What should you look for in a planning and budgeting solution?
Companies today have all kinds of challenges and tasks to master. Good examples of this are the annual homework in connection with company-wide planning or the strategic distribution of budgets. Finding an optimal controlling software suitable for one's own company is not that easy. Forward-looking finance departments and CFOs have now moved from classic spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel to a more stringent solution that allows them to make more reliable decisions based on data. Controllers need a fast self-service approach to their control, for more flexibility, transparency and better analysis, which can only be achieved by using a sophisticated planning and budgeting solution.
There are various corporate performance management software solutions on the market to manage and administer planning and budgets in mid-sized companies up to DAX40 corporations. This poses the following questions for those responsible in companies: What should one look for in a planning and budgeting solution? Which software is right for my company? What must the software be able to do for my requirements?
What is a planning and budgeting solution for?
Regular planning in the company involves setting short- and long-term goals to be achieved. Budgeting enables controllers and the CFO to allocate the available financial resources according to the company's requirements so that the goals set for the planning periods can be achieved and the available resources are used optimally in the process. Forward-looking planning, budgeting, and the ability to forecast quickly and predictively provide tremendously valuable insights for a business. Relevant business decisions are made taking into account current data and future risks, thus helping to increase the value of the company despite uncertainty.
The use of a cleanly predefined business model as the basis of the planning process enables planning on a flexible timeline, with business and organizational structures as well as flexible versioning, on the basis of which forecasts and scenarios can also be calculated at any time. Companies or groups should look for planning and budgeting software that is flexible enough to map a wide range of business requirements as well as future developments.
The key to success for an efficient planning and budgeting application is to enable the creation of financial and performance plans with very little effort, greater accuracy, transparency and flexibility, so that unforeseen changes in the company can be taken into account at any time. The eierlegende Wollmilchsau is searched for!
5 steps to suitable planning and budgeting software
The business content must fit the company, and it is important to have an integrated representation of model interrelationships and a high degree of standardization where it can be implemented. This ensures maintainability and traceability.
Every second company now produces a continuously increasing amount of corporate and customer data that needs to be managed on an ongoing basis. Big data, private cloud, public cloud or multi-cloud are becoming increasingly important as management solutions. Using the right data management enables companies to access relevant data at any time and make informed decisions. At the same time, clever outsourcing of publicly available data such as tariffs or gasoline/oil prices can also reduce costs. Thanks to modern cloud technologies, interesting new possibilities are opening up today. Important here are all available as well as relevant data sources with the appropriate degree of automation (predictive) and the targeted integration into the operational systems and landscapes.
The collaboration and integration possibilities of different area and level planning are of great importance so that the most coherent picture possible emerges and new findings can be incorporated by the participants themselves at any time.
Forward-looking forecasts with a high degree of accuracy for cash flow, profit and loss, sales, revenue or personnel are a decisive selection criterion for future-oriented corporate performance management software, in addition to divisional and level planning. The view into the future provides enormous added value and enables more informed decisions to be made.
Flexibility, speed and adaptability of the software to changes in the framework conditions, in the process or also, for example, to a new business model or to new control requirements are important so that the software remains usable as a control instrument for specialist departments, management and CFOs. A short path from new assumptions to changed planning results is enormously important for important business decisions in the company.
The provider's support is important and should also be taken into account. Unexpected incidents or problems will occur over time and should be professionally covered by first and second level support.
What CoPlanner offers you
As a future-oriented software house for corporate controlling, CoPlanner developscontrolling software for medium-sized companies with a focus on all processes in which data must not only be displayed, but also enriched. This includesplanning,consolidation andreporting, but also specific use cases up tocost and performance accounting. The open platform allows the integration ofAI algorithms, so that our solutions create a new benchmark for modern business management. In close cooperation with our customers, CoPlanner pursues one goal: management and specialist departments should always have an eye on the company's development in order to be able to plan and control with foresight.
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