Finance chiefs reveal budgeting nightmares
A massive 94% of senior finance professionals experience frustrations with their organisations' budgeting process with two thirds specifying time as the major concern, according to a new survey.
These findings have been presented by software house Comshare from a survey it conducted at the English ICA’s 21st Century Budgeting conference last November.
It found that over one third of those questioned encounter limitations with their current technologyincluding ‘no consistent database of information’, ‘spreadsheet errors’ and’no ability for identifying key variances’.
Further frustrations includeinefficiencies in their processes, conflicts with management especially lackof ownership or commitment, and linking the planning and budgeting processesto strategy.
Rolling forecasts were also highlighted as an important trend. Over half ofparticipants’ organisations already conduct rolling forecasts and of thosewho are not, 73% say they will in the near future.
Respondents also identified the three most important factors when evaluatinga planning and budgeting system;
provide easy access to budget data to all accountable managersacross the organisation;
use a central database for seamless integration of actual budgetsand forecasts to enable comparisons and analysis; and
integrate the budgeting system with the planning and forecastingsystem.
Although no respondents are currently using Web technology for theirbudgeting process, 69% of respondents are considering web-based budgetingwithin the next 12-24 months.
Outdated technology results in lost revenue