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Why budgets are not Excel-ing
Excel is the #1 financial modeling tool on the planet. And unless you look outside of Microsoft Office, it’s the obvious choice for budgeting. That’s the reason why 80% of all organizations continue to use Excel for budgeting. But here are some common...
Why Locked Down Budget Templates Are Failing You
Excel is an incredibly flexible tool. Anyone who’s worked with it for more than a week knows that. It’s a blank canvass where you can write any formula your imagination can conceive. But when it comes to using Excel for budgeting, Excel becomes the exact...
A New Method… at Method
I came across an article from CFO Magazine I wanted to share with the community. Method Products, a San Francisco-based maker of environmentally friendly home and personal cleaning products, has enjoyed years of healthy growth, becoming a $100 million, 100-person...
15 Things You Can’t Do in Excel for Budgeting (but should)
Excel is an amazingly great application that has probably delivered more value than just about any other business software in the past 20 years. But as a platform for budgeting… well, it has some serious limitations. Like wouldn’t it be nice to be able to spread...
The Boys from Brazil
Last week was an interesting week for me. I met with a team of 13 sales professionals from Latin America, all from a global ERP vendor. They came to Miami, Florida from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Mexico (and despite the title of this blog,...
What’s the top priority of CFOs today?
What’s the top priority of CFOs today? According to the Hackett Group, it is “Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the annual budgeting process.” A remarkable 84% of CFOs surveyed by this leading consulting firm said this was a priority. An...
We’re #1
There are unpleasant surprises (a parking ticket on your windshield, for example) and then there are pleasant surprises. Well, XLerant received a very pleasant surprise recently being named the #1 Pick for Budgeting Software by Accounting-Payroll Software. Goodness...
The 8 Killers of Budgeting (and what to do about them)
When I was a Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis for Pepsi in New York we experienced some challenges with our planning process. Doesn’t everybody? I thought these struggles were localized, so when I took a two year assignment with Pepsi in Europe, I...
Is Budgeting Mission Critical?
Is budgeting mission critical, or is it a nice to have… or simply a necessary evil? Your view probably depends on what your current budget process is like, and whether or not it produces value. If, for example, you spend most of your time fixing broken links in...
