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 |
10 Problems Colleges & Universities Have With BudgetingThe problems that colleges and universities face when it comes to budgeting are significant. Given all the economic challenges higher education faces today and the need to do more with less, budgeting is clearly mission critical. That makes addressing the problems associated with budgeting a top priority. One of my old bosses used to say… Read More |
Chocolate and inspiration found in Hershey, PAI was privileged this week to attend the annual EACUBO meeting in Hershey, PA. The event began with a keynote address from Erin Gruwel, author of Freedom Writers Diary and the founder of Freedom Writers Foundation. Erin’s remarkable story was turned into a feature film in 2007 starring Hilary Swank.The video clip above is from… Read More |
Top 5 Evaluation Criteria for Nonprofit Budgeting SolutionsMany people feel that “budgeting is budgeting” regardless of the organization that you are in. That is not always the case. Nonprofit budgeting is a great example. Effective, precise budgeting is far more essential in an organization with slim margins and organizations that need to carefully manage cash. No where is this more true than… Read More |
CFO Guide to Strategy ExecutionWe hope you enjoy this guest blog, an excerpt from the CFO Guide to Strategy Execution by Jennifer Eversole, CPA, Co-Founder & Partner, Management Stack, LLC. To read the full article please click here. Or to watch Jennifer’s webinar Strategy Execution with a Balanced Scorecard click here. After almost 20 years, I have learned more… Read More |
Budgeting: Critical Part of the Strategic Planning ProcessRather 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 |
Solving Ambiguous Problems – What Successful Companies Get That the Rest of Us Don’tI’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with some of the best run companies over the years and I’ve come to appreciate what really separates them from “the merely good”. Some of what makes great companies so successful, like hiring great talent, is quite obvious. But in this blog I’d like to share one of… Read More |
The Circle of DoomThe consequences of not budgeting to your strategy (i.e., not integrating strategy and budgeting) can be pretty severe. We call it The Circle of Doom. And it begins with the development of strategy that never really gets done. I had a CEO tell me about the frustration he felt after a strategic planning retreat where… Read More |
Changing the face of budgetingI hate the word paradigm, don’t you? It’s been so over used, it hardly seems to have any real meaning left. But in fact it does have meaning — “A framework of understanding; a mindset based on a set of precepts.” The paradigm (don’t cringe) most of us have when it comes to corporate budgeting… 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 |