15 Things You Can’t Do in Excel for Budgeting: #2#2- You can’t have executives electronically sign off on budgets underneath them. We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in a budget review meeting and an executive says, “That can’t be right, you don’t have the right budget.” It seems the higher up the executive is making that statement, the longer the silence that follows… I… Read More |
15 Things You Can’t Do in Excel for Budgeting: #1#1 You can’t tell where everyone is in the process. The first thing you can’t do in Excel is tell where everybody is in the process. You know who’s submitted a spreadsheet to you and that’s about it. There’s nothing to give you visibility into the work in process. You don’t know who’s started and… Read More |
Meanwhile, CFOs Enjoy More InfluenceCFO Research finds the financial crisis boosted the profile of finance chiefs. Struggling economy, having to do more with less, what’s not to like? The good news for Finance chiefs is that many believe their stature has been elevated during the economic downturn. That’s according to a recent survey by CFO Magazine and Expense Reduction… Read More |
If not me, who? If not now, when?There are reasons why we stay stuck with a bad process. There are other priorities. Resources are scarce. There’s no time. The dog ate my homework. When you interview CFOs that have successfully risen through the ranks… who competed with others for coveted promotions and won… you find they have three things in common. First,… Read More |
That number doesn’t look rightHave you ever heard “That number doesn’t look right” when you’ve been in a budget review session with the CFO, or some other executive? I have. I saw it at Pepsi (where I was a FP&A Manager) and I know what that moment is like. Here are the reasons why that happens: Expectations. The executive… Read More |
Why budgets are not Excel-ingExcel 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 complaints heard every day: The process takes too long The process doesn’t… Read More |
Rolling Forecast. Part 3 – Assessment of Rolling ForecastIn part one of this series we looked at the common problems that organizations have with the annual planning/ budgeting process. Recognizing of course that most companies do forecasting as well, we looked at the annual planning process as a proxy for the processes companies deploy year-round to develop financial projections. In part two of… Read More |
The Boys from BrazilLast 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, half the attendees were women). They came because… Read More |
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 area I think is related to improving the efficiency of the annual budget process… Read More |
We’re #1There 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 knows there are a lot of alternatives out there, but BudgetPak is the only budgeting application that… Read More |
