Control, Not Chance - XLerant

Budgeting: Critical Part of the Strategic Planning Process

Rather than view budgeting as an annual exercise, CFOs should fully integrate it into the strategic planning process. Doing so will help “close the loop” between planning and execution, as well increase engagement, ownership and even productivity of your staff. Here are 5 benefits that will be gained by incorporating budgeting into the strategic plan,…    Read More

Read More
Puzzle - XLerant

Why Collaborative Budgeting is important during WFH/hybrid work

Whether you refer to it as “decentralized”, “distributed”, or “collaborative”, engaging multiple participants in the budgeting process can be a challenge, especially during today’s WFH/hybrid environment. Department heads are often not experienced in mainstream business practices like budgeting, forecasting and management reporting. Yet, engaging these individuals and gaining their expertise and insight during the budgeting…    Read More

Read More

The Benefits of Budgeting as a Team

The benefits of embracing a team approach to budgeting are extensive. Successful multi-participant budgeting leads to increases in innovation, accuracy, engagement, and more. Rather than finance teams wasting time trying to track down spreadsheets and fix broken formulas, they can focus on analyzing the data and making strategic decisions about the organizations most valuable resources….    Read More

Read More
post-purchase satisfaction - XLerant

What drives post-purchase satisfaction of budgeting & forecasting software?

Avoiding Buyers Regret – What drives post-purchase satisfaction in BPM software? Recent results of the annual BPM Pulse survey provide insight into what finance teams are looking for in software – and what makes them most satisfied with software AFTER the purchase.   Interestingly, they aren’t necessarily the same thing.  Here are some key takeaways that…    Read More

Read More
Decentralized Headcount Planning

Centralized or decentralized headcount planning?

Should your organization employ a centralized or decentralized headcount planning methodology? It all depends on the “3 C’s”. For organizations who have embraced a “decentralized” approach to budgeting, it might seem like that philosophy would naturally extend to every aspect of your budgeting process.  Especially for headcount planning – an area that (including salaries and…    Read More

Read More
culture impacts financial planning & performance - XLerant

How Organizational Culture Impacts Financial Planning & Performance

There’s a phenomenon that occurs as organizations grow.  To facilitate expansion and support rapid growth, they create dedicated departments. But over time, the creation of these dedicated teams can eventually have a negative impact on growth – affecting communication, reducing transparency, and shifting allegiances. In a nutshell, it changes the culture.  And the culture impacts…    Read More

Read More
business development culture - XLerant

Truth in advertising (and sales) – why business development culture matters.

How exactly do you assess an organization’s business development culture … their ethical (or not so ethical) approach to sales and marketing?  And – why should you care? For many of our customers in the higher education, nonprofit, and business services industries – sales and marketing doesn’t follow a traditional “pipeline to close” process. So…    Read More

Read More
Door key with blank card among other ones - XLerant

Budgeting Persona: Finding the “Right-Fit”

As a software company we’re constantly striving to find that “right-fit” – something that builds in all the important complexities of budgeting yet seems effortless and simple. In order to make a software solution that truly excels in usability – we have to match the needs, style, and thought-processes of our customer’s organizational and budgeting…    Read More

Read More