Budget &
Forecasting
The preparation of a business plan is an
integral part to all organisations future success. The task does not need
to be daunting, however as it is a key measure of an organisations
expected position into the future, it must be fulfilled timely and
accurately.
Budget spreadsheet design, whether using
Microsoft Excel or Lotus 123, must be purposeful and user friendly. It
is possible to use spreadsheet customisation to deliver business needs
into the future. Investing in some limited external resource can
assist in delivering this.
The preparation of a Budget or Business Plan
often follows a traditional path and timetable, however more and more
organisations are starting to introduce the combined budget and
three-year planning concept, with others moving to Rolling Budgets
that combine forecasting and planning into a predetermined time frame.
Once budgets and plans are prepared and
agreed, the monitoring is simply the expression of actual data for
accounting periods that have closed, the real secret is in how
effective an organisation is at looking to the future, evaluating the
output and using the information to reforecast the budget projections.
This enables sound management decisions to be made and goes some way
to avoid any unwelcome surprises.
Budgeting, planning and forecasting should be
constructed in such a way as to complement each other and be seen as a
normal part of daily life.
Alternative WEB BASED OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) and BI
(Business Intelligence) products are now available such as
Applix TM1 and
Hyperion
Planning. Hyperion Planning is a centralised, Web-based planning, budgeting and
forecasting solution that drives collaborative, integrated,
event-based planning processes throughout an organisation, covering a
wide range of financial and operational needs. As an integral part of
the
Hyperion Business Performance Management and Business Intelligence
(BI) suite, Hyperion
Planning
allows companies to track and monitor business plans and forecasts
translating strategic objectives into operational goals and targets.
For more information visit the www.hyperion.com and www.applix.com web sites.
