Streamline the Planning Process with Budgeting and Forecasting for Sage Intacct
f you have surveyed an audience of mid-market accounting and finance professionals, you almost always find that 90-95% primarily rely on manual budget models in Excel. How is this possible when most enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, including Sage Intacct, have both basic native ERP budget functionalities? In some cases, they also have specialized add-on modules. For example, the Microsoft Dynamics on-premise ERPs had the now “retired” Forecaster product and for Sage, it is the Sage Budgeting and Planning. Other ERP systems have built various Excel export and import mechanisms to make it easier for users to budget in Excel. Then, re-import the GL portion of the budget.
While most ERP vendor’s budget add-ons do the job better then entering budgets directly into the ERP system, there still seems to be a large group of companies that simply need a full-featured budgeting and forecasting solution to get the workflow, formula and layout flexibility they need. These solutions are typically referred to as Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools. They also include a reporting and consolidation functionality.
How do I know if my planning process is NOT streamlined?
Typically, there are a number of key motivators when an organization begins to look for a CPM solution to improve its planning process:
Effort spent exporting and importing data from Sage Intacct to home grown Excel budgets Current process is error-prone and a resource strain on the finance team
Lack of time and resources to quickly re-forecast (for example if a virus hits the economy!) Lack of automation to create many budget versions
Current tool too complex for staff to learn so ended up back with a manual Excel model
Find that the ROI of automation with a CPM tool is higher than the cost of manual processes
Which benefits should I expect from modern CPM Planning tool?
Because Sage Intacct is a cloud-based ERP system, pretty much all customers looking for a full featured CPM solution like Solver, Adaptive Insight or Anaplan, will also expect a high degree of functionality, including:
Cloud-based platform
Pre-integration to Sage Intacct and Sage Intacct approval as a certified add-on vendor Complete workflow functionality to manage submissions, reviews and approvals of the budget
Highly flexibly budget form design to completely replace the company’s manual Excel models
Strong native report writer for variance reporting and budget consolidations User administration and security that allow for any person to participate in the budget regardless if they are users of Sage Intacct or not
Usability features like spreading, break-back, lien items with comments, and more.
I am planning to implement Sage Intacct. What is the best timing for budgeting tool?
Accounting teams always have a lot on their plate. Therefore, it never seems to be a great time to implement another software. However, the best time seems to be in the 2-3 months after the most recent budget cycle. Not only will issues and needs be fresh in mind, but it also allows for plenty of time to select, implement and test a new planning solution before the next budget cycle starts. Some organizations even do a “dry run” of their new budget solution during the year for one of their forecasts.
Carefully selecting a CPM vendor is important
Turbulent Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) market
For example, when a vendor gets acquired, it usually ends less than good for customers. The most typical reason that issues arise is that acquiring companies are much larger than the target company. Therefore, politics and other internal priorities at the parent company tend to drive employees away, disturb the focus of product development, increase prices and more.
Eventually, many acquired products die slowly, and customers end up switching products and vendors. Comshare, Adaytum, SRC Software and Clarity are a few vendors that suffered this during the M&A spree that took place in the CPM space about 15-20 years ago. Over the past 3 years, another wave of M&A has happened, including Workday acquiring Adaptive Insight, a PE firm acquiring Host Analytics from its old investor, Wolters Kluwer acquired Tagetik, and PE-owned Insight Software acquiring Jet Global, Atlas, BizNet and other players in the game.
Protecting the significant financial investment
There are more CPM solutions that are cloud-based. Customers can sign up for one or more years of subscription versus having to purchase the software upfront. However, even if a subscription is reasonable, the amount of time and effort from the internal staff (often with the help of costly consultants) has to be put in to get a CPM solution fully up and running. Also the reports, budget model and dashboards that management need are very significant. You can expect anywhere from twenty thousand dollars and to several hundred and thousands of dollars in direct and indirect costs for full blown implementations. In other words, picking the right vendor and the right product carries a much larger costs than simply a year’s worth of subscription.
Protecting your job
While a good vendor selection and successful implementation can be a significant boon to the careers of project management, it can be the opposite if it all does not work out well. Let alone the stress and long hours that often come from enterprise software implementations, should it not end well, can be a scar that follows you for a long time in your career.
Be Strategic
Whether there is too much pain from spreadsheet budgeting or a tactical hint for competitive advantages with faster and better decision-making that drives your search for a CPM solution, a final piece of advice is to be strategic about it. Don’t look at a CPM solution as a temporary band-aid, but view this technology for what it can be when properly chosen and implemented with care. One of your most important decision-making tools that can help drive growth and success for your organization in the 2020s.
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