more relevant and important when making business decisions.

We at Affecto have adopted a comprehensive approach starting from how you deal with budgeting from the perspective of the organisation, finance department, business units and executive management. Typically, the solution proposed by Affecto consists of a combination of system support for budgeting and planning as well as advice on how best to handle budgeting with the aid of smart working procedures and analysis models.

As an independent service provider, Affecto is in a position to always propose the budgeting and planning system best suited for your needs, regardless of the software company it originally comes from. If you already have up-to-date support for budgeting and planning in place, we can help you make the most of it.

By automating the collection of budget data and gathering all the information into a single system, it is possible to reduce the number of sources of errors and make more time available for analysis. As a result, the controller is better placed to contribute to sound business decisions by recognising the areas central to costs and revenue generation, identifying the most important key figures and making them more relevant when analysing the parameters required for taking business decisions. Much of the intelligence data owned by individuals can be worked into the budgeting system and procedures. 

With the right system and procedures, budgeting can also be brought closer to the users in the organisation who can turn it into a more effective tool in steering day-to-day activities by means of relevant forecasts.

This is achieved by tailoring the budget information to specific personnel such as site managers. The data can be collated in a variety of forms to reflect the actual day-to-day concerns, such as customers, product groups or segments, instead of being presented in terms of complex account names. Furthermore, entering budget data will be greatly clarified - employees will only see the parameters they are supposed to contribute during the budgeting process, which are also named in a transparent way. 

Once a sound budgeting and planning process is in place and the parameters tally with the reality of how the organisation experiences it on a daily basis, both the finance department and the operative units will be able to reap the benefits. What is more, there is potential for incorporating more dynamics into the process and to start using rolling forecasts so as to be able to react to changes even faster than today.

Introducing system support and optimising the budgeting and planning process in a medium-sized company may take anything from two to six months. Naturally, the time required depends on the current situation, the degree of ambition and in-house involvement since the project is much more than just getting an application to work. In these types of projects, it can take more than three years to recover the cost of the investment, while the benefits can be felt immediately in the form of better cost control and business opportunities. Moreover, both the finance department and other organisational units will be freer to use their time more productively.

The first step towards a more efficient budgeting process is to contact Affecto today.