In most companies, planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes are fairly well-established, but organisations can’t improve them only with the power of technology they perform planning, budgeting, and forecasting.
FREMONT, CA: The planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes are typically very well established in businesses, but they also possess the potential to improve further. It is more important than ever to introduce a new dimension to how organisations conduct planning, budgeting, and forecasting, given the relative scarcity of financial talent these days and the capacity of technology to assist, organise, and streamline these processes.
Beginning With Strategic Goals
The most effective budgets centre around a clear set of strategic priorities. These are from an executive-level vision for the company that outlines its goals for the medium and long term and specifies a precise course of action to get there. The process of creating strategic goals typically involves a significant analytical component; executives must comprehend the size of the market, the competitive landscape, and the underlying qualities that can set their company apart from the competitors. In the end, strategic priorities provide the best element that determines how organisations allocate resources during the planning and budgeting process. In many ways, the strategy involves determining what is most important and deciding what is less important. In a world where several operational elements appear significant, strategic priorities clearly establish the line between the initiatives that deserve investment and those that do not.
Identifying Organisational Methodology
It's crucial to consider the budgeting approach organisations intend to use. According to the conventional budgeting method, there should be a standard increase from the previous year's figures, followed by modifications to allow for shifting priorities or quickly increasing expenditures in one or more categories. This methodology needs less labour than others, but it is frequently criticised for encouraging a business-as-usual attitude. By requiring department heads to defend their whole budget allocation rather than only advocating for increases to fund new initiatives, zero-based budgeting (ZBB) challenges the existing quo. ZBB offers a start-from-scratch strategy that removes budget waste, but it also demands a lot more work than the conventional strategy.
Other advances, including driver-based budgeting (DBB), provide more flexibility and aid businesses in adapting to quickly shifting market conditions. DBB analyses the important variables that affect business outcomes and then models the costs and resource allocations required to maintain operations when these variables change. Whatever the strategy the organisation goes with, be explicit about the work involved, the advantages anticipates from implementing a new technique, and the learning curve that will be involved for those working in the organisation.
